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109-424: The tournament is held in a round-robin format, where all participating wrestlers face each other once with the winner being awarded two points and the loser none. A draw results in both wrestlers being awarded a point. After all wrestlers have faced each other once, the top two wrestlers advance to the final to determine the tournament winner. Baba himself holds the record for most Champion Carnival wins, having won

218-463: A bye . The schedule can therefore be computed as though the dummy were an ordinary player, either fixed or rotating. Instead of rotating one position, any number relatively prime to ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} will generate a complete schedule. The upper and lower rows can indicate home/away in sports, white/black in chess , etc.; to ensure fairness, this must alternate between rounds since competitor 1

327-469: A round-robin tournament , where the wrestler with the best record would be declared the winner. Baba went on to win the tournament for the third year in a row, defeating Gene Kiniski in the final. A year later, the single-elimination portion of the tournament was eliminated and the Champion Carnival was changed to a pure round-robin tournament, a format it holds to this day. The 1976 tournament

436-638: A "big brother" role, coming in to try to save the day after Kikuchi had been worked on for a while by the opponents. Eleven months later he won his first title, the All Asia Tag Team Championship with Tiger Mask II (Misawa); however, shortly after removing the mask, Kobashi and Misawa would vacate the title. Over the next two years, Kobashi held the All Asia belts with Johnny Ace twice and with Kikuchi once. The title win with Kikuchi over Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas took place before

545-565: A Noah ring in 2013. Noah and Kobashi seemingly came to an agreement to let him retire as opposed to forcing him to leave the promotion. Despite this change in plans, Noah confirmed on December 19 that Akiyama, Shiozaki, Suzuki, Kanemaru and Aoki all would be leaving the promotion after December 24. On January 23, 2013, Kobashi announced that his retirement match would take place on at Nippon Budokan. Kobashi's retirement event, Final Burning in Budokan took place on May 11. His retirement ceremony

654-464: A bye. If the number is even, an added player (ω) becomes the opponent. For an even number n {\displaystyle n} or an odd number n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} of competitors, Schurig builds a table with n / 2 {\displaystyle n/2} vertical rows and n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} horizontal rows. Then he populates it starting from

763-411: A competitor to play the strongest opponents in a round robin in quick succession while others play them intermittently with weaker opposition. This asymmetry means that playing the same opponents is not necessarily completely equitable. There is also no scheduled showcase final match unless (by coincidence) two competitors meet in the last match of the tournament, with the result of that match determining

872-477: A competitor's chance of ultimate victory. Final records of participants are more accurate, in the sense that they represent the results over a longer period against the same opposition. The system is also better for ranking all participants, not just determining the winner. This is helpful to determine the final rank of all competitors, from strongest to weakest, for purposes of qualification for another stage or competition as well as for prize money. In team sports,

981-489: A lower-placed qualifier is perceived to be easier than for a higher-placed one). Four pairs in the 2012 Olympics Women's doubles badminton , having qualified for the next round, were ejected from the competition for attempting to lose in the round robin stage to avoid compatriots and better ranked opponents. The round robin stage at the Olympics was a new introduction, and these potential problems were readily known prior to

1090-779: A memorable singles match (given a full 5-stars by the Wrestling Observer as well as their Match of the Year award for 2005), and teamed with Homicide to defeat the tag team of Low Ki and Samoa Joe. Kobashi also traveled to Europe, where he had matches in Germany, and at Universal Uproar in England, in November 2005. After winning the GHC Tag Team Championship on June 4, 2006, Kobashi became inactive in

1199-433: A moonsault for the final win of his career. The event at Nippon Budokan was attended by 17,000 fans and aired live across Japan on the television network BS Sky! and in movie theaters. On March 17, 2013, Kobashi made an appearance for All Japan Pro Wrestling to promote his retirement match. Before the main event, Hiroshi Hase announced that he would be resigning as Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) chairman to focus on

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1308-471: A press conference, delaying this year's Champion Carnival, due to the COVID-19 pandemic . On May 28, they confirmed that the tournament has been moved to September. The 1973 Champion Carnival is the first edition of the Champion Carnival. It took place from March 17 to April 21, featuring fifteen wrestlers in a single-elimination format. Giant Baba received a first-round bye, and was the inaugural winner of

1417-852: A rabid crowd in Kikuchi's hometown of Sendai on May 25, 1992; the match quickly gained legendary status among tape-traders, and was voted 1992's Match of the Year by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . In 1993, he became Misawa's main tag partner in the middle of the year when Kawada became Misawa's main rival. He gained his first singles victory over a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , when he defeated Terry Gordy in May of that year. On December 3, 1993, Kobashi gained his first pin over Kawada, won his first World's Strongest Tag Determination League , and won his first World Tag Team Championship . Kobashi received his first shot at

1526-425: A rare three-way draw between Kawada, Kobashi and Misawa, resulting in a round-robin playoff between the three, where Kawada emerged victorious. On January 31, 1999, Giant Baba died, leaving the promotion in the hands of Mitsuharu Misawa. The 1999 Champion Carnival was the first one not booked by Baba. As the new booker, Misawa made a controversial decision to leave Stan Hansen out of the tournament, while giving Vader

