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Tournament Bracket Generator

Paste your players, pick single or double elimination, and click through the rounds. Seeding and byes are handled for any field size — 5 entrants or 128. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, and it works on paper too.

Your bracket

8 players · single elimination · 0/7 played

8-player single elimination bracket · teamupgg.com/bracket-generator

Click a name to advance them. Winners move up automatically; use Undo on a played match to take a result back.

Quarterfinals
Quarterfinal 1 Pick winner
Quarterfinal 2 Pick winner
Quarterfinal 3 Pick winner
Quarterfinal 4 Pick winner
Semifinals
Semifinal 1
Winner of Quarterfinal
Winner of Quarterfinal
Semifinal 2
Winner of Quarterfinal
Winner of Quarterfinal
Final
Final
Winner of Semifinal
Winner of Semifinal
01 Four steps

How to Make a Tournament Bracket

1

Paste your entrants

One name per line, or a comma-separated list. Players or teams — the bracket does not care which. Up to 256.

2

Pick a format

Single elimination for a fast one-sitting event, double elimination when a single bad draw should not end someone’s day. Add a third-place match if you want one.

3

Seed it, or draw at random

Keep your order and the first name is the #1 seed, or let the tool shuffle. Byes for an odd field size are handled either way.

4

Click the winners

Every name in a live match is a button. Winners advance on click, losers drop where the format says they drop, and Undo takes a result back.

02 The draw

Seeding and Byes, Explained

Top seeds meet last, by construction

A bracket is not filled 1-vs-2, 3-vs-4 down the page. Seeds are placed so that every round pairs the strongest remaining entrant with the weakest, and so the two best are in opposite halves. For an eight-slot draw the order down the page is:

1 vs8 ·4 vs5 ·2 vs7 ·3 vs6

#1 plays #8, #4 plays #5, #2 plays #7, #3 plays #6 — and #1 and #2 cannot meet before the final. Every bracket this tool draws uses that placement, at every size.

Byes, when your field is not a power of two

A knockout bracket has to halve cleanly, so 12 entrants go into a 16-slot draw and the four empty slots become byes. Those byes go to the top seeds — the convention everywhere from tennis to majors — so the strongest entrants skip round one instead of a random player getting a free pass. They resolve the moment the bracket is drawn, so round two is already populated and there is no empty match to click past.

03 Pick a format

Single vs Double Elimination

Single eliminationDouble elimination
Matches for 16 entrants1530 (plus a possible bracket reset)
Cost of one bad gameYou are outYou drop to the losers bracket
Best forOne evening, a big field, a tight scheduleA field where seeding is uncertain and results should be earned twice
Minimum field24

Single elimination finds a winner in the fewest matches any format can — N − 1, provably optimal — and it does that by throwing away information about everyone else. That trade-off is worth understanding before you pick, and it is also why a season of brackets never adds up to a ranking: a bracket is a selection algorithm.

04 When a page is not enough

Run It As a Real Tournament

This page draws and advances the bracket with the exact same code that runs live Team Up events — but everything here stays in your browser. A real tournament adds the parts a static bracket cannot do.

Sign-ups that run themselves

Players register from a button in Discord or on your league page. Set a cap and an unregister deadline and stop chasing a spreadsheet.

Seeding from real ratings

Link a leaderboard and one click seeds the draw by Elo, so the #1 seed is the player who earned it rather than the one who signed up first.

A live page spectators can follow

Every event gets a public bracket page with an up-next queue, a results feed and final standings — no Discord account needed to watch.

Results that feed the ladder

Recorded matches write to match history and move ratings, so a deep tournament run counts toward the season, not just the trophy.

How Team Up tournaments work Tournament docs How to run a Discord tournament

Bracket Generator FAQ

Seeding, byes, formats and what happens to your bracket when you close the tab.

How do I make a tournament bracket?
Paste your player or team names into the list — one per line, or comma-separated — pick single or double elimination, and the bracket is drawn instantly. Click a name to advance them; winners move into the next round automatically. Nothing is submitted anywhere, so you can rebuild the draw as many times as you like.

What if I do not have exactly 8, 16 or 32 players?
Any number works. A bracket has to be a power of two, so the draw pads up to the next one — 12 players go into a 16-slot bracket — and the four empty slots become byes. Byes are given to the top seeds, which is the standard convention: the strongest entrants skip round one instead of a random player getting a free pass. Byes resolve automatically, so round two is ready the moment the bracket is drawn.

How does bracket seeding work?
Seeds are placed 1-vs-N and then split so that the best entrants meet as late as possible: in an 8-player draw the order is 1, 8, 4, 5, 2, 7, 3, 6, which puts #1 and #2 in opposite halves and guarantees they can only meet in the final. Choose "As entered" and the first name on your list is the #1 seed; choose "Random draw" and the tool shuffles the field before applying the same placement.

What is the difference between single and double elimination?
In single elimination one loss ends your tournament, and the whole event is decided in N-1 matches — the fewest possible. Double elimination gives everyone a second life: a first loss drops you into a losers bracket, and only a second knocks you out, so the winners bracket, losers bracket and grand final together take about twice as many matches. Double elimination is fairer to a strong player who draws badly; single elimination is faster and easier to run in one sitting.

Can I print the bracket or save it as a PDF?
Yes. The Print / PDF button prints just the bracket — the page furniture, buttons and instructions are dropped — so you can pin a paper bracket on the wall or save it as a PDF from your browser's print dialog. There is also a Copy results button that produces a plain-text summary of every round and the champion, ready to paste into Discord.

Is the bracket generator free? Do I need an account?
It is completely free and there is no sign-up, no email and no login. The bracket is built in your browser and never leaves it.

Will my bracket still be there if I close the tab?
Yes — the bracket, the roster and every result you have clicked are saved in your browser's local storage, so reopening the page picks up where you left off. Because it is stored locally rather than on a server, it does not follow you to another device and is not shareable by link. If you need a bracket other people can watch live, run it as a real tournament instead.

How do I run this as a real tournament with sign-ups and live standings?
Team Up runs the same bracket engine inside Discord, with self-serve registration buttons, automatic seeding from your leaderboard Elo, a public live bracket page anyone can follow, and results that feed your ratings. It is free, and this generator uses the exact same draw and advancement code, so the bracket you plan here is the bracket you will run. See the tournament docs for the full workflow.

Your next event, without the spreadsheet

Add Team Up to your Discord and run the same bracket with registration, seeding, a live public page and ratings that carry over between events. Free to start.

Add Team Up to Discord Try the Elo calculator See pricing