Single or double elimination brackets with byes and seeding. Entries stay on your device.
A double elimination bracket is for events where one bad match should not end a team's day: school and club tournaments, game nights and esports brackets with a fixed number of slots. Every team has to lose twice to go out. This page opens with the format already set to double elimination and eight sample names, so you can see both brackets at once: the winners rounds come first as columns, then the losers rounds, then the grand final. Paste your own names, one per line, and the losers bracket is built to match, including byes when the count is not a power of two. With 8 teams there are 14 matches, and one more if needed. The extra match is the second grand final: the winner of the winners bracket has no losses, the losers-bracket champion has one, so if the losers-bracket team wins the first grand final the two are level and play again. The tool marks that match as only needed in that case. One honest limit: it does not schedule times, courts or rounds per day, and a team cannot be moved between brackets by hand. The third-place match is not used, because the losers bracket decides third place.
The bracket is built for the next power of two at or above your number of names: 8 names use an 8-slot bracket, 9 to 16 names use 16 slots. The empty slots are byes. Seeds are paired in the standard way, so with 16 slots the first round is seed 1 against 16, 8 against 9, 4 against 13 and so on, and seeds 1 and 2 can only meet in the final. Byes always go to the top seeds: with 12 names there are 4 byes, held by seeds 1 to 4, who skip round 1 and wait in round 2. A bye is not a match. It has no number, and the match count is always one less than the number of names in single elimination (11 matches for 12 names). Later matches are shown as Winner of match N until that result is known.
As listed, the first name is seed 1, the second is seed 2, and so on, so put your strongest entry first. Seed 1 plays last: it meets the lowest seed first and the second seed only in the final. Random draw shuffles the names with your browser's secure random source when available and then seeds them in that shuffled order, so the byes go to whoever is drawn first. Use Draw again for a new shuffle. Changing the names or any option also draws again, and any winners you picked are cleared because the bracket changed. Blank lines are dropped and names are trimmed. A repeated name is allowed and kept as a separate entry, with a notice listing it, because two players can share a name. Names longer than 80 characters are cut, and more than 128 names is refused.
Click or tap a name in a match to advance it. Click it again to undo it. Changing a winner clears every later pick that depended on it, so the bracket never shows a team in a round it did not reach. Matches wait until both teams are known. Double elimination adds a losers bracket. Each loss in the winners bracket sends the team to the losers bracket, where a second loss is out. Losers from round 1 play each other, and the losers of every later winners round drop in against the survivors, in reversed order on even rounds so teams are less likely to meet again at once. The winners-bracket champion then meets the losers-bracket champion in the grand final. This tool includes a second grand final, played only if the losers-bracket team wins the first, because that team then has one loss each. Without byes that is 2n-2 matches plus the one extra.
The third-place match is for single elimination and needs at least 4 names: the two semi-final losers play each other, and it is numbered after the final. It is left out of double elimination, where the losers bracket already ranks the teams. The text version lists the matches by round with seed numbers, byes and the winners you have picked, and the Copy button copies it as shown. Print uses your browser's print dialog for the whole page. Your names are not uploaded or saved; only the format, seeding and third-place choices are remembered on this device.
Without byes, 2n-2 matches for n teams, plus the second grand final if it is needed. 8 teams give 14, or 15 with the reset. Byes remove matches that cannot be played, and the count shown on the page already allows for them.
Only when the team from the losers bracket wins the first grand final. It then has one loss, like the winners-bracket team, so they play once more. If the winners-bracket team wins the first grand final, the second is marked as not needed.
It drops into the losers bracket. Round 1 losers play each other. Losers from later winners rounds meet the survivors of the previous losers round, in reversed order on even rounds. Click a winner and the loser appears in its losers-bracket slot.
With 2 teams the loser of the one match plays the grand final against the winner, so a single loss is never the end. With 3 teams one team gets a bye and the losers bracket is a single match.
When the number of names is not a power of two, the bracket is filled up with byes. The top seeds get them. With 6 names there are 2 byes for seeds 1 and 2, and the other four teams play in round 1.
The first name you type is seed 1. Seed 1 is paired with the lowest seed in round 1 and can meet seed 2 only in the final, so it gets the easiest path through the bracket.
Yes. Each line is its own entry with its own seed number, and the tool shows a notice that lists the repeated names. Add a suffix such as 'Sam B.' if you need to tell them apart.
Single elimination has one fewer match than names, plus one more with the third-place match. Double elimination has 2n-2 matches, plus a second grand final that is played only if the losers-bracket team wins the first.
It shuffles with your browser's secure random source when available, so every order is equally likely. The tool does not give a certificate or proof; if you need a witnessed draw, draw in front of the group.