Tournament bracket generator

How to use the bracket generator

1. Enter teams. Type or paste one team per line, fill in numbered teams for a blank printable bracket, or paste players and let the tool make random teams of 2 (or any size).
2. Pick a format and seeding. The planning line shows how many games that means and roughly how long it takes with your number of courts or tables.
3. Make the bracket. "Up next" lists every game that can be played now, numbered, so you can call games from a phone.
4. Tap winners. Winners move on, losers drop into the losers' or second-chance bracket when the format has one. Undo takes back the last result. Your bracket is saved on this device.
5. Share or print. Copy the link for players, print the bracket, or save it as an image or a spreadsheet.

Which bracket format to pick

Games to schedule for each format (round 1 byes left out; for double and modified double elimination, the grand final's possible second game is not counted):

• Single elimination is the fastest. Half the teams play only once, which is fine for a quick night but stings when people drove over to play.
• Consolation bracket adds a side bracket for first-game losers, so most teams play twice, but they play for a consolation prize, not the title.
• Double elimination is the fairest: a team needs two losses to go out. It takes about twice as many games, and the losers' bracket finishes last, so plan the time.
• Modified double elimination sits in between: every team plays at least twice and a first-game loser can still win it all, in fewer games than the full format.

How byes and seeding work here

A bracket needs 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 places. With 12 teams the bracket has 16 places, so 4 teams get a bye into round 2. Byes go to the top seeds (seeds 1 to 4 here) and land in different parts of the bracket, so no half or quarter carries all of them and two byes never meet. A team gets at most one bye in the whole tournament.

Seeded brackets use the standard order: seed 1 meets the lowest seed, seed 2 the second lowest, and the top two seeds can only meet in the final. Our tests check bye placement for every team count from 2 to 128.

The formats, defined

Bracket formats go by more than one name, so here is exactly what each one does in this generator.

Single elimination

Lose once and you are out. Seeding follows the standard pattern Wikipedia describes for single elimination: "1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5" for eight seeds. The optional third-place game is played by the two semifinal losers.

Double elimination

The main bracket runs like single elimination, but each loser drops into a losers' bracket, where a second loss knocks a team out. The main-bracket champion and the losers' bracket champion meet in the grand final. With the reset on, if the losers' bracket champion wins that game both teams have one loss, so a second game decides the title; Wikipedia calls it the "if game" or "bracket reset". With the reset off, the grand final is one game. Teams dropping into the losers' bracket are crossed over to cut down on rematches of games just played. When the team count is not a power of two, some losers' bracket teams enter a round later rather than getting a free pass; every losers' bracket game has two teams.

Consolation bracket

Single elimination, plus a separate bracket for every team that loses its first game: round 1 losers, and top seeds who had a bye and lost in round 2. Its winner is the consolation champion. This is the "consolation" or "classification" idea Wikipedia's single-elimination article describes, where defeated competitors play other losers to settle lower places.

Modified double elimination

Wikipedia's article on the format mentions one that "guarantees at least two games per competitor, but not necessarily two losses for elimination". That is what our modified version does: a team that loses its first game drops into a second-chance bracket; a loss after your first game ends your run. The second-chance champion plays the main-bracket champion for the title, with the same optional reset as the full format. Other organizers use the name for other formats, so check your league's rules if the format matters to the result.

Sources: Single-elimination tournament and Double-elimination tournament (Wikipedia, checked 2026-10-02); Host A Tourney's guide on the bracket reset.

Build your own bracket format

Leagues and bar nights often run formats no generator offers: two play-in games for the bottom four seeds, a fifth-place game, pool play before a knockout, or a second-chance bracket only for teams that lost early. Pick Custom and start from the closest format, or from a blank sheet. Then change it game by game: who plays in each slot, where the winner goes, where the loser goes (out, another game, or another game only if it was their first), which section and round it sits in, and what each round is called.

A checker reads the structure every time you change it and lists any problem in plain words. You can only play a custom bracket when every team has a path to an end, no game is left with a winner who has nowhere to go (unless it is a named placement game such as Third place), no games feed each other in a loop, there is exactly one champion, and a play-through with several sets of results always finishes. A working custom bracket then behaves like the built-in ones: tap winners, undo, standings, share link, print, SVG, PNG and CSV.

The optional "Suggest this bracket to us" button sends only the structure (the number of teams, the games and where winners and losers go, round names and pool setup) with the name and note you type, never your team names. Formats several people build, or ones that fill a gap, become ready-made options on this page.

Game presets

The cornhole, euchre, spades and Bunco presets only fill in a name, a "game to" line for the printout and a suggested format: the full losers' bracket for cornhole, single elimination for the card games (a game of euchre to 10 or spades to 500 takes a while), and the modified version for Bunco teams so every pair plays at least twice. They do not change how the bracket works. The "game to" lines are common targets, not fixed rules, so use your own group's house rules.

Bracket questions

How do byes work in a tournament bracket?

When the number of teams is not 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128, some teams skip round 1. This generator gives those byes to the top seeds, never more than one per team, and never puts two byes against each other, so every round 1 game has at least one real team.

How many games does a double elimination tournament take?

Twice the number of teams minus two, plus one more if the grand final needs a second game. Eight teams play 14 or 15 games; sixteen teams play 30 or 31.

What is the difference between double elimination and modified double elimination?

In the full format every team needs two losses to go out. In our modified version only a team that loses its first game gets a second chance; a loss after that ends its run. It is shorter, and every team still plays at least two games.

Can I make a bracket with play-in games, pool play or a game for fifth place?

Yes. Pick Custom, start from any format or a blank sheet, and change it: add or remove play-in games, move byes, add a third-place game, a consolation bracket or any placement game, put pool play in front of the bracket, and choose where every winner and loser goes. The checker only lets you play a bracket in which every team has a path to the end and there is exactly one champion.

Can I share the bracket with players?

Yes. The share link holds the whole bracket, results included, inside the link itself. Anyone who opens it sees the same bracket and can follow along. Nothing is stored on our side, so a later update needs a fresh link.

How do I print a large bracket?

Use your browser's Print command with the "what prints" switch set to the whole bracket, the top half or the bottom half. The bracket is scaled to fit the page, so names get small on big brackets; for 64 or 128 teams print the two halves, or save the SVG and print it at a larger size.

Nothing you type here is sent to us unless you press "Suggest this bracket", which sends only a custom bracket's structure plus the format name and note you type, never team names (what we keep). The bracket is saved in this browser, and a share link carries it inside the part of the address after the # sign, which browsers do not send to the website.