1635-437: A round in which players meets each other. For example, player 7 plays against player 11 in round 4. If a player meets itself, then this shows a bye or a game against player n. All games in a round constitutes a diagonal in the table. The above schedule can also be represented by a graph, as shown below: Both the graph and the schedule were reported by Édouard Lucas in as a recreational mathematics puzzle. Lucas, who describes

1744-497: A round, a non-leftmost position (not including 1 {\displaystyle 1} ) can only be taken by competitors of a fixed distance. In round 1 {\displaystyle 1} of the example, in the second position competitor 2 {\displaystyle 2} plays against 13 {\displaystyle 13} , their distance is 2 {\displaystyle 2} . In round 2 {\displaystyle 2} , this position

1853-447: A round-robin format. Giant Baba won the tournament for the sixth time. The 1982 Champion Carnival took place from March 23 to April 18, featuring eighteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. Giant Baba won the tournament for the seventh time. The 1991 Champion Carnival took place from March 23 to April 18, featuring fourteen wrestlers participating in a two-block round-robin format. The two wrestlers who finished atop each block met in

1962-475: A round-robin format. The tournament was won by Giant Baba , who defeated Abdullah the Butcher via countout in the finals. It was Baba's fifth tournament win. The 1979 Champion Carnival took place from March 3 to April 6, featuring sixteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. The tournament was won by Abdullah the Butcher , who defeated Jumbo Tsuruta in the second of two playoff matches after both men tied atop

2071-540: A schedule where player 14 has a fixed position, and all other players are rotated counterclockwise n 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {n}{2}}} positions. This schedule is easily generated manually. To construct the next round, the last player, number 8 in the first round, moves to the head of the table, followed by player 9 against player 7, player 10 against 6, until player 1 against player 2. Arithmetically, this equates to adding n 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {n}{2}}} to

2180-460: A single-block round-robin format, with the top two finishers wrestling in the final. Vader , reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , won the tournament in his first appearance. The 2000 Champion Carnival was held from March 24 to April 15, featuring sixteen wrestlers in a single-elimination format. Kenta Kobashi , reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , won the tournament in his 10th consecutive appearance. The 2001 Champion Carnival

2289-619: A straight knockout system. The top one, two, or occasionally three teams in these groups then proceed to a straight knockout stage for the remainder of the tournament. In the circle of death it is possible that no champion emerges from a round-robin tournament, even if there is no draw, but most sports have tie-breaker systems which resolve this. Round-robins can suffer from being too long compared to other tournament types, and with later scheduled games potentially not having any substantial meaning. They may also require tie-breaking procedures. Swiss system tournaments attempt to combine elements of

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2398-526: A table. In France this is called the Carousel -Berger system (Système Rutch-Berger). The schedule can also be used for "asynchronous" round-robin tournaments where all games take place at different times (for example, because there is only one venue). The games are played from left to right in each round, and from the first round to the last. When the number of competitors is even, this schedule performs well with respect to quality and fairness measures such as

2507-452: A team ). Akiyama was unable to participate in the tournament as a result. The 1994 Champion Carnival took place from March 19 to April 16, featuring twelve wrestlers participating in a single-block round-robin format. Toshiaki Kawada won the tournament in his fourth appearance. The 1995 Champion Carnival took place from March 21 to April 15, featuring eleven wrestlers participating in a single-block round-robin format. Mitsuharu Misawa won

2616-416: A tournament of 16 teams can be completed in just 4 rounds (i.e. 15 matches) in a knockout format; a double elimination tournament format requires 30 (or 31) matches, but a round-robin would require 15 rounds (i.e. 120 matches) to finish if each competitor faces each other once. Other issues stem from the difference between the theoretical fairness of the round robin format and practice in a real event. Since

2725-571: A variety of tiebreaker criteria. Frequently, pool stages within a wider tournament are conducted on a round-robin basis. Examples with single round-robin scheduling include the FIFA World Cup , UEFA European Football Championship , and UEFA Cup (2004–2009) in football, Super Rugby ( rugby union ) in the Southern Hemisphere during its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14 (but not in its later 15- and 18-team formats),

2834-558: Is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn. A round-robin contrasts with an elimination tournament , wherein participants are eliminated after a certain number of wins or losses. The term round-robin is derived from the French term ruban ('ribbon'). Over time, the term became idiomized to robin . In a single round-robin schedule, each participant plays every other participant once. If each participant plays all others twice, this

2943-613: Is a simple algorithm to create a schedule for a round-robin tournament. All competitors are assigned to numbers, and then paired in the first round: Next, one of the competitors in the first or last column of the table is fixed (number one in this example) and the others rotated clockwise one position: This is repeated until when the next iteration would lead back to the initial pairings: With an even number n {\displaystyle n} of competitors this algorithm realizes every possible combination of them (equivalently, that all pairs realized are pairwise different). First,

3052-463: Is also notable because it won the best match of the year award from Tokyo Sports . He suffered the first of many knee injuries in mid 1995, but worked through it. In the early part of 1996 the company elevated Jun Akiyama by making him Misawa's main tag partner. While this was good for Akiyama and lead to some fresh tag matches, it left Kobashi without a real tag partner for most of the year, mostly having partnerships between The Patriot, Johnny Ace, where

3161-435: Is always on the first row. If, say, competitors 3 and 8 were unable to fulfil their fixture in the third round, it would need to be rescheduled outside the other rounds, since both competitors would already be facing other opponents in those rounds. More complex scheduling constraints may require more complex algorithms. This schedule is applied in chess and draughts tournaments of rapid games, where players physically move round

