How to make a tournament bracket
- Type the teams or players into Entrants, one per line, from 3 to 64. If you have a ranking, put the best first.
- Choose Seed in list order to use that ranking, or Random draw to shuffle, then click Make bracket.
- After each match, click the winner’s name to move them on. Click it again to undo. Print gives a clean copy and Copy results a text summary.
Seeding or a random draw
Seeding keeps the strongest players apart until the later rounds, which makes the final more likely to be a close match and rewards a good record. Use it when you have a ranking, such as last season’s table or a qualifying round. Put the entrants in order, best first.
A random draw is fairer when nobody has a ranking yet, such as a first office tournament or a family game night. Byes still go to the first names in the shuffled list, so the draw decides those too.
Planning the day
The number of rounds is how many times you can halve the bracket size: 8 entrants need 3 rounds, 16 need 4, 32 need 5 and 64 need 6. Multiply the matches in round 1 by the length of a match and divide by the number of courts or tables to see how long the first round takes. Later rounds are quicker because half the players are out each time.
Print the empty bracket before you start and pin it up, then fill in winners as the day goes on, or keep this page open on a laptop and click winners as results come in. The bracket is saved on this device, so closing the tab doesn’t lose it.