OneTaskBy Tim King · Updated
Tournament Bracket Maker
Seeded Brackets for 2 to 128 Teams, Byes, Scores and Printable Sheet
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How the Tournament Bracket Maker works
This tournament bracket maker draws a single or double elimination bracket for anything from 2 to 128 teams or players. Paste your entrants top seed first, or shuffle them for a random draw, and it seeds the bracket the standard way, gives byes to the top seeds, and lets you click winners through round by round until a champion is crowned. The link keeps your results.
A knockout bracket is the quickest fair way to find a winner: every match removes one entrant, so a field of n needs exactly n − 1 matches in single elimination. Double elimination gives everyone a second life in a losers bracket, roughly doubling the matches but making an early upset far less decisive.
How the tournament bracket maker seeds and places byes
The bracket size is the next power of two at or above your entrant count, so 12 teams use a 16-slot bracket with 4 byes. Seeds are placed so that the top two can only meet in the final and the top four only in the semi-finals: in an eight-slot bracket the first round is 1 v 8, 4 v 5, 2 v 7 and 3 v 6. Byes go to the highest seeds, who advance automatically, which is the convention used by almost every sports governing body.
In double elimination, first-round losers drop into losers round 1, and each later winners-bracket round feeds its losers into the losers bracket, crossed over to stop early rematches. The losers bracket champion meets the winners bracket champion in the grand final. If the losers-side team wins that, both have one loss, so a reset match decides the title.
First example. 8 teams, single elimination: 3 rounds, 0 byes, 7 matches. Add a third-place play-off between the losing semi-finalists and it is 8 matches.
Second example. 12 teams, double elimination: a 16-slot bracket with 4 byes, 22 matches, plus a 23rd if the grand final needs a reset.
Bracket size, byes and matches by number of entrants
| Entrants | Rounds (winners bracket) | Byes | Single elimination matches | Double elimination matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 to 5 |
| 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 to 7 |
| 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 8 to 9 |
| 6 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 to 11 |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 12 to 13 |
| 8 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 14 to 15 |
| 9 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 16 to 17 |
| 10 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 18 to 19 |
| 11 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 20 to 21 |
| 12 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 22 to 23 |
| 13 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 24 to 25 |
| 14 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 26 to 27 |
| 15 | 4 | 1 | 14 | 28 to 29 |
| 16 | 4 | 0 | 15 | 30 to 31 |
| 17 | 5 | 15 | 16 | 32 to 33 |
| 18 | 5 | 14 | 17 | 34 to 35 |
| 20 | 5 | 12 | 19 | 38 to 39 |
| 24 | 5 | 8 | 23 | 46 to 47 |
| 28 | 5 | 4 | 27 | 54 to 55 |
| 32 | 5 | 0 | 31 | 62 to 63 |
| 48 | 6 | 16 | 47 | 94 to 95 |
| 64 | 6 | 0 | 63 | 126 to 127 |
| 96 | 7 | 32 | 95 | 190 to 191 |
| 128 | 7 | 0 | 127 | 254 to 255 |
Tips and pitfalls
- Seed honestly or shuffle. Listing entrants in rank order rewards the strongest; the Shuffle order button gives a blind draw when there is no ranking.
- Avoid awkward numbers in double elimination. Fields just above a power of two, like 17 or 33, create lots of byes. Consider a short qualifying round instead.
- Changing the entrant list resets matches that no longer make sense. Picks are stored by name, so renaming a team clears its results.
- Share the link, not a screenshot. The page address carries the whole bracket, so another organiser can open it and carry on entering results.
FAQ
How do byes work in a tournament bracket?
When the number of entrants is not a power of two, some first-round slots are empty. Those empty slots are byes, and the team drawn against one goes straight through to round two. Byes are given to the top seeds as a reward for their ranking, so 13 entrants means seeds 1, 2 and 3 skip round one.
What is the difference between single and double elimination?
In single elimination one loss knocks you out, so n entrants need n − 1 matches. Double elimination sends first losses to a losers bracket and only a second loss eliminates, so it needs about 2n − 2 matches. It is fairer but takes roughly twice as long to run.
Why does the grand final sometimes need a reset match?
The winners bracket champion arrives unbeaten, while the losers bracket champion already has one loss. If the losers-side team wins the grand final, both now have one loss each, so a second match is played to keep the promise that nobody is eliminated before losing twice.
How many rounds will my tournament have?
A single elimination bracket has as many rounds as the power of two that covers your field: 2 for up to 4 entrants, 3 for up to 8, 4 for up to 16, 5 for up to 32 and so on. Double elimination adds a losers bracket with roughly twice as many rounds running alongside it.
Can I print the bracket or save it for later?
Yes. Print bracket gives a clean sheet with just the bracket on it, ready for a noticeboard. Results are saved in your browser and in the page address, so bookmarking the page or sending the link to another organiser keeps every winner and score you have entered.
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