3270-691: Is even, then in each of ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} rounds, n 2 {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\frac {n}{2}}\end{matrix}}} games can be run concurrently, provided there exist sufficient resources (e.g. courts for a tennis tournament). If n {\displaystyle n} is odd, there will be n {\displaystyle n} rounds, each with n − 1 2 {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\frac {n-1}{2}}\end{matrix}}} games, and one competitor having no game in that round. The circle method

3379-566: Is frequently called a double round-robin . The term is rarely used when all participants play one another more than twice, and is never used when one participant plays others an unequal number of times, as is the case in almost all of the major North American professional sports leagues. In the United Kingdom , a round-robin tournament has been called an American tournament in sports such as tennis or billiards which usually have single-elimination (or "knockout") tournaments, although this

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3488-1054: Is held by competitors 14 {\displaystyle 14} and 12 {\displaystyle 12} , also having distance 2 {\displaystyle 2} , etc. Similarly, the next position ( 3 {\displaystyle 3} against 12 {\displaystyle 12} in round 1 {\displaystyle 1} , 2 {\displaystyle 2} against 11 {\displaystyle 11} in round 2 {\displaystyle 2} , etc.) can only hold distance- 4 {\displaystyle 4} competitors. For every k < n 2 {\displaystyle k<{\frac {n}{2}}} , there are exactly n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} pairs of distance k {\displaystyle k} . There are n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} rounds and they all realize one distance- k {\displaystyle k} pair at

3597-456: Is now rarely done. A round-robin tournament with four players is sometimes called "quad" or "foursome". In sports with a large number of competitive matches per season, double round-robins are common. Most association football leagues in the world are organized on a double round-robin basis, in which every team plays all others in its league once at home and once away. This system is also used in qualification for major tournaments such as

3706-408: Is the fairest way to determine the champion from among a known and fixed number of contestants. Each contestant, whether player or team, has equal chances against all other opponents because there is no prior seeding of contestants that will preclude a match between any given pair. The element of luck is seen to be reduced as compared to a knockout system since one or two bad performances need not ruin

3815-614: The Global League . From 1959 to 1972, the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA), run by Rikidōzan , held a tournament called World League (also known as the "World Big League"), which featured both Japanese and foreign professional wrestlers. Rikidōzan himself dominated the annual tournament early on, however, after his death in 1963, the tournament was won six times by Giant Baba and once by Antonio Inoki . JWA folded shortly after both Baba and Inoki left

3924-574: The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy . In a more extreme example, the KBO League in baseball plays a 16-fold round robin, with each of the 10 teams playing each other 16 times for a total of 144 games per team. LIDOM (Baseball Winter League in the Dominican Republic) plays an 18-fold round robin as a semi final tournament between four classified teams. Group tournaments rankings usually go by number of matches won and drawn, with any of

4033-656: The Cricket World Cup along with Indian Premier League , major Twenty-20 Cricket tournament, and many American football college conferences , such as the Conference USA (which currently has 9 members). The group phases of the UEFA club competitions and Copa Libertadores are contested as a double round-robin, as are most basketball leagues outside the United States, including the regular season of

4142-536: The EuroLeague (as well as its former Top 16 phase); the United Football League has used a double round-robin for both its 2009 and 2010 seasons. Season ending tennis tournaments also use a round robin format prior to the semi on stages. The champion in a round-robin tournament is the contestant that wins the most games, except when draws are possible. In theory, a round-robin tournament

4251-606: The FIFA World Cup and the continental tournaments (e.g. UEFA European Championship , CONCACAF Gold Cup , AFC Asian Cup , CONMEBOL Copa América and CAF Cup of Nations ). There are also round-robin cricket , bridge , chess , draughts , go , ice hockey , curling , and Scrabble tournaments. The World Chess Championship decided in 2005 and in 2007 on an eight-player double round-robin tournament where each player faces every other player once as white and once as black. There has been several major international cricket tournaments held in this format including ICC events, including

4360-622: The Fortune Dream banner. Kobashi practiced judo and rugby union during high school in Fukuchiyama . He practised body building after his graduation while working "regular" jobs. He applied and was accepted to All Japan Pro Wrestling 's (AJPW) dojo on June 20, 1987. He was trained there by Dory Funk Jr. , Giant Baba , Kazuharu Sonoda and Masanobu Fuchi . Kobashi debuted as a professional wrestler in Ryūō, Shiga on February 26, 1988. He

4469-547: The National Diet and that Kobashi would be replacing him, after his retirement on May 11. On September 8, Kobashi appeared as a color commentator at All Japan splinter promotion Wrestle-1 's inaugural event . On October 27, it was confirmed that Kobashi would not be joining All Japan after all, when Dory Funk Jr. was announced as the new PWF chairman. On February 14, 2014, Kobashi announced that starting June 8, he would begin producing his own independent events under

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4578-540: The Suzuki-gun stable did not interfere in the match. In September 2023, he made an appearance for DDT Pro Wrestling 's Shinkansen specialty match between Minoru Suzuki and Sanshiro Takagi . Notably, during the appearance, he did a gyaku-suihei chop ( knife-edged chop ) on Suzuki, who also won the match later on. He assumed the role of a ticket checker on the Shinkansen train. Other wrestlers who appeared in

