Format breakdown
Single Elimination
A seeded knockout bracket. Non-power-of-two fields receive automatic byes without phantom entrants.
- Entrant range
- 4–32
- Battles at 8
- 7
- If tiebreak needed
- +0
- Total rounds
- 3
Counts recalculate live for the entrant count selected below — 8 entrants play 7 battles.
The rules
- 1One loss eliminates an entrant.
- 2Higher seeds receive byes first when needed.
- 3The last match winner is champion.
Stages
Knockout rounds
Straight bracket, no mercy.
Grand final
Winner takes all.
Live diagram
How the bracket runs
Change the entrant count to see exactly how BracketLive wires every battle for this format.
Knockout rounds
Straight bracket, no mercy. 6 battles
Round 1
4 matches
Round 1 · Match 1
Entrant 1
vs
Entrant 2
Round 1 · Match 2
Entrant 3
vs
Entrant 4
Round 1 · Match 3
Entrant 5
vs
Entrant 6
Round 1 · Match 4
Entrant 7
vs
Entrant 8
Round 2
2 matches · decider
Round 2 · Match 1
Winner M1-1
vs
Winner M1-2
Round 2 · Match 2
Winner M1-3
vs
Winner M1-4
Bracket champion
Advances to the final
Grand final
Winner takes all. 1 battle
Grand final
Winner M2-1
vs
Winner M2-2
Winner = champion
How it works, step by step
- 1
Seeded knockout
8 entrants are paired by seed. Odd fields give the top seeds a bye instead of adding phantom entrants, so nobody plays a ghost.
- 2
7 battles, 7 eliminations
Every battle eliminates exactly one entrant, so a field of 8 always resolves in 7 battles.
- 3
The final
The last battle standing crowns the champion outright.
Key rules
- Win = advance to the next round.
- Lose = eliminated immediately.
- One entrant stands tall as champion after 7 battles.
- Every entrant plays at least 1 battle — no phantom or bye-only entrants.