Format breakdown
Champion's Gauntlet
The winner stays in the main gauntlet. Every defeated entrant gets one second-chance run before the bracket champions meet.
- Entrant range
- 4–32
- Battles at 8
- 14
- If tiebreak needed
- +1
- Total rounds
- 6
Counts recalculate live for the entrant count selected below — 8 entrants play 14 battles, plus 1 only if the reset is triggered.
The rules
- 1The main-match winner stays for the next challenger.
- 2A second loss eliminates an entrant.
- 3The final resets only if the second-chance champion wins the first final.
Stages
Main gauntlet
Win and stay, lose and drop.
Second chance
One last path back.
Grand final
Bracket champions collide.
Live diagram
How the bracket runs
Change the entrant count to see exactly how BracketLive wires every battle for this format.
Main gauntlet
Win and stay, lose and drop. 7 battles
Start
Defending
Entrant 1
Winner stays on top
Battle 1
Entrant 1
vs
Entrant 2
Loser drops to losers bracket
Winner stays on top
Battle 2
Winner G1
vs
Entrant 3
Loser drops to losers bracket
Winner stays on top
Battle 3
Winner G2
vs
Entrant 4
Loser drops to losers bracket
Winner stays on top
Battle 4
Winner G3
vs
Entrant 5
Loser drops to losers bracket
Winner stays on top
Battle 5
Winner G4
vs
Entrant 6
Loser drops to losers bracket
Winner stays on top
Battle 6
Winner G5
vs
Entrant 7
Loser drops to losers bracket
Winner stays on top
Battle 7
Winner G6
vs
Entrant 8
Loser drops to losers bracket
Last entrant standing after battle 7
Champion
Second chance
One last path back. 6 battles
Round 1
3 matches
Round 1 · Match 1
Loser G1
vs
Loser G2
Round 1 · Match 2
Loser G3
vs
Loser G4
Round 1 · Match 3
Loser G5
vs
Loser G6
Round 2
2 matches
Round 2 · Match 1
Winner L1-1
vs
Winner L1-2
Round 2 · Match 2
Winner L1-3
vs
Loser G7
Round 3
1 match · decider
Second-chance final
Winner L2-1
vs
Winner L2-2
Losers bracket champion
Earns a shot at the top
Grand final
Bracket champions collide. 2 battles
Grand final
Winner G7
vs
Winner L3-1
Winner = champion
If the challenger wins
Grand final · Reset
Winner F1
vs
Loser F1
Sudden death · both sides hold one loss
How it works, step by step
- 1
Seed 1 starts on top
Seed 1 is the defending champion. Seeds 2 through 8 line up as challengers in seed order.
- 2
7 gauntlet battles
Each challenger steps up once. Win and you stay on top; lose and you are dropped into the losers bracket. Every entrant gets exactly one shot at the throne.
- 3
Losers bracket champion
The losers bracket runs until one entrant remains. That survivor earns the shot at the undefeated champion.
- 4
Final — and a reset if needed
If the undefeated side wins the first final, it is over. If the challenger wins, both sides hold one loss and a sudden-death reset decides the crown.
Key rules
- Win = stay on top for the next challenger.
- Lose = drop to the losers bracket (first loss only).
- Lose again = eliminated on the second loss.
- One entrant stands tall as champion after 14 battles (15 if the reset is triggered).
- Every entrant plays at least 1 battle — no phantom or bye-only entrants.