4687-431: The "Road Warrior Workout". He first gained some prominence as member of Mitsuharu Misawa 's faction during Misawa's feud with Jumbo Tsuruta . Kobashi during this period played dual roles according to who his partners and opponents were. When teamed with the higher ranking Misawa or Toshiaki Kawada , Kobashi would play the gutsy underdog. At the same time, when teamed with the much smaller Tsuyoshi Kikuchi , he would play

4796-419: The Champion Carnival took place between April 21 and May 7. Yutaka Yoshie suffered an injury and was forced to forfeit the rest of his matches. Takumi Soya was injured after his fifth match and was pulled out of the tournament as well, forfeiting his final match. Jun Akiyama , the reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , did not participate due to commitments with Pro Wrestling Noah . The 2013 version of

4905-405: The Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 18 to April 29. The 2014 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 13 and April 27. Akebono , reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , who was leading his block at the time, was forced to pull out of the tournament on April 22 after being hospitalized with poor health, forfeiting his last two matches (The title

5014-407: The Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 5 and April 12. The 2010 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 3 and April 11. The 2011 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 8 and April 13. Kenso suffered an injury and was forced to drop out of the tournament after his first match, forfeiting the rest of his matches. The 2012 version of

5123-746: The Tokyo Dome), and in the following year he had praised matches against junior heavyweights such as KENTA (March 5, 2006) and Naomichi Marufuji (April 23, 2006). Kobashi holds the distinction of having competed in a total of 23 5-Star Matches as rated by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer , second only to his long-time rival, Misawa. In late 2005, Kobashi made his first appearance in North America with Harley Race 's World League Wrestling promotion, defeating then WLW champion Wild Wade Chism. His second and third North American appearances were for Ring of Honor , where he defeated Samoa Joe in

5232-549: The Triple Crown Championship against then-champion Steve Williams on September 3, 1994, but lost at Nippon Budokan , Tokyo. Kobashi's singles matches around this time with Kawada, Misawa and Stan Hansen are amongst his most highly regarded. In tag competition he had strong efforts with opponents as diverse as rookie Jun Akiyama to elderly legend and promotion owner Giant Baba. Over the next few years Kobashi continued to gain more honors, but his position in

5341-526: The Triple Crown at AJPW's May Tokyo Dome show called AJPW 25th Anniversary , in 1998, Kobashi would replace Kawada as Misawa's top rival. On June 12, 1998, Kobashi defeated Kawada to begin his second Triple Crown reign. Shortly before his victory he again suffered a major knee injury which he would not give time to heal, which nearly ended his career, and during that time, Johnny Ace turned heel on Kobashi to form his own stable called "The Movement". He lost

5450-446: The algorithm obviously realizes every pair of competitors if one of them equals 1 {\displaystyle 1} (the non-moving competitor). Next, for pairs of non- 1 {\displaystyle 1} competitors, let their distance be the number k < n 2 {\displaystyle k<{\frac {n}{2}}} of times the rotation has to be carried out in order that one competitor arrives at

5559-540: The amount of rest between games. On the other hand, when the number of competitors is odd, it does not perform so well and a different schedule is superior with respect to these measures. Alternatively Berger tables, named after the Austrian chess master Johann Berger , are widely used in the planning of tournaments. Berger published the pairing tables in his two Schach-Jahrbücher (Chess Annals), with due reference to its inventor Richard Schurig. This constitutes

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5668-565: The biggest Noah show of the year on December 23, 2000, Kobashi defeated Akiyama, avenging his loss earlier that year. Unfortunately for Kobashi the next month his knees finally deteriorated to the point he could no longer work through the pain and he was forced to take 13 months off for healing. He went through multiple knee surgeries during this time. His return match was on February 24, 2002, and featured Kobashi reforming his pairing with Misawa to face Akiyama and New Japan Pro-Wrestling 's (NJPW) Yuji Nagata . His knees again gave out on him during

5777-447: The brand "Fortune Dream". The inaugural event featured wrestlers from various promotions, including All Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling , Kaientai Dojo , Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Wrestling New Classic . On May 10, 2015, Kobashi returned to Noah to serve as a "special witness" for a GHC Heavyweight Championship match between champion Minoru Suzuki and challenger Naomichi Marufuji. Kobashi's role included making sure that

5886-475: The card, Misawa would pin Kobashi with an avalanche Emerald Flowsion , but the fans still gave Kobashi a rousing ovation. In September 2008, Kobashi underwent emergency surgery on both of his arms. The surgery was successful, and Kobashi was expected to make a full recovery. Kobashi was expected to be out of action for up to a year, but he would return to the ring less than six months later. Prior to returning to

5995-701: The championship again to Misawa on October 31. The year of 1998 would end with Kobashi gaining another career milestone as he with Akiyama, teaming as " Burning ", captured his first World's Strongest Tag Determination League championship. As January began Kobashi was kicking off a new rivalry against Vader . He won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League again with Akiyama in December 1999. In February 2000 he defeated Vader to earn his third Triple Crown reign. Then in April 2000 he won his first Champion Carnival while in

6104-435: The championship. A notable instance of such an event was the 1950 FIFA World Cup match between Uruguay and Brazil . Further issues arise where a round-robin is used as a qualifying round within a larger tournament. A competitor already qualified for the next stage before its last game may either not try hard (in order to conserve resources for the next phase) or even deliberately lose (if the scheduled next-phase opponent for

