How many games are there in a tournament?

Once you've created all the divisions for your tournament, you have to "create" games. Any tournament software you're using would usually let you create games consistent with your tournament rules. For example, a 4 team division may be setup such that each team plays one game against everyone else, and then the top two teams play in the finals.

Once you create all the games, your next step would be to put them on the calendar. But before you start to schedule, you might wonder - "Did I create all the games I needed to create?". That's a very good question to ask, because the answer might be - "No".

So, how can you tell? Here's a simple thumb rule for the most popular tournament formats. If every team is playing 4 games (2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday), then the total number of games on each day has to be the same as the number of teams. For example, if 100 teams are playing, then on Saturday you need to see 100 games and same on Sunday. Not 1 more, not 1 less (unless of course you move some games to Friday afternoon - but you can adjust for that).

If your tournament offers 3 minimum games, and a possible 4^th, then the same thumb rule applies to your Saturday games. 100 teams means 100 games on Saturday. Sunday's number would be lower and the exact number is a little more involved calculation (you'll need to look at how many divisions do you have of a given size, and how many games that sized divisions should be playing)

What if your tournament offers exactly 3 games? The calculation is just as easy. You multiply the total number of teams, with 1.5. That is your total number of games over the weekend. So, 100 teams means 150 games over the weekend (the split between Saturday and Sunday is a little arbitrary in those cases, and not particularly relevant).