Tournament brackets

The format is chosen before the bracket exists

Every tournament has a bracket format, set on the tournament form in the ACP or on the site's create and edit pages. It decides what Generate Bracket builds:

• Single elimination — lose once and you are out.
• Double elimination — lose once and you drop into the losers bracket; lose twice and you are out.
• Points race — no bracket at all. Everyone races together and the highest total of points wins (see below).

Tournaments run from a control panel (CS2 Wingman, KTANE, Beat Saber, trivia) and tabletop matches don't use this bracket at all, so the format does nothing there.

Seeding is random, from whoever is checked in

Generate Bracket shuffles everyone who hasn't withdrawn. If staff have checked anyone in, only checked-in entrants are seeded. The draw is padded to the next power of two with byes, and a bye advances on its own. Single elimination needs 2 entrants; double elimination needs 3.

Double elimination ends in a grand final

The winners bracket champion meets the losers bracket champion. If the winners champion wins, it's over. If the losers champion wins, both have now lost once, so a reset match decides it. The reset only appears on the page when it is needed.

A bye in round one has no loser, so some losers bracket matches end up with one player or nobody. Those resolve themselves and show as byes.

Placements go straight to awards and the Guild Cup

When the deciding match is recorded the tournament completes and awards are created. Single elimination gives 1st, 2nd and a shared 3rd to both semifinal losers. Double elimination gives 1st, 2nd and a single 3rd to whoever lost the losers final.

A points race is decided by total points

Games like Mario Kart put every player on the track at once, so a points race has no bracket and no Generate button. The tournament page shows a Race Results table instead: one row per player, one column per race (4 unless the tournament form says otherwise). Staff type the points the game shows after each race and press Save points; the table ranks by total as it fills up, and a tie shares the place. Only checked-in players race once anyone is checked in. Points races are for singles tournaments.

Save & finalize needs points for every player in every race. It awards 1st, 2nd and 3rd and completes the tournament, exactly as a bracket's deciding match does.

When something is wrong

Wrong points race result? Press Reopen to edit points. It removes the awards and re-opens the tournament but keeps the points, so correct the cell and finalize again.

Wrong result? Press Undo on the match. It works while the matches the winner and loser moved into are still unplayed; undo those first otherwise. Byes that only happened because of that result undo with it. Undoing the deciding match removes the awards and re-opens the tournament.

Wrong format? Change it on the tournament form, then press Regenerate Bracket. A bracket already generated keeps its shape until then, and regenerating discards every result.