6213-563: The company did not truly change. In the 1994 Champion Carnival he gained his first singles victory over Hansen. His next title challenge was against Kawada in January 1995. This led to a 60-minute time limit draw, and is regarded as the greatest 60 minute bout in wrestling history by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. On June 9, 1995, Kobashi and Misawa lost the tag title to Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada . The match

6322-464: The company in nine years. Kobashi teamed with Akihiko Ito and fellow AJPW alumnus Tsuyoshi Kikuchi in a losing effort to Satoshi Kojima , KAI and Hiroshi Yamato at Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku, Volume 8. During this period, Kobashi's knee injuries were beginning to worsen to the point that he desperately needed time off to heal. However, he was needed to establish Noah as a viable promotion, and

6431-441: The course of the tournament gaining his first televised singles victory over Misawa. In mid-2000 Misawa left the company to form Pro Wrestling Noah ; Kobashi, along with all but three All Japan native workers, followed Misawa. He was the reigning Triple Crown champion at the time, and the championship was thus vacated. On August 30, 2009, Kobashi returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling for one night only, competing in his first match for

6540-420: The final. Jumbo Tsuruta , the reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , defeated Stan Hansen in the final. The 1992 Champion Carnival took place from March 20 to April 17, featuring twenty wrestlers participating in a two-block round-robin format. The two wrestlers who finished atop each block met in the final. Stan Hansen, the reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , defeated Mitsuharu Misawa in

6649-445: The final. The 1993 Champion Carnival took place from March 25 to April 21, featuring thirteen wrestlers participating in a single-block round-robin format. Stan Hansen repeated as tournament champion, a feat that had only been achieved by Giant Baba . Jun Akiyama suffered an arm injury in a tag team match on the first event of the tournament, partnered with Takao Omori against Satoru Asako and Masao Inoue (their first match as

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6758-494: The finals for the first time. However, instead of the traditional one on one contest to settle the carnival, a one night 3 way round robin was held due to Kobashi, Kawada, and Misawa all having finished the Carnival round robin with the same score. In the first match Kobashi went to a 30-minute draw with Misawa. However, this match left both men greatly weakened and Kawada was able to quickly gain his first singles pin over Misawa in

6867-424: The first of the "young lions" to win the Champion Carnival, defeating "Dr. Death" Steve Williams in the final, a match that has been called "arguably the greatest Carnival tournament match of all time". For the next several years the tournament was dominated by AJPW's younger wrestlers with Kawada repeating his win, Mitsuharu Misawa winning two tournaments and Kenta Kobashi one tournament. The 1997 tournament ended in

6976-601: The longest singular GHC Heavyweight Championship reign of all time, holding the championship for 735 days between 2003 and 2005. Overall, Kobashi was a four-time world champion and an eight-time tag team champion . Kobashi spent many of the later years of his career sidelined due to various injuries. He underwent numerous surgeries on his arms and legs in the early-mid 2000s before retiring from in-ring action in May 2013 . Kobashi continues to make sporadic appearances in both Noah and All Japan, while also promoting his own shows under

7085-455: The main event of Noah's first Tokyo Dome show on July 10, 2004. During his reign he won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Wrestler of the Year award in both 2003 and 2004. In March 2005 he finally lost the championship to Takeshi Rikio . Despite the loss of his title Kobashi remained Noah's top wrestler, the rest of the year was highlighted by matches with outsiders such as Genichiro Tenryu and Kensuke Sasaki (the latter on July 18, 2005, in

7194-544: The match included the now-DDT signed Jun Akiyama, Kazunari Murakami and Hikaru Sato . Kobashi married his girlfriend of 14 years, singer Mizuki Mai, on October 2, 2010. In August 2015, Mai gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter. Kobashi has the fifth-most 5-star matches (as rated by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter ) with 23, behind Kazuchika Okada (27), Kenny Omega , Mitsuharu Misawa (25) and Will Ospreay (42). In 2002, he

7303-747: The match. After taking another five months to recuperate he returned and Noah began to slowly build towards him winning their top prize, the GHC Heavyweight Championship . On March 1, 2003, Kobashi defeated his rival Mitsuharu Misawa in a match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Kobashi's reign spanned for over two years and included 13 successful defenses. Notable defences included: against Masahiro Chono at New Japan's May 2, 2003, Tokyo Dome event, against Yuji Nagata on September 12, 2003, against Yoshihiro Takayama on April 25, 2004, and against Jun Akiyama in

7412-403: The method as simple and ingenious , attributes the solution to Felix Walecki, a teacher at Lycée Condorcet . Lucas also included an alternative solution by means of a sliding puzzle . To easily remember this method, the following mnemonic can be used. Starting from the first round, the next round is constructed: and then, If the number of players is odd, the player in the first venue gets

7521-504: The next match that gave Kobashi little time to rest. In the final match Kawada defeated Kobashi to gain his second Carnival title. In October 1997 Kobashi won his first World Tag title without Misawa when he and Johnny Ace defeated Gary Albright and Steve Williams. In the same month he challenged Misawa for the Triple Crown in another memorable match, but again Misawa defeated him. While Kawada would finally end his quest to defeat Misawa for

