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How to run a single-elimination tournament

Plan rounds, seed teams, handle byes, print the bracket — a short guide plus the tool to do all of it.

Other formats coming soon.

Want a prettier print-ready pack?

The free version does the job. The optional template pack just makes brackets look beautiful for events, classrooms and clubs.

See template pack

Free forever for basic use · No signup required

Use case

When to use this

First-time organisers running a one-day tournament. The guide covers the four decisions you have to make (size, seeding, byes, format); the bracket tool does the rest.

How to use it

Step by step

  1. 1

    Paste teams

  2. 2

    Generate bracket

  3. 3

    Print and play

Decide the size

Single elimination doubles every round (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64). If your team count isn't a power of two, the difference is filled with byes for the top seeds.

Seed by past results or random

Either is fine. Seeding rewards consistency; random adds drama. The tool places top seeds across halves automatically when you enter them in seed order.

Estimate the day

Total matches = teams − 1. At 25 minutes per match on one court, 16 teams = ~6 hours. Two courts halves it.

Bracket sizing and byes

Single-elimination brackets only exist in power-of-two sizes: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64. When your team count falls between two of those, the bracket maker rounds up and inserts byes for the highest seeds. So 11 teams becomes a 16-slot bracket with five byes, all assigned to the top five seeds. That preserves the 'top seeds shouldn't meet until late' principle and gives lower seeds a real path through the play-in round. If you'd rather have everyone play round one, pad the field with practice slots or switch to a round-robin format on a separate page.

Printing for the wall

The bracket renders as plain SVG, which is why it stays sharp on any paper size — A4, A3, US Letter, US Tabloid. For a wall-sized print, export as PDF and send it to a copy shop with 'fit to page' on A2 or A1; the lines and labels remain crisp because there's no rasterisation in the pipeline. For digital sharing, PNG export rasterises at 2× the on-screen resolution which is plenty for Slack, Discord, or email. Match colours to your event by tweaking team names with emojis (🟦 🟥 🟩) — they print fine and scan well from across a room.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What if a team drops out?

Mark their slot as a bye — opponent advances. The bracket maker has a quick "mark winner" click for this.

Can I edit team names after generating the bracket?

Yes. Click any team slot in the bracket and the name becomes editable. Edits stick across re-renders within the same session. If you reseed the bracket the edits are preserved as long as the team count doesn't change.

Does the bracket support double-elimination or losers' bracket?

Not yet. The current bracket maker is single-elimination only. For most amateur and one-day tournaments single-elim is the right format because it keeps the schedule predictable. Double-elim is on the roadmap; if it would help you, send a note via the contact page so we know to prioritise it.

How do I score matches?

Click a team in any matchup to mark them as the winner — they advance automatically to the next round. Click again to undo. The bracket doesn't track scores numerically; it just tracks who advanced, which is the only state the bracket itself needs.

Keep exploring

Related tools & guides

Ready to run your event?

Free forever for basic use. No signup required. The free version really does do the job.

Open team generator Open bracket maker

Want prettier prints? See the optional template pack