Bracket format
LiveDouble Elimination
Two losses to be out.
Free double-elim bracket maker. Builds the Winners Bracket, the Losers Bracket, and the Grand Final, with drop-in rounds wired automatically. The trade-off vs single elim: about twice the games, but nobody gets sent home on one bad set.
Walkthrough
How this format works
Winners Bracket
every team that loses drops down
Losers Bracket
A Winners Bracket up top and a Losers Bracket below. One loss drops you down, a second loss puts you out.
Build one step by step
From an empty editor to a finished, printable double elim bracket.
- 1
Add your teams
Enter every team or player. Double elimination handles 4 up to 64 entries, odd counts included.
- 2
Choose double elimination
In Step 1 of the editor, switch the format to Double elimination. It will build a Winners Bracket and a Losers Bracket.
- 3
Generate both brackets
Generate wires up the Winners Bracket, the Losers Bracket, and the Grand Final. Teams that lose drop into the Losers Bracket at the correct round for you.
- 4
Score across both sides
Score the Winners Bracket games. Each loser falls to the Losers Bracket and keeps playing. Lose there too and that team is eliminated.
- 5
Play the Grand Final
The Winners Bracket champion meets the Losers Bracket champion. Print landscape so both brackets fit on one page.
About
About this format
Double elim is the format you want when single elim feels too brutal. Lose once, you fall into the Losers Bracket. Lose there too and you're out. The LB champion meets the WB champion in the Grand Final. It's the standard at EVO and almost every FGC major, in NCAA baseball regionals, and at any club tournament that doesn't want to crown a champion who just got lucky with the draw. The math: roughly 2N − 2 matches for N teams. So a 5-team event runs in 9 games, an 8-team in 14, a 16-team in 30.
Features
What you get
- Full Winners Bracket + Losers Bracket + Grand Final
- WB losers drop into the LB at the correct round, automatically
- Drop-in and consolidation rounds alternate (you don't have to think about it)
- Score-based winner advancing across both brackets
- Optional two-legged Grand Final for home-and-away play
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How does the Losers Bracket actually work?
First LB round pairs the round-1 losers from the WB. After that, rounds alternate. Drop-in rounds bring in the next batch of WB losers, consolidation rounds pair LB winners against each other. The last drop-in is the LB Final.
Is the bracket reset supported?
Not auto-generated. Most casual tournaments skip the 2nd Grand Final entirely. If the LB champion beats the WB champion once, they're declared the winner. Add a manual game if you want the full reset.
Does this work for odd counts like 5 or 6 teams?
Yes. A 5-team double elim runs in 9 games with one extra balancing round; 6 teams runs in 11. The bracket handles the byes for you.
Related bracket formats
Ready to build a double elim bracket?
Open the editor, customize teams and seeds, score matches as you play.
Open double-elim bracket maker