7630-577: The number one promotion in Japan with a record-breaking business streak, AJPW decided to put the Champion Carnival on hiatus, not wanting the tournament to be overshadowed by their competitors. The hiatus lasted from 1983 to 1991. In 1991, AJPW had overtaken NJPW and was again the top promotion in Japan, boasting a roster of top foreign wrestlers mixed with top Japanese wrestlers. The 1991 tournament showcased several younger wrestlers, including Kenta Kobashi , Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada , who bypassed

7739-496: The position the other had. In the example given ( n = 14 {\displaystyle n=14} ), 2 {\displaystyle 2} has distance 1 {\displaystyle 1} to 3 {\displaystyle 3} and to 14 {\displaystyle 14} and it has distance 6 {\displaystyle 6} to 8 {\displaystyle 8} and to 9 {\displaystyle 9} . In

7848-400: The previous row, with the exception of player n {\displaystyle n} . When the result of the addition is greater than ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} , then subtract ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle (n-1)} from the sum. This schedule can also be represented as a (n-1, n-1) table, expressing

7957-621: The promotion in 2013, after which he was replaced by Jun Akiyama. 2013 also saw Akiyama finally win his first Champion Carnival, twenty years after his debut appearance in the tournament. In recent years, several outsiders have won the tournament, with freelancer Minoru Suzuki winning it in 2009 and 2010 , NJPW representative Yuji Nagata winning it in 2011 , Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) representative Daisuke Sekimoto winning it in 2016 , freelancer Shuji Ishikawa winning it in 2017 , and Pro Wrestling Noah representative Naomichi Marufuji winning it in 2018 . On April 2, 2020, AJPW held

8066-482: The promotion to create All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), respectively. Both men took the concept of World League with them to their new promotions, with Baba creating the "Champion Carnival" in 1973 and Inoki creating the World League in 1974, later renaming it G1 Climax . The first Champion Carnival took place only six months after Baba had founded AJPW. The initial tournament

8175-412: The promotion's aging veterans and went on to become the promotion's cornerstones for the next decade. However, despite the emergence of the younger wrestlers and the participation of foreign wrestlers such as Doug Furnas , The Dynamite Kid , Johnny Ace , Johnny Smith and Mick Foley , the 1991 tournament was won by an AJPW veteran Jumbo Tsuruta, who defeated Stan Hansen in the final. The 1992 tournament

8284-625: The promotion's top stars, holding the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship three times, and winning the Champion Carnival in 2000. Kobashi left All Japan in June 2000, taking part in a mass exodus led by Mitsuharu Misawa , which led to the formation of Pro Wrestling Noah . Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Kobashi worked for Noah for thirteen years, and had

8393-452: The quarterfinals, leaving Yoji Anjo , Gigantes , The Gladiator and Big John Tenta to fight in the first round. Shinya Hashimoto , reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , did not participate, citing prior commitments to his Pro Wrestling Zero1 promotion. The 2004 version of the Champion Carnival took between April 10 and April 20. The 2005 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 9 and April 20. Kensuke Sasaki ,

8502-426: The reigning AJPW World Tag Team Champions , won the tournament, after having fallen to Mitsuharu Misawa in the 1995 final. The 1997 Champion Carnival was held from March 22 to April 19, featuring thirteen wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format. Due to a three-way tie for first place between Toshiaki Kawada , Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa , a one-night round-robin playoff was contested among them with

8611-628: The ring, Kobashi stated that he wanted to start in opening matches, and rebuild himself to a main event player. Kenta Kobashi made his return to wrestling on March 1, 2009, at Nippon Budokan with Pro Wrestling Noah, defeated Masao Inoue in the opening match of the card with his signature lariat. Kobashi won the GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship from Makoto Hashi on June 8, 2009, in Hachiōji , Japan during Noah's Southern Navigation tour. On December 23, 2009, Kobashi

8720-406: The round-robin and elimination formats, to provide a worthy champion using fewer rounds than a round-robin, while allowing draws and losses. The main disadvantage of a round robin tournament is the time needed to complete it. Unlike a knockout tournament where half of the participants are eliminated after each round, a round robin requires one round less than the number of participants. For instance,

8829-525: The round-robin major league champions are generally regarded as the "best" team in the land, rather than the cup winners, whose tournaments usually follow a single-elimination format. Moreover, in tournaments such as the FIFA or ICC World Cups, a first round stage consisting of a number of mini round robins between groups of 4 teams guards against the possibility of a team travelling possibly thousands of miles only to be eliminated after just one poor performance in

8938-408: The same position. Clearly, these pairs are pairwise different. The conclusion is that every distance- k {\displaystyle k} pair is realized. This holds for every k {\displaystyle k} , hence, every pair is realized. If there are an odd number of competitors, a dummy competitor can be added, whose scheduled opponent in a given round does not play and has

9047-437: The second Champion Carnival, which most notably introduced former Olympian Jumbo Tsuruta , who eventually went on to become one of the promotion's top names. Baba also won the second Champion Carnival, this time defeating Mr. Wrestling in the final. Heading into the 1975 Champion Carnival, Baba changed the tournament's format. Now the four wrestlers who advanced to the semifinals in the single-elimination tournament were put into

