Tournament Bracket Generator
Most free bracket makers can only handle 4, 8, 16 or 32 teams, because anything else needs byes — and byes are the part they get wrong. A six-team bracket is not six slots; it is an eight-slot bracket where the top two seeds sit out the first round. Pair the teams straight down the list instead and you hand your two best teams an extra game against each other, which is how a five seed ends up in the final. This one pads your field to the next power of two and gives the byes to the top seeds, the way every real tournament does. Seed it yourself by listing teams best-first, or let it draw at random when there is no seeding to speak of — a pickleball ladder, an office tournament, a youth bracket where nobody wants to rank the kids out loud. Then print it and fill in the winners with a pen.
Questions people ask
How do byes work in a tournament bracket?
A single-elimination bracket needs a power of two — 4, 8, 16, 32. When your field is not one, the extra slots become byes, and they go to the HIGHEST seeds: those teams skip round one and enter in round two. With six teams you get an eight-team bracket where seeds 1 and 2 have byes and seeds 3 through 6 play first. This generator does that for you and shows the bye teams already advanced, so the printed sheet reads correctly at the table.
How many teams can I use?
Any number from 2 upward. The bracket is built at the next power of two above your field, so 11 teams produce a 16-team bracket with five byes. Rounds are named automatically — Final, Semifinals, Quarterfinals — so a small bracket does not say "Round 3" where it means the final.
What order should I list my teams in?
Best first. The first line is the 1 seed, the second line the 2 seed, and so on. Seeds are then placed in standard bracket order, so the 1 seed plays the lowest seed and the 1 and 2 seeds can only meet in the final. If you have no seeding, switch to "Draw at random" and it shuffles the field for you.
Can I print the bracket?
Yes, and it is built for it. The print view drops the site navigation and the form and prints just the bracket, laid out in columns so it reflows to the page instead of being cut off at the right edge. No account, no watermark, no email.
Can I run the bracket as a pool where people pick winners?
That is a different thing, and we build it: a bracket POOL where everybody fills in their own picks, scoring runs automatically from live results, and the standings update themselves. This generator is the paper version for running the tournament itself. If you want the pool, start a Bracket contest.
We handle the selling, the collecting, the chasing and the scoring — numbers draw themselves, winners are worked out from the real scoreboard, and everyone can see the board on their phone. You keep 100% of what you raise.
Run a real bracket pool