Single Elimination Bracket Maker

How single elimination works

Each round halves the field. Sixteen teams become 8, then 4, then 2, then a champion. Every game sends exactly one team home, so a bracket of n teams always has n − 1 games: 7 for 8 teams, 15 for 16, 31 for 32 and 127 for 128.

The number of rounds is how many times you can halve the field: 3 rounds for 5 to 8 teams, 4 for 9 to 16, 5 for 17 to 32, 6 for 33 to 64 and 7 for 65 to 128. The champion wins one game per round, or one fewer after a bye.

How many byes do you need?

A bracket only splits evenly at 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128. With any other count, the generator rounds up to the next of those sizes and fills the empty slots with byes. The math is simple: byes = bracket size − teams, and the first round has teams − half the bracket size games.

• 5 teams: 8-slot bracket, 3 byes, 1 first-round game
• 6 teams: 2 byes, 2 first-round games
• 7 teams: 1 bye, 3 first-round games
• 10 teams: 16-slot bracket, 6 byes, 2 first-round games
• 12 teams: 4 byes, 4 first-round games
• 14 teams: 2 byes, 6 first-round games
• 20 teams: 32-slot bracket, 12 byes, 4 first-round games
• 24 teams: 8 byes, 8 first-round games

Byes always go to the top seeds. A bye is a reward for a strong season or a good qualifying round, so if you shuffle the names instead, the byes land on whoever the draw puts at the top.

Seeding: why 1 plays 16

Standard seeding pairs the best with the worst: in a 16-team bracket the first round is 1 v 16, 8 v 9, 5 v 12, 4 v 13, 6 v 11, 3 v 14, 7 v 10 and 2 v 15. Each pair adds up to 17. The order down the bracket isn’t random either. Seeds 1 and 2 sit in opposite halves, so they can only meet in the final, and seeds 1 to 4 sit in different quarters, so they can only meet in the semifinals. That rewards the teams that earned a high seed and saves the best matchups for last.

You have three ways to fill the bracket. As entered treats your list as the seeding. Random shuffles everyone, which feels fair at a social event where nobody knows who’s good. Manual lets you drag names around, handy for keeping two teams from the same club apart until later rounds.

Do you need a third-place game?

A third-place game pits the two semifinal losers against each other. It adds exactly one game, so the bracket has n games instead of n − 1. Play it when there’s a prize or a medal for third, or when those teams would otherwise travel home after just two or three games. Skip it when the gym closes at six.

When single elimination is the right choice

Pick single elimination when time or space is the limit: a big field, one court, a lunch-hour office tournament, a school field day, or a playoff after a season. It’s simple to explain, every game matters, and the final arrives fast.

The cost is that half the field plays only once, and one off game ends a good team’s day. If that matters, use a double elimination bracket, which guarantees two games each, or a round robin for groups of up to about 6. A popular middle ground for bigger days is a short round robin in groups first, then a single-elimination playoff seeded from the standings.

Planning the day

Count waves of play, not games. Divide each round’s games by your courts and round up, then add the rounds together. Take 24 teams on 4 courts: round one has 8 games (2 waves), round two has 8 (2 waves), then the quarterfinals, semifinals and final take one wave each. That’s 7 waves, so at 40 minutes a game, plan for about 4 hours and 40 minutes.

• Tell bye teams when to arrive. They start a round later, so they can check in later too.
• Start round one on time. Any delay in the first wave pushes back every later round.
• Save the best court for the final. Clear sightlines, the TV nearby, and people can watch.
• Keep the bracket visible. Share the view link, post the QR code, or put the bracket on a TV in TV mode. It updates as scores come in.

Need a standard size? The 8-team bracket and 16-team bracket pages open ready to fill in and print.