A free tournament bracket generator for knockouts and leagues
This tournament bracket generator turns a list of teams or players into a ready-to-play draw. Choose a single elimination knockout, a double elimination bracket where everyone gets a second chance, or a round robin league fixture list in which every team meets every other. Seeds are placed the standard way and byes are handed out correctly when the number of entrants is not 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64.
Click a name to send it through to the next round; the bracket fills itself in, a champion is crowned at the end, and the whole thing prints on A4 or Letter or downloads as a sharp vector PDF or PNG for a noticeboard, group chat or the club website.
It suits school sports days, office table-tennis ladders, esports nights, chess clubs, five-a-side leagues and cricket or kabaddi tournaments. Names and results stay in your browser.
How to use the Tournament Bracket Generator
- Pick the format: Single elimination, Double elimination or Round robin.
- Type or paste the teams, one per line. With Seeding: As listed the first name is seed 1; choose Random draw and press Shuffle for an open draw.
- Add options — a third-place match, a grand-final reset, or for a round robin home and away, the fixture order, round dates and points for a win — and an optional tournament name.
- Play the matches: click the winner’s name in each box. Click again to undo; later rounds that depended on it are cleared automatically.
- Choose paper size and orientation, then Print bracket, Download PDF or Download PNG. Copy fixtures gives a plain-text list for messaging apps.
Tournament Bracket Generator features
Correct seeding and byes
Standard 1 v N, 2 v N−1 placement, so the top two seeds can only meet in the final; byes go to the highest seeds and advance them automatically.
Three formats
Single elimination with an optional third-place match, double elimination with a full losers bracket and optional reset, and round robin with home-and-away.
Click to advance
Winners move on as you click; changing an old result clears only the matches that depended on it.
Printable bracket
Connector lines, match numbers and seeds on a vector PDF (A4, Letter, A5 or Legal, portrait or landscape) or a PNG at 150 or 300 dpi.
League fixture generator
Round-robin fixtures from Berger tables, so home and away alternate; optional dates for each round; standings with 3 or 2 points for a win.
Private
Everything is generated in your browser and saved only on this device.
How byes and seeding work
A knockout bracket needs a power of two — 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 slots. With 6 entrants the bracket has 8 slots, so 2 byes are needed: seeds 1 and 2 go straight through to round two, and seeds 3–6 play in round one. The rule is simply: byes = bracket size − entrants, given to the top seeds.
Seed positions are built by repeatedly pairing seed s with seed (2k + 1) − s: for 8 slots the first-round order is 1 v 8, 4 v 5, 2 v 7, 3 v 6. If the higher seed always wins, the semi-finals are 1 v 4 and 2 v 3. A random draw shuffles the list first, then applies the same positions.
| Entrants | Bracket size | Byes | Single-elim matches | Round-robin matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 15 |
| 10 | 16 | 6 | 9 | 45 |
| 12 | 16 | 4 | 11 | 66 |
| 20 | 32 | 12 | 19 | 190 |
| 24 | 32 | 8 | 23 | 276 |
Single vs double elimination vs round robin
- Single elimination: one loss and you are out. Fast — n teams need n − 1 matches.
- Double elimination: a first loss drops you into the losers bracket; a second loss ends your run. The winners-bracket champion meets the losers-bracket champion in the grand final. With the reset option, if the losers-bracket side wins, a deciding second final is played so both finalists have lost once. About twice as many matches.
- Round robin: everyone plays everyone — n(n − 1) ÷ 2 matches. Fixtures follow the Berger tables used for chess (FIDE): one team stays fixed and the rest move round, so every team alternates home and away with at most one back-to-back pair; a simple rotation is also offered. With an odd number of teams one side rests each round. Best for leagues and group stages; ties on points here are split by wins, then by list order — apply your own tie-breaker (for cricket, the net run rate calculator).
Tips for running the day
- Seed by last season’s results or a ranking; use a random draw when nobody has a ranking.
- Need balanced sides first? Split players with the team generator, or pick who starts with the random name picker.
- Print one copy in landscape for the wall and share the PDF, then update the online bracket after every match.
Tournament Bracket Generator FAQ
How do I make a tournament bracket with an odd number of teams?
Type all the teams in. The tournament bracket generator rounds the bracket up to the next power of two and gives the spare slots to the top seeds as byes, so 7 teams get one bye and 5 teams get three.
How many matches are in a knockout tournament?
Always one fewer than the number of entrants in single elimination, because every match removes one team: 16 teams need 15 matches. Double elimination needs about 2n − 2, or 2n − 1 with a reset final.
How does the losers bracket work in double elimination?
Teams that lose in the winners bracket drop into the losers bracket, where they meet each other and the next group of drop-outs. Drop-ins are placed in reverse order on alternate rounds to reduce early rematches.
Can I make a round robin fixture list?
Yes. This fixture generator gives every round with byes for an odd number of teams and balanced home and away; tick home and away for a double round robin, add a first round date to date every round, and record results to build the standings.
Can I print the bracket or save it as a PDF?
Yes. Pick A4, Letter, A5 or Legal in portrait or landscape and press Print bracket, Download PDF (vector) or Download PNG. Double elimination prints the losers bracket on a second page.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No. The bracket is built and saved in your browser only. Characters outside the standard PDF fonts are replaced by “?” in the PDF; the PNG keeps them.