What is a double elimination bracket?
A double elimination bracket is a knockout where a player is only out after losing twice. Everyone starts in the winners bracket. A loss sends you to the losers bracket, and a second loss ends your tournament. The winners bracket champion and the losers bracket champion meet in the grand final.
It is fairer than single elimination because one bad match, a slipped grip, a late start or a nervous first round, does not end your day. It also guarantees everybody at least two matches, which matters when people have travelled to be there.
How the losers bracket works
The losers bracket is where players go after their first defeat. The first round pairs off the players who lost in round one of the winners bracket. From then on, each round of the winners bracket drops its losers in to meet the survivors of the losers bracket, and the losers bracket winnows itself down to one player, the losers bracket champion.
This generator draws that structure for any size, so you do not have to work out who drops where. Waiting spots say where they come from, such as "Loser of match 7", so you can follow the flow.
The grand final and the reset
The winners bracket champion arrives with no losses, and the losers bracket champion arrives with one. If the winners side wins the grand final, the tournament is over. If the losers side wins, both players now have one loss, so many organisers have them play again. That rematch is the grand final reset. Switch it on or off above to match your rules.
Seeds and byes
The first name you enter is seed 1. In round one, seed 1 plays the lowest seed, seed 2 plays the second lowest, and so on, with the top seeds placed on opposite sides of the bracket so they cannot meet until late. When the number of players is not 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64, the top seeds get byes: free passes into round two. Press Shuffle for a random draw instead of seeding by ranking.
Running the bracket
Matches are numbered in an order that can always be played one after another. The match to play next glows red with an "Up next" tag, and moves on as you click each winner. For several tables or courts, choose how many and that many matches glow at once, each tagged with its table. Undo and redo are there if you click the wrong name, and changing an earlier result clears everything that depended on it.
How many matches?
A double elimination bracket for N players takes 2N minus 2 matches, plus one more if the grand final needs a reset. Single elimination takes N minus 1.
| Players | Single elimination | Double elimination |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 | 6 (7 with a reset) |
| 8 | 7 | 14 (15) |
| 16 | 15 | 30 (31) |
| 32 | 31 | 62 (63) |
| 64 | 63 | 126 (127) |
Any sport or game
The generator does not care what is being played. Use it for arm wrestling, table tennis, pool, darts, chess, esports, martial arts, a school sports day or a board game night. It was built for arm wrestling tournaments, where double elimination is the standard, and it handles left and right hand brackets for that sport. For arm wrestling there is also a dedicated page.
Questions
Is this double elimination bracket generator free?
Yes. It is free, needs no account and nothing you type is sent to a server. Your bracket is saved in the link, so you can reopen or share it by copying the address.
How many players does it support?
From 2 to 128 players. When the number is not a power of two, the top seeds get byes in the first round.
How many matches are in a double elimination bracket?
For N players, 2N minus 2 matches, plus one extra if the grand final reset is played. For 8 players that is 14 or 15, and for 16 players it is 30 or 31.
What is the grand final reset?
If the losers bracket champion wins the grand final, both finalists have one loss, so they play once more. Turn the reset off if your rules use a single grand final.
Can I use it for a single elimination bracket?
Yes. Switch the format to Single for a knockout bracket, with an optional third place match.
Can I print the bracket?
Yes. Press Print or PDF for a clean black on white version that fits a landscape page, and choose Save as PDF to keep a file.
How do I run several tables at once?
Choose the number of tables above the bracket. That many matches glow at once, each tagged with its table, and the Matches view lists them as large buttons.