Tournament Bracket Generator
Build a single-elimination tournament bracket from a list of names, with automatic seeding and byes.
- Participants
- 0
- Bracket size
- 0
- Byes
- 0
- Rounds
- 0
- Matches
- 0
Click a name to advance them. Click again to undo.
How it works
Paste your player or team names, one per line, and a single-elimination bracket is drawn instantly. The bracket is padded up to the next power of two (4, 8, 16, 32…) and the extra slots become byes, which are handed to the top seeds so nobody strong meets early. Pairings use the standard tournament seeding order — in an eight-team bracket that is 1 v 8, 4 v 5, 2 v 7 and 3 v 6, so the top two seeds can only meet in the final. A single-elimination event always needs exactly one match fewer than the number of entrants: 16 players means 15 matches.
Choose As entered to treat line 1 as the number-one seed, Reverse order to flip that, or Random draw for an unseeded open draw — the draw seed number makes a random draw reproducible, so the same seed always gives the same bracket. Tick the third-place playoff to add a match between the two losing semi-finalists. Click any name to advance them; the winner is carried forward automatically and later picks that no longer make sense are cleared. Copy the bracket as plain text, or download it as a text bracket or a CSV match schedule for a spreadsheet.
Everything runs in your browser with plain JavaScript — no accounts, no ads, no uploads and no tracking. Your participant names never leave the device, and the page keeps working offline once it has loaded.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make a tournament bracket?
Paste your players or teams one per line and the bracket is drawn instantly. The field is padded up to the next power of two — 4, 8, 16, 32 — and the spare slots become byes given to the top seeds. Pairings follow the standard mirrored seeding order, so an eight-team bracket is 1 v 8, 4 v 5, 2 v 7 and 3 v 6, which keeps the top two seeds apart until the final. Click a name to advance them, then copy the bracket or download it as text or a CSV match schedule.
What is a bye in a tournament bracket?
A bye is an empty first-round slot: the participant paired with it advances to round two without playing. Byes appear whenever the number of entrants is not a power of two — 6 entrants in an 8-slot bracket means 2 byes — and they are always awarded to the highest seeds so the strongest entrants are not knocked out early. This generator allocates them for you and marks the unplayed matches as byes rather than numbering them.
How many matches are in a single-elimination tournament?
Exactly one fewer than the number of entrants, because every match eliminates one participant and only the champion is never eliminated. So 8 players means 7 matches, 16 players means 15, and 24 players means 23 — byes do not change the total. Adding a third-place playoff between the two losing semi-finalists adds one more match, which the tool counts for you.