Esports tournament bracket
Double elimination by default, because one bad game should not end anybody's tournament. A winners bracket, the losers bracket that catches everyone it knocks out, and a grand final between them.
- Matches
- 30
- Everybody but the winner has to lose twice.
- Guaranteed matches
- 2
- Nobody goes home on one bad game.
- Brackets
- 2
- A winners bracket, a losers bracket, and a grand final between them.
- Roughly how long
- 6 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.
Why double elimination is the default here
It is the esports convention for a reason: a single-elimination bracket can send the second-best team home in round one on a draw nobody chose. Double elimination costs about twice the matches and almost never produces a winner nobody believes in.
Sixteen teams is 30 matches against a straight knockout's 16. Worth knowing before you schedule the day.
A screen for the stream, and one for the players
The projector view is a self-rotating screen showing what is live, the bracket and the recent results — sized to be read at a distance, which also makes it legible as a full-screen source in a stream. The phone view is the one to give the players.
Both read from one public endpoint with the token in the URL as the only credential, so no one needs an account to watch.
What it does not do
There is no check-in, no bracket reset in the grand final, no seeding from an external ladder and no match reporting by the players themselves. Results are entered by whoever is running it.
Common questions
Is there a bracket reset in the grand final?
No. The winners-bracket finalist and the losers-bracket finalist play one grand final and it decides the tournament.
Can players report their own scores?
Not currently. Results are entered by the organiser or whoever is running the desk.
Is it really free with no ads?
Yes, including the projector view. That is the main difference from the incumbents in this space.