8-team bracket
Eight teams is the smallest bracket that feels like a real tournament: quarterfinals, semifinals and a final, done in an evening. Print a blank one below, or open it in our generator, type the team names and tap winners as games finish.
Printable blank 8-team bracket
Both sheets carry seed numbers on the first-round lines and a game number on every box, with "Winner of game 1" style labels in later rounds, so a host can call games by number. The double elimination sheet has the losers' bracket and the grand final under the main bracket on the same page.
Only 5, 6 or 7 teams? Use byes
A bracket needs a power of two, so a group of 6 uses this eight-line sheet with 2 empty lines. The empty lines are byes: those teams skip the quarterfinals and start in the semifinals. Byes go to the top seeds so that a team never gets a free pass and then meets another free pass.
| Teams | Byes | Who gets one | Round 1 games | Single elim. games | Double elim. games |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 3 | seeds 1 to 3 | 4 v 5 | 4 | 8 or 9 |
| 6 | 2 | seeds 1 and 2 | 4 v 5, 3 v 6 | 5 | 10 or 11 |
| 7 | 1 | seed 1 | 4 v 5, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 | 6 | 12 or 13 |
- 7 teams: seed 1 waits while 4 v 5, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 are played. Give the bye to last year's winner or to the team that signed up first; with a random draw, the generator picks.
- 6 teams: seeds 1 and 2 wait. They land in opposite halves, so the two rested teams cannot meet until the final.
- 5 teams: only one quarterfinal is played (4 v 5), and three teams wait. At this size a bracket still works, but a round robin gives everyone four games in five rounds and is usually the better night.
How long an 8-team tournament takes
Set your courts, boards or tables and the minutes a game takes. The table counts games in waves: every game that can be played at the same moment shares a wave, so a second board only helps when two games are ready at once.
| Format | Games | Fewest games a team plays | Waves | About |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single elimination | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 h 20 min |
| Single elimination with a consolation bracket | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 h 40 min |
| Modified double elimination (two games guaranteed) | 11 (+1) | 2 | 4 | 2 h |
| Double elimination | 14 (+1) | 2 | 6 | 3 h |
Two examples with 20-minute games. A backyard cornhole party with one set of boards runs single elimination in about 2 h 20 min and double elimination in about 4 h 40 min. Borrow a second set and those drop to 1 h 20 min and 3 h, because the quarterfinals and the early losers' games run side by side. A card night with eight partnerships (16 players) has four tables, so the quarterfinals all start together.
Which format suits eight teams
With eight teams, the difference between formats is a handful of games, so pick by how far people traveled and how long you have.
- Single elimination (7 games): four teams play once and go home. Good when the event is the warm-up for something else.
- Consolation bracket (10 games): the four quarterfinal losers play their own mini bracket, so everyone gets a second game and there is a small prize to play for.
- Modified double elimination (11 or 12 games): a quarterfinal loser can still win the title through the second-chance side, and nobody plays fewer than two games.
- Double elimination (14 or 15 games): the fairest, and at eight teams still manageable on two boards in an afternoon.
- Round robin (28 games): everyone plays everyone, seven games each. It needs more board time but no bracket at all. Two groups of four plus a four-team playoff is a middle road: twelve group games and three playoff games, and every team plays at least three.
Group play and round robins are set up on the round robin generator, which can send the group finishers straight into a bracket.
8-team bracket questions
How many games are in an 8-team bracket?
7 in single elimination, 14 or 15 in double elimination (the extra one is the grand final's second game), 10 with a consolation bracket and 11 or 12 in modified double elimination.
How many rounds does an 8-team single elimination bracket have?
Three: four quarterfinal games, two semifinals and the final. Every team needs three wins to take the title.
Who plays whom in round 1 of an 8-team bracket?
With standard seeding, 1 plays 8, 4 plays 5, 2 plays 7 and 3 plays 6, laid out so seeds 1 and 2 are in opposite halves and can only meet in the final.
What if only 6 or 7 teams show up?
Keep the 8-team bracket and give byes to the top seeds: seed 1 with 7 teams, seeds 1 and 2 with 6 teams. The generator places them for you and numbers only the games that are really played.
Bigger groups: 16 teams, 32 teams or 64 teams. Any other count from 2 to 128 works in the tournament bracket generator. Planning the rest of the party? See game night ideas.