Bracket generator
Paste your teams, pick a random or seeded draw, and get a clean single-elimination bracket - byes and all - in one click.
How to make a bracket
A bracket generatortakes a list of teams or players and lays them out into a single-elimination tournament - win and you move on, lose and you're out, last one standing takes it. The only trick is seeding it fairly and handling a field that isn't a clean power of two. This does both for you.
- Add your field. Paste your teams or players, one per line. Any number works - the generator pads up to the next power of two (4, 8, 16, 32, 64) so the rounds line up.
- Pick the seeding. Random draw shuffles everyone into the bracket. Seeded keeps the order you entered - the first name is the #1 seed, and the generator spreads the top seeds apart so they can't meet until late.
- Build the bracket. One click lays out the whole knockout bracket, round by round, to the Final. If the field isn't a clean power of two, the top seeds get first-round byes automatically.
- Play it out. Fill in each winner as the games finish, or copy the matchups to your group chat. Want it to score itself? Run it as a free Trofeo pool and let the leaderboard settle it.
Seeding & byes, handled
The two things people get wrong on a paper bracket.
Seeding decides who meets whom. Standard tournament seeding pairs the #1 seed with the lowest, #2 with the next-lowest, and keeps the top seeds in opposite halves so the best two can only meet in the Final. Pick Seeded and the order you type is the seed order; pick Random draw for pure luck.
Byes handle an odd field. Only powers of two (4, 8, 16, 32, 64) fill a bracket cleanly, so when you have, say, 12 teams, the generator rounds up to 16 and gives the top four seeds a first-round bye - they skip straight to the second round. No maths, no leftover team sitting out.
Example
A 6-team field becomes an 8-slot bracket: seeds 1 and 2 get byes, seeds 3-6 play the first round (3 v 6, 4 v 5), and the two bye teams meet the winners in the semifinals.
FAQ
How does the bracket generator work?+
Paste your list of teams or players and hit build. The generator seeds the field into a single-elimination bracket - #1 meets the lowest seed, and the top seeds are spread across the draw so they only meet in later rounds. If your field isn't a power of two (8, 16, 32…), the extra top seeds get first-round byes. It's free and needs no login.
What if I don't have a power-of-two number of teams?+
No problem - that's the normal case. The generator rounds up to the next power of two and hands out byes to the top seeds, so a 6-team field becomes an 8-slot bracket with two byes, and a 12-team field becomes 16 with four byes. Everyone still plays; the byes just skip the first round.
Can I seed the bracket instead of drawing it randomly?+
Yes. Choose "Seeded" and the order you enter becomes seeds 1, 2, 3… The generator then uses standard tournament seeding so the bracket is balanced - the favourites are kept apart until the later rounds. Choose "Random draw" for a pure luck-of-the-draw bracket instead.
Is this a March Madness / playoff bracket maker?+
It works for any single-elimination bracket - March Madness, NFL/NBA playoffs, a World Cup knockout, a FIFA tournament, an office ping-pong ladder, or any last-one-standing competition. It's sport- and event-agnostic: name the entrants whatever you like.
Can I save or share the bracket?+
Copy the matchups to paste into a group chat, or screenshot the board. If you want a bracket that saves, updates, and scores itself - where everyone makes picks and a live leaderboard tracks who's winning - spin it up as a free Trofeo.live pool.
Is it free?+
Completely free, no login, no spreadsheet. Build as many brackets as you want. The only paid step is optional: turning it into a live, self-scoring prediction pool for your group.