title: Assigning n players to 3-member teams to reduce number of repeated games?
body: <p>Sorry for the non-descriptive title. This is not a homework problem -- I have a friend who has asked me to help him assign teams for an FRC tournament he's running.</p>
  
  <p>So I have <em>n</em> players and <em>x</em> games. Each game has two teams of three players. I'd like to generate a schedule that tries to minimize the number of repeated games (that is, I don't want two teams from playing each other twice, and all things being equal I'd rather that each team be as unique as possible (so players A, B, and C don't play on the same team the whole time)).</p>
  
  <p>I'm not asking for a specific answer, but perhaps a pointer to what the formal name of the problem I'm trying to solve is?</p>
  
  <p><em>Edit:</em></p>
  
  <p>The priority should be placed on having as many unique (distinct) games as possible, while having each player play almost the same number of games (the difference between the player with the most games and the fewest games should be probably no greater than two, if that's possible).</p>
  
  <p>This is not a round-robin <em>per se</em>, but if a round-robin-like tournament can solve this problem, I'd like to hear how. There is no limit on how many times a player will play another.</p>
  
  <p>Players are interchangeable, so a team with players A, B, and C is equivalent to a team with players A, C, and B.</p>