Bracket maker
A single-elimination bracket: lose once and you're out, and the last team left is the champion. This maker places your teams by seed, so the 1 and 2 seeds can only meet in the final, and gives the top seeds a bye when you don't have 4, 8, 16 or 32 teams.
Free. No signup, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
How to use it
- Replace the example teams with yours, one per line, best seed first. It takes up to 32.
- Tick Play a third-place game if the semifinal losers play for third. Tick Reseed after each round if the teams left are paired again, best against worst.
- Check the bracket under Your bracket. On a phone it scrolls sideways.
- As each game finishes, press the team that won. It moves on to its next game. Press the winner again to take the pick back.
- Press Copy as text to paste the bracket into a message. Do this before you leave the page, because nothing is kept.
These are example teams. Replace them with yours.
6 teams
Your bracket
6 teams, 5 games. Seeds 1 and 2 have a bye.
Quarterfinals
- 1Riverside RoversBye
Bye
Pick the winner
- 2Harbour SharksBye
Bye
Pick the winner
Semifinals
- 1Riverside RoversWinner of Quarterfinal 2
Waiting on earlier results
- 2Harbour SharksWinner of Quarterfinal 4
Waiting on earlier results
Final
Final
Winner of Semifinal 1Winner of Semifinal 2Waiting on earlier results
How it's worked out
- Seeds go where a league puts them: the 1 seed plays the lowest seed, and 1 and 2 start on opposite halves, so they can only meet in the final. 8 teams open 1 v 8, 4 v 5, 2 v 7 and 3 v 6.
- With a number of teams that isn't 4, 8, 16 or 32, the bracket is drawn at the next size up and the top seeds get a bye into the second round: with 6 teams, seeds 1 and 2 have byes.
- Every team but the champion loses once, so 6 teams play 5 games, and one more with a third-place game.
- In each game the better seed is listed second and marked Home, the way a league sets up a playoff game.
- Reseeding pairs the teams left after each round again, best seed against worst, so a round's games are only known once every game before it has a winner.
- Nothing you type here is sent anywhere or kept. Copy the bracket before you leave.
Running playoffs at the end of your season?
A LeagueBucket league draws this same bracket from its final standings, with your tiebreakers deciding the seeds, fills in each round as the scores go in, and shows it on your league's page for everyone to follow. Playoffs are on the Commissioner plan, which isn't on sale yet. The free plan runs the regular season and its standings.