Home > Riddles > The tournament of ties

The tournament of ties

Visual trapsLevel 4 · Advanced · ●●●●○

Five teams play a round-robin league, a single round.
Rules:

  • victory: 3 points,
  • tie: 1 point per team,
  • defeat: 0 points.

In the end, the five teams end up tied on points, and that common score is odd.
How many games ended in a draw?

Hints

Show hints
  1. Also, they all end up with the same odd score p, so: 5p=30-e.
  2. Then: $30-e=25 \Rightarrow e=5$.
  3. With 5 teams, the total number of matches is: $\binom{5}{2}=10$.

Solution

Show full solution

Back to problem
Answer: there were exactly 5 ties.
With 5 teams, the total number of matches is:

$$ \binom{5}{2}=10. $$

If there were no ties, they would be distributed:

$$ 10\times3=30 $$

points.
Each tie distributes 2 points instead of 3, so each tie subtracts 1 from the overall total.
If $e$ is the number of ties:

$$ \text{puntos totales}=30-e. $$

Also, they all end up with the same odd score $p$, so:

$$ 5p=30-e. $$

The total points must be between 20 and 30, and be an odd multiple of 5. The only possible value is 25.
So:

$$ 30-e=25 \Rightarrow e=5. $$


Related riddles

Keep practicing

If you enjoyed this one, try more pure-logic riddles, explore this theme, browse the full archive, or read the riddle-solving guide.

← Previous: The tournament without a referee · Next: The desert expedition →