9156-475: The sport due to cancer, resulting in his partner Tamon Honda returning the belts on September 26, 2006. On December 10, at the Nippon Budokan, Kobashi appeared before the fans and announced that he would return "without fail". On September 8, 2007, news broke that Kobashi would make his return on the December 2, 2007, Budokan Hall event where he would team up with Takayama to face Akiyama and Misawa. On

9265-399: The standings. The first playoff match resulted in a double-countout, and a second match was held. The 1980 Champion Carnival took place from March 28 to May 1, featuring thirteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. The tournament was won by Jumbo Tsuruta , who defeated Dick Slater in the final. The 1981 Champion Carnival took place from March 27 to April 23, featuring fourteen wrestlers in

9374-608: The teams. This famously happened during the 1994 FIFA World Cup Group E , where all four teams finished with a record of one win, one draw, and one loss. This phenomenon is analogous to the Condorcet paradox in voting theory. If n {\displaystyle n} is the number of competitors, a pure round robin tournament requires n 2 ( n − 1 ) {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}{\frac {n}{2}}\end{matrix}}(n-1)} games. If n {\displaystyle n}

9483-552: The top left corner by repeating the sequence of numbers from 1 up to n − 1 {\displaystyle n-1} . Here is an example table for 7 or 8 competitors: Kenta Kobashi Kenta Kobashi ( 小橋 健太 , Kobashi Kenta , ring name: 小橋 建太) (born, March 27, 1967) is a Japanese professional wrestling promoter and retired professional wrestler. He started his career in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 1988, where he became one of

9592-419: The top two scorers in each would advance to a four-man tournament, with Block A's first place finalist facing Block B's runner-up, and vice versa, and the winners wrestling in the final. Despite the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship being vacant as a result of Toshiaki Kawada injuring his knee after his match against Arashi (thereby forfeiting all his other scheduled matches), All Japan decided not to use

9701-496: The tournament seven times. Other notable winners include Abdullah the Butcher , Jumbo Tsuruta , Keiji Mutoh , Mitsuharu Misawa , Stan Hansen , Toshiaki Kawada and Kento Miyahara . Four wrestlers have won both the Champion Carnival and the G1 Climax: Mutoh, Satoshi Kojima , Kensuke Sasaki and Yuji Nagata , with Kojima the only one to win them alongside Fire Festival and Nagata the only one to win them alongside

9810-587: The tournament to fill the vacancy, citing the time limit for tournament matches (30 minutes as opposed to 60 in championship bouts). The winner, Keiji Mutoh , became the first man in history to win both the Champion Carnival and the G1 Climax, as well as the second man (after Vader ) to win the Carnival in his first appearance. The 2003 version of the Champion Carnival took place between March 22 and March 28. Keiji Mutoh , Satoshi Kojima , George Hines , Johnny Smith , Arashi and Nobutaka Araya received byes to

9919-512: The tournament. There were originally twelve wrestlers scheduled for the tournament, but that number dropped to eleven on March 22 when Steve Williams was suspended from AJPW for one year after being found in possession of painkillers at the airport and returned to the United States . The 1996 Champion Carnival took place from March 22 to April 20, featuring twelve wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format. Akira Taue , one-half of

10028-509: The tournament. This match originally ended in a no-contest on April 10, so a rematch was scheduled for April 14 to determine the 1st finalist with Mark Lewin winning. The finals were contested under best of 3 falls rules, with Baba winning the first fall at 12:49 and Lewin winning the second fall at 16:55. Baba won the third and decisive fall at 19:20, thus becoming the inaugural Champion Carnival winner. The 1978 Champion Carnival took place from March 4 to April 7, featuring fifteen wrestlers in

10137-435: The tournament; changes were made prior to the next Olympics to prevent a repeat of these events. Another disadvantage, especially in smaller round-robins, is the "circle of death", where teams cannot be separated on a head-to-head record. In a three-team round-robin, where A defeats B, B defeats C, and C defeats A, all three competitors will have a record of one win and one loss, and a tiebreaker will need to be used to separate

10246-421: The trio was called G.E.T ("Global, Energetic & Tough") and rookie Hawaiian wrestler, Maunakea Mossman . Kobashi defeated Akira Taue on July 24, 1996, to capture his first Triple Crown. He lost the championship to Misawa on January 20, 1997, in a very highly regarded match. In March 1997 in the Champion Carnival he gained his first pinfall victory over Misawa. At the end of the Carnival, Kobashi qualified for

10355-451: The victor is gradually arrived at through multiple rounds of play, teams who perform poorly, who might have been quickly eliminated from title contention, are forced to play out their remaining games. Thus games are played late in the competition between competitors with no remaining chance of success. Moreover, some later matches will pair one competitor who has something left to play for against another who does not. It may also be possible for

10464-470: The win in the final over Kenta Kobashi. Problems between Misawa and Giant Baba's widow Motoko Baba led to Misawa exiting AJPW in 2000, taking 26 out of the 28 Japanese AJPW wrestlers with him to form the new Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. Struggling to cope with the loss of the majority of its roster, AJPW eventually hired NJPW wrestler Keiji Mutoh to lead the promotion. Mutoh went on to win the Champion Carnival three times (2002, 2004 and 2007), before leaving

