Tournament Bracket Generator
Knockout bracket, league or World Cup-style groups: draw it, enter the scores and crown the champion.
Participants and format8 participants
Participants or options changed since the draw: press "New draw" to apply them.
Your bracket, schedule and standings will appear here.
Everything stays in this browser: no account, nothing is sent to a server.
A free tournament bracket generator for friends, clubs and classes
This tournament bracket generator turns a list of names into a ready-to-play competition: a knockout bracket, a league with a full schedule, or a group stage followed by a knockout round. It suits a FIFA or EA FC night, a padel or ping-pong afternoon, a chess club, an e-sport evening or school sports day.
Everything runs in your browser. The tournament is saved on your device, nobody needs an account, and you can share it with a link.
How to create a tournament in 4 steps
- Type the players or teams, one per line (2 to 64), and give the tournament a name.
- Choose a format: “Knockout”, “League” or “Groups + knockout”, then set the options (seeds, 3rd-place match, home and away, points).
- Press “Draw the tournament”: the names appear one by one in the bracket or the groups.
- Tap a match to enter its score. Winners move forward on their own, “Undo” reverts a mistake and the champion gets a celebration.
Which format to choose? Examples with 6, 8, 12 and 16 players
A knockout is quick: each match sends someone home, so it always takes one match fewer than the number of players. A league is the fairest, since everyone plays everyone, but the number of matches grows fast. Groups + knockout sits in between, like the World Cup.
| Players | Knockout | League | Groups + knockout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 5 matches, 2 byes | 15 matches, 5 matchdays | 2 groups of 3: 6 + 3 matches |
| 8 | 7 matches | 28 matches, 7 matchdays | 2 groups of 4: 12 + 3 matches |
| 12 | 11 matches, 4 byes | 66 matches, 11 matchdays | 4 groups of 3: 12 + 7 matches |
| 16 | 15 matches | 120 matches, 15 matchdays | 4 groups of 4: 24 + 7 matches |
The summary under the options shows these numbers for your own list before you draw, so you can check that the evening is long enough.
Byes and seeding explained
A bracket needs 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 places. With 12 players the generator builds a bracket of 16, and the 4 empty places become byes: 4 players go straight to the second round without playing. Byes are spread across the bracket, so two byes never meet.
Who gets them? With “Random draw”, the luck of the draw decides. With “By seed”, write *1, *2… after the strongest names: byes go to the best seeds, seed 1 meets seed 16, 8 meets 9, and seeds 1 and 2 can only meet in the final. Players without a seed are drawn at random.
A group draw like the World Cup or AFCON
In “Groups + knockout”, choose the number of groups and how many teams qualify from each. With “Seeded pots” on, pot 1 holds the best seeds, one per group, like the heads of groups at a World Cup or Africa Cup of Nations draw; pot 2 follows, and so on. With Morocco co-hosting the 2030 World Cup, your living room deserves its own draw.
Add a tag with # to keep teams apart: with “Raja #MA” and “Wydad #MA”, the two Moroccan clubs land in different groups whenever it is possible. The knockout then crosses the groups, for example group winner A against runner-up B.
Standings and tie-breaks
A win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 and a loss 0, and you can change these values. When teams are level, the order is decided by goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head results between the tied teams, then a drawing of lots made once at the draw, marked with an asterisk.
FIFA and EA FC nights and other ideas
For a console night, form duos with the random team generator, give each player a club with the random football team wheel, then let a coin flip decide who kicks off. At a padel or ping-pong club, a league with home and away keeps everyone busy; in a classroom, groups of three are quick to play.
“Share link” sends the whole tournament with its scores, “Image” creates a picture of the champion or the standings, and “Print / PDF” lays the bracket out on A4 landscape.
Is the draw really random?
Yes. Bracket placement, groups and the drawing of lots use your browser’s cryptographic random generator (crypto.getRandomValues), with no hidden weighting and no server involved. Our page on how we keep every draw fair explains the method.
Frequently asked questions
How many matches does a tournament take?
A knockout always takes one match fewer than the number of players: 7 matches for 8 players, 15 for 16, plus one if you add a 3rd-place match. A league takes n × (n − 1) ÷ 2 matches: 28 for 8 players, 45 for 10, twice as many with home and away. The generator shows the total before the draw.
What is a bye in a tournament bracket?
A bye is an empty place in the bracket. When the number of players is not 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64, some players go straight to the next round without playing. With 6 players, 2 byes complete a bracket of 8. They go to the best seeds, or are drawn at random when nobody is seeded.
Knockout or league: which should I choose?
Pick a knockout when time is short or the group is large: 16 players finish in 15 matches. Pick a league when you want every player to play everyone and the ranking to reward consistency, ideal for 4 to 8 players. Groups + knockout guarantees several matches for each player before the excitement of a final.
How does the World Cup-style group draw work?
With “Seeded pots”, pot 1 holds the best seeds, one per group, then each following pot gives one team to every group. Add a tag such as #MA after teams from the same country or league, and the generator keeps them in different groups whenever the pots allow it.
What happens when two teams are level on points?
They are separated by goal difference, then goals scored, then their head-to-head results. If they are still level, a drawing of lots made at the draw decides, and the table marks those rows with an asterisk. You can change the points for a win, a draw and a loss before drawing.
Can my friends follow the bracket on their phones?
Yes. “Share link” copies a link that holds the whole tournament and its scores; whoever opens it sees the same bracket. The link is a snapshot: after new results, share it again. “Image” creates a picture of the champion or the standings for a group chat.
Updated on by the LuckyWheel team