Team Mexicano: fixed pairs matched by the standings

The first round is drawn at random or seeded from your list, with the strongest teams first. After every round the teams are ranked by points, and the ranking decides the next round: 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th, 5th plays 6th and so on. The top match is played on court 1.

To avoid immediate rematches, the app checks whether two teams met in the previous round. If 1st and 2nd have just played each other, 1st plays 3rd instead and 2nd plays the next team down. It only ever looks one place further, so a strong team is never paired with a much weaker one just to avoid a rematch.

Team Mexicano suits pairs of mixed ability: club tournaments, company events and groups where a round robin would produce too many one-sided matches. The best teams fight it out on court 1 and everyone else gets close games further down.

It also scales better than a full round robin. With 8 or 10 teams a round robin takes most of a day, while a Team Mexicano gives everyone meaningful matches in five to seven rounds.

Matches are played to a fixed number of points, such as 24, and each team is credited with the points it wins. Teams are ranked by total points, then wins (a draw counts as half) and then point difference.

Because the next round depends on the results, it is drawn when every match in the current round has a score. If a score is corrected later, the app flags the next round as out of date and offers to redraw it, as long as nobody has entered a score in it yet.

With an odd number of teams, or more teams than the courts can hold, some teams rest each round, chosen so that nobody rests twice before everyone has rested once.

Six pairs, A to F, play on three courts. Round 1 is drawn at random:

• Court 1: A beats B 15–9
• Court 2: C beats D 14–10
• Court 3: E and F draw 12–12

The ranking is now A (15), C (14), E and F (12 each), D (10) and B (9). Round 2 would normally be A v C, E v F and D v B. But E and F met in round 1, so the app looks one place further down: A v C on court 1, E v D on court 2 and F v B on court 3.

Courts follow the ranking, so the leaders always play on court 1. Seven rounds to 24 points take about 1 h 45 min.

Team Mexicano has no natural end, so you choose. The app suggests seven rounds; you can set any number or play open-ended until court time runs out. Five to seven rounds is usually enough for the standings to settle.

Plan about 15 minutes per round for matches to 24 and 11 minutes for matches to 16. Remember that each round waits for the slowest match to finish.

What makes a Team Mexicano work:

• Seed the first round if you know the teams: list the strongest first and the top teams meet on court 1 straight away.
• Keep scores flowing. One forgotten result holds up the next draw for everyone.
• Announce the last round: the match on court 1 often decides the title.
• Use a round timer if some matches tend to drag on.

Other ways to play with fixed pairs:

• Team Americano: a full round robin where every team meets every other team.
• Open-ended rounds for social sessions without a fixed end time.
• Ranking by wins instead of points.
• Free scoring with games or timed matches, for longer matches.