10573-445: The winner claiming the tournament. The 1998 Champion Carnival was held from March 21 to April 18, featuring thirteen wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format, with the top two finishers wrestling in the final. The reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa won the tournament for the second time, also having won in 1995. The 1999 Champion Carnival was held from March 24 to April 16, featuring ten wrestlers in

10682-415: The winner of this edition, was the second man to win both Champion Carnival and G1 Climax tournaments, the first man being Keiji Mutoh. The 2006 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 7 and April 20. The 2007 version of the Champion Carnival took place between March 26 and March 30. The 2008 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 5 and April 9. The 2009 version of

10791-564: Was announced by Noah that Kobashi had stepped down from his position as an Executive Vice President of the promotion. On December 3, 2012, Noah released Kobashi from his contract. The news sparked shockwaves, as Atsushi Aoki , Go Shiozaki, Jun Akiyama, Kotaro Suzuki , and Yoshinobu Kanemaru spoke out, declaring their intent of not signing with Noah after their contracts expire in January, out of loyalty to Kobashi. On December 9, 2012, Kobashi attended Noah's Ryōgoku Kokugikan event and during an in-ring interview, revealed he planned to retire in

10900-479: Was booked around the storyline of the "young lions" challenging the veterans for AJPW supremacy. Stan Hansen went on to win his first Champion Carnival, defeating Mitsuharu Misawa in the final. Despite losing in the final, the tournament made Misawa a star, someone earmarked to occupy the promotion's top spot. A year later, Hansen again defeated Misawa in the final. The 1993 tournament was also noteworthy for introducing rookie Jun Akiyama . In 1994, Toshiaki Kawada became

11009-607: Was booked by Shohei "Giant" Baba to lose his first 63 matches (all singles bouts). It was all part of Baba's master plan: even in defeat, the fiery, charismatic Kobashi shined and his gutsy, never-say-die efforts earned him the Rookie of the Year award from the Japanese press. Kobashi won his first match in May 1989 (against Jim Crockett Promotions jobber Mitch Snow). During 1989, when The Road Warriors were in AJPW, they taught Kobashi

11118-399: Was eventually declared vacant on May 30, after the tournament was over.) On April 25, Go Shiozaki also withdrew from the tournament due to a broken thumb, and forfeited his final match against Jun Akiyama . The 2015 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 5 and April 25. Round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament

11227-527: Was given a marquee position on the first two shows. On August 5, 2000, he teamed with Akiyama to defeat Misawa and Taue in a two out of three falls match in the main event of the promotion's first show, and then lost to Akiyama on the second show the next day (Kobashi legitimately passed out while being captured in Akiyama's "King Crab Lock" submission and was unable to finish the match). Noah struggled to organize itself without any titles during this period. At

11336-579: Was held after the second match on the show and was attended by former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda , legendary NTV announcers Akira Fukuzawa and Kazuo Tokumitsu, former colleagues Akira Taue, Hiroshi Hase , Masahiro Chono, Mitsuo Momota , Toshiaki Kawada, and Stan Hansen via video message, along with many others. In the main event, Kobashi teamed with Jun Akiyama, Keiji Mutoh, and Kensuke Sasaki in an eight-man tag team match, where they defeated his protégés Go Shiozaki, Kenta, Maybach Taniguchi , and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, with Kobashi pinning Kanemaru with

11445-459: Was held from March 23 to April 11, featuring ten wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format, with the top two finishers wrestling in the final. Genichiro Tenryu , reigning Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , won the tournament in his second appearance, his first since 1982. The 2002 Champion Carnival was held from March 23 to April 10, re-introduced the dual-block round-robin format used in 1991 and 1992, this time with seven men in each block;

11554-407: Was held in a single-elimination format and was intended for AJPW's heavyweight wrestlers such as Hiro Matsuda , Samson Kutsuwada and Thunder Sugiyama. For the tournament, Baba also recruited several foreign wrestlers, such as Baron Scicluna , The Destroyer , King Curtis Iaukea and Mark Lewin . Baba himself won the inaugural tournament, defeating Lewin in the final. A year later, AJPW presented

11663-500: Was inducted by Dave Meltzer into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame as the third inductee of the 2002 and the 148th inductee for his accomplishments in All Japan Pro Wrestling . For his last match on May 11, 2013, he was presented a replica of the GHC Heavyweight Championship belt as a farewell gift after his retirement match at Final Burning. He held the GHC Heavyweight Championship for

11772-605: Was seriously injured in a three-way match against Honda and Kikuchi. He was sidelined for 19 months with nerve damage in his right arm. Kobashi made his return on July 23, 2011, teaming with Go Shiozaki in a tag team match, where they were defeated by Akitoshi Saito and Jun Akiyama. On August 27, 2011, he debuted new ring gear, mixing black and orange, at the NJPW/AJPW/Noah All Together show at Budokan Hall, teaming up with AJPW's Keiji Mutoh , defeating NJPW's Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano . On October 6, it

11881-527: Was the first Champion Carnival not won by Baba. It was instead won by Canadian Abdullah the Butcher , who defeated Baba in the final. Baba went on to win the tournament four more times, winning a total of seven out of the ten first Champion Carnivals. In early 1980s, AJPW loaded the Champion Carnival with some of the top foreign wrestlers in the world, including Billy Robinson , Bruiser Brody , Dick Slater , Jack Brisco , Stan Hansen , Ted DiBiase and Terry Funk . However, after rival promotion NJPW took over as

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