[Math] Outcome possibilities with three teams and three outcomes for each game

combinationscombinatoricspermutationsprobability

So there are six teams (let's say: 1,2,3,4,5,6), and they pair up to face each other, (so three games in total). In each game, one team either wins or their is a tie.

Let's set up the teams and their game possibilities like this:

1 and 2: W L T
3 and 4: W L T
5 and 6: W L T

I would like to determine the total number of possibilities from these games. (Technically, the loss option doesn't really count because obviously if one team wins, the other loses)

One possibility is that all games end up to be wins FOR THE FIRST TEAMS (ex: teams 1,3,5 would be the 'first' teams and teams 2,4,6 would be the 'second' teams.

Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

Here is the "slick" way to solve it: there are 3 outcomes for each game (either the odd team wins, they tie, or the even team wins), and there are 3 separate games, so since each game is independent of the other, there are $3^3 = 27$ possible outcomes.

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