Badminton tournament draw
A draw for whatever the entry list turns out to be, with the byes placed on the seeds rather than scattered, and a draw sheet on the hall screen that fills itself in as results come back to the desk.
- Matches
- 16
- Including the third-place match.
- Rounds
- 4
- Round of 16 → Quarter-finals → Semi-finals → Final
- Byes
- 0
- 16 is a power of two, so nobody sits out round one.
- Roughly how long
- 3 h 15 min on 2 courts
- Allowing 25 minutes a match, courts running in parallel.
Free, and there is no account to make first. About a minute to the QR code.
The draw sheet is readable before it is played
A badminton draw is mostly empty on the morning of the tournament, and the empty half is what everybody stands and looks at. Every position that does not have a name yet carries its label — "Winner QF1" — so the sheet reads as a plan rather than a grid of blanks.
It goes on a screen rather than on paper on a wall, and it updates as the desk enters results, which saves the walk over to write a name in a box.
Byes go to the seeds
Entry lists are never a power of two. The bracket is drawn at the next one up and the spare positions become byes, placed at the top of the draw so the seeded players get them. That is the convention, and it is also the only placement that does not hand a free round to whoever happened to land next to a gap.
Common questions
Can I run several events on one day?
Each event is its own tournament — singles, doubles, mixed — and each gets its own link and screen. There is no cap on how many you run.
Does it handle byes automatically?
Yes. Enter the entry list and the bracket is sized up to the next power of two with the byes placed on the seeds.