Multi-stage tournament

Several stages in a row, each one eliminating the weakest, down to the champion.

Stages: 2 to 8
Qualification: Number or %
Formats: Can be combined
Outcome: One champion

IN SHORT

The essentials

Each stage is played in its own format and only passes its qualified teams to the next.
Qualification can be fixed (a number of teams) or adaptive (a percentage of the actual field).
The last stage decides the champion; the other teams are ranked by the furthest stage they reached, then by their rank in that stage.

Qualified teams' flow
Teams in a stage

Example: Swiss 128 → 64, Survival (cuts) 64 → 16, double elimination 16 → 1. Each stage refines the podium.

IN DETAIL

Mode rules

Stage sequence

The tournament is split into a series of numbered stages. Each stage plays independently in its format — single elimination, double elimination, Swiss or Survival (cuts) — and sets its own standings.

Only the qualified teams of stage N reach stage N+1.
Teams that don't qualify leave the tournament, their final rank set by the last stage they reached.
The last stage decides the champion and the whole final podium.

Qualification: fixed number or percentage

Each stage sets the number of teams that move on to the next. Two settings are possible:

Fixed number (e.g. 64 teams): the stage eliminates until 64 are left. If the actual field is already ≤ 64, the stage is skipped and the whole group moves on. A fixed number on a single-elimination stage is rounded down to the nearest power of 2.
Percentage (e.g. 50%): the stage adapts on the fly — if 128 teams enter, 64 move on; if 100 enter, 50 move on.

Possible combinations

Swiss and Survival (cuts) naturally trim the field and can start a cascade. Double elimination is only allowed as the final stage (it needs too many matches to be used earlier).

Workable example: Swiss → Survival (cuts) → single elimination.
Workable example: single elimination → double elimination (last stage).
Not workable: Swiss → double elimination → another stage (double elimination can only be the last stage).

Final standings

Standings are built from the top down: first by the stage reached (later = better), then by the rank within that stage.

The winner of the last stage = rank 1.
A team eliminated in stage 3 at rank 2 is ahead of a team eliminated in stage 2 at rank 1.
With the same stage and rank, ties are broken by wins and losses within the stage.

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

Single elimination Double elimination BlueGenji's Survival Survival (cuts)Swiss