How to create a prize-winning algorithm?

Question

Algorithms

There are 4 football teams A,B,C,D.
Team A and B
play - Team B wins Team C and D win - Team D wins
Team B and D win - Team D wins
Team A and C win - Team C wins From
this we have the following
1st place - Team D
2nd place - Team B
3rd place - team C
4th place - team A
What is the algorithm to make the same absolute table for 8, 16, n teams, where each team has its own specific fixed place, for the minimum number of games?

Answer 1

Well, look at the standard tournament schemes. Your scheme is not fair, because And did not play with D, for example.
In the World Cup, for example, where there are just 16 teams in the final, the participants draw lots into 4 groups and 4 teams each. Within the groups, each team plays with each other, and the 2 who scored the most points advance to the playoffs.
But within the groups, additional criteria are needed, because a simple "1 point for a win and 0 for a loss" can lead to a situation where several teams have an equal number of points. Even in your scheme, it is not clear why B is higher than C, if both have one victory each.