Single elimination

One loss and you're out. The shortest, easiest-to-follow format.

Teams: 2 to 256
Losses to be out: 1
Length: The shortest
Option: Third-place match

IN SHORT

The essentials

Every match eliminates a team: the field is halved each round.
The bracket is sized to the smallest power of 2 that fits all registered teams; missing spots become byes in the first round.
Optionally, the two semifinal losers play for 3rd place.

Winner's path
Round match

8-team bracket: quarterfinals, semifinals, final. Each arrow follows the winner.

IN DETAIL

Mode rules

How it runs

When the tournament starts, the whole bracket is generated at once from the registered teams. A round's matches open as soon as both their teams are known.

Lose a match = eliminated on the spot.
The winner advances to the next match automatically, with no referee needed.
The tournament ends once the final is validated.

Team count that isn't a power of 2

A bracket can only be played with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32… teams. When the number of registered teams falls between two sizes, the bracket uses the next power of 2 up and the empty spots become walkovers (byes).

A team that gets a bye skips the first round and goes straight to the second.
Example: with 7 teams, the bracket has 8 spots — 3 matches in the first round and 1 bye.
Example: with 5 teams, the bracket has 8 spots — 1 match in the first round and 3 byes.

Third-place match

An option chosen when the tournament is created, only available in single elimination. It adds a match between the two semifinal losers to decide 3rd and 4th place.

Final standings

Standings follow the round reached: the champion, the runner-up, then the teams knocked out in the semifinals, in the quarterfinals, and so on. With the third-place match, 3rd and 4th place are decided on the field.

ALL MODES

Common rules

The same in every mode: match launch and match format, score reporting, forfeits. Open a rule to read it.

Match launch

A playable match doesn't start right away: at its start time (or as soon as it becomes playable if it has no schedule), it enters launch. A window then opens for the players of both teams, showing the host team and the useful contacts.

Each team confirms it's ready — captain, manager or owner; in a solo tournament, the player themselves. The assigned caster confirms too.
The match is launched once everyone is ready, when a referee forces it, or automatically after 15 minutes.
No score can be reported before the launch.

Match format

The match format (Bo — maximum number of maps — or FT — number of maps to win) is set when the tournament is created and applies to the whole tournament. Without a setting, any score can be entered (free score entry).

A score that exceeds the format, or that names no winner when the format requires one, is rejected on entry.
Draws only exist if the tournament allows them; they never apply to an elimination bracket.

Score reporting

It works the same way in every mode: each team reports its match score from the tournament page, through its captain, one of its managers or its owner (the player themselves in a solo tournament).

Two matching reports validate the match immediately.
A single report opens a 10-minute confirmation window, which only starts once a plausible series duration has passed since the launch (15 minutes per map the format allows): if the opponent doesn't dispute it, the score stands.
Two conflicting reports put the match in dispute: a referee decides and records the official score.
A referee or an admin can correct a score as long as the next round has no score entered; after that, the score is locked, for them too.

Forfeit

A referee can declare a team's forfeit on a match: the match is settled in favor of the opponent. For the forfeiting team, it's a loss like any other: in single elimination it's out, in double elimination it drops to the lower bracket, in BlueGenji's Survival it loses the format's full score and stays in the running with the pool it has left.

In Survival (cuts), Swiss and BlueGenji's Survival, a team can also withdraw from the rest of the tournament while it's in progress (or the referee can withdraw it): it's no longer paired.
Its final standing takes into account when it left.

Double forfeit

When neither team shows up, the referee declares a double forfeit: the match is closed with no winner and no score, and both teams lose it.

In elimination, both teams are out and nobody advances: the next match becomes a walkover for the other qualified team.
In Swiss and Survival (cuts), each takes a loss; in the qualifier of BlueGenji's Survival, each loses the format's full score.
In a final, a double forfeit crowns no champion: both finalists are ranked tied 2nd.

COMPARE

Other modes

Double elimination BlueGenji's Survival Survival (cuts)Swiss Multi-stage tournament