Tournament Bracket Generator
Single-elimination bracket for 4 to 128 teams with standard seeding and byes for the top seeds. Click winners through to the final, shuffle or print it. How it works
Use the Tournament Bracket Generator
Team Names
Bracket
Click a team in a match to record the winner; it moves into the next round. Winners are saved in this browser with the team names, and changing the number of teams or shuffling clears them.
4 first-round matches played · 0 byes · 7 matches in all across 3 rounds. A team with a bye goes through to round 2 without playing.
About the Tournament Bracket Generator
An 8-team bracket pairs seed 1 with seed 8, 4 with 5, 2 with 7 and 3 with 6, so the top two seeds can meet only in the final, and it takes 7 matches over 3 rounds. When the team count is not a power of two, such as 6, the bracket is filled to 8 slots and the top seeds get byes: seeds 1 and 2 skip round 1, and no two byes ever meet.
Bracket size, rounds, byes and matches by number of teams
| Teams | Bracket slots | Rounds | Byes | First-round matches played | All matches played |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| 6 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 8 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| 12 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 11 |
| 16 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 15 |
| 20 | 32 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 19 |
| 32 | 32 | 5 | 0 | 16 | 31 |
| 64 | 64 | 6 | 0 | 32 | 63 |
| 100 | 128 | 7 | 28 | 36 | 99 |
| 128 | 128 | 7 | 0 | 64 | 127 |
A bye is a first-round slot with no opponent, so it is not a match played. All matches played is the number of teams minus 1.
First-round pairings in standard seed order
| Teams | First-round pairs, in bracket order |
|---|---|
| 4 teams | seed 1 v seed 4, seed 2 v seed 3 |
| 6 teams | seed 1 v bye, seed 4 v seed 5, seed 2 v bye, seed 3 v seed 6 |
| 8 teams | seed 1 v seed 8, seed 4 v seed 5, seed 2 v seed 7, seed 3 v seed 6 |
| 16 teams | seed 1 v seed 16, seed 8 v seed 9, seed 4 v seed 13, seed 5 v seed 12, seed 2 v seed 15, seed 7 v seed 10, seed 3 v seed 14, seed 6 v seed 11 |
Enter the team names with seed 1 first. Each pair of seeds adds up to the number of slots plus 1.
How to use this tool
- Pick the number of teams with a preset button or the number field, from 4 to 128.
- Type the team names in seed order, seed 1 first. Add Team and Remove team change the count. Shuffle Teams draws a random order.
- Read the bracket by round. Click the winning team in a match and it moves into the next round; Reset match undoes it, and a Champion line appears once the final is decided. Print Bracket prints it. The names, count and winners are saved in this browser until you press Clear Saved Values.
Frequently asked questions
- How many matches are there in a single-elimination tournament?
- One fewer than the number of teams, because each match removes one team and one champion remains. 8 teams play 7 matches, 6 teams play 5 and 12 teams play 11. A bye is not a match.
- How does a bye work in a bracket?
- When the team count is not a power of two, the bracket has empty slots, and the team paired with an empty slot advances without playing. The empty slots go to the top seeds, and none of them are paired with each other. With 5 teams the bracket has 8 slots, seeds 1, 2 and 3 have byes and only seeds 4 and 5 play in round 1.
- How are teams seeded in a bracket?
- Seed 1 plays the last seed, seed 2 the second to last, and the pairs are placed so the top seeds sit in different parts of the bracket. In an 8-team bracket the first round is 1-8, 4-5, 2-7 and 3-6, so the top two seeds can meet only in the final. Enter the names in seed order, or use Shuffle Teams for a random order.
- How many teams can the bracket hold?
- From 4 to 128, with preset buttons for 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128. Typing 3, 129 or 12.5 shows a message and draws no bracket. The field keeps what you typed, so 12 can be entered one digit at a time.
- Does the generator record winners?
- Yes. Click a team in a match and it takes its place in the next round, which until then reads like Winner of Quarterfinal 1 / Quarterfinal 2. A team with a bye goes through on its own. Changing a result clears the later matches it fed, Reset match clears one match, and Champion shows the winner of the final. Changing the number of teams, removing a team or shuffling clears every result.
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