Knockout draws: seeding, byes and bracket sizes
A knockout is the quickest way to find a winner: lose once and you're out. With 16 players it takes just 15 matches. But a knockout is only fair if the draw is right. Put the two best players in the same quarter and one of them goes out early; get the byes wrong and some players play one match more than others. This guide explains how a proper knockout draw is built.
Bracket size and byes
Each round halves the field, so a clean knockout needs 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 entries. With any other number, round up to the next of those sizes and give the missing places to byes: an entry drawn against a bye goes straight through to the second round.
| Entries | Bracket size | Byes | First-round matches | Total matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 10 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| 13 | 16 | 3 | 5 | 12 |
| 20 | 32 | 12 | 4 | 19 |
| 24 | 32 | 8 | 8 | 23 |
Two rules are worth remembering. A knockout always has one match fewer than the number of entries, because every match eliminates exactly one entry and all but one must go. And the byes all fall in the first round, so from the second round on the bracket is full.
Who gets the byes
Byes go to the top seeds. Think of a bye as a match against an imaginary opponent ranked below everyone else: in a 16-place bracket with 13 players, seeds 1, 2 and 3 would have met the non-existent players 16, 15 and 14, so those three get the byes. This rewards ranking, and it keeps the byes spread across the bracket instead of bunched in one half.
Where the seeds go
Seeding keeps the strongest entries apart until the late rounds. In a 16-place bracket the standard order of the lines, top to bottom, is:
1, 16, 8, 9, 4, 13, 5, 12, 2, 15, 7, 10, 3, 14, 6, 11
Read it in pairs to get the first round: 1 v 16, 8 v 9, 4 v 13, 5 v 12, 2 v 15, 7 v 10, 3 v 14 and 6 v 11. In each pair the two seeds add up to 17. The pattern guarantees that, if the seeds win, seeds 1 and 2 can only meet in the final, the top four only in the semi-finals and the top eight only in the quarter-finals. Seeds 1 and 2 sit at opposite ends of the draw. Seed 4 is in seed 1's half and seed 3 in seed 2's half, so the expected semi-finals are 1 v 4 and 2 v 3.
An 8-place bracket uses 1, 8, 4, 5, 2, 7, 3, 6; a 32-place bracket extends the same pattern.
A worked example: 13 players
Thirteen players enter a club knockout, seeded 1 to 13 by ranking points. The bracket has 16 places, so there are 3 byes.
| Line pair | First round |
|---|---|
| 1 v 16 | Seed 1 – bye |
| 8 v 9 | Seed 8 v seed 9 |
| 4 v 13 | Seed 4 v seed 13 |
| 5 v 12 | Seed 5 v seed 12 |
| 2 v 15 | Seed 2 – bye |
| 7 v 10 | Seed 7 v seed 10 |
| 3 v 14 | Seed 3 – bye |
| 6 v 11 | Seed 6 v seed 11 |
Five first-round matches leave eight players for the quarter-finals. In total there are 12 matches, 13 with a third-place play-off.
Seed everyone, or seed the top few and draw the rest?
Big events usually seed only the top quarter of the field and draw the rest at random into the remaining lines; this keeps the favourites apart while giving everyone else a lottery. A club event with reliable ranking points can seed the whole field, which gives the best chance of close matches in every round. If nobody has a ranking, a fully random draw is fair, but expect the occasional lopsided early match.
Whatever you choose, one human check is worth doing before publishing: club-mates, training partners or siblings meeting in the first round. Most organisers swap one of them with a player of similar seeding in the neighbouring line. Our tournament manager lets you swap any two positions in any round before those matches are played, and redraws the bracket.
Third place, and playing off every place
A plain knockout decides 1st and 2nd; the two losing semi-finalists share 3rd, the four losing quarter-finalists share 5th, and so on. Two common extras:
- A third-place match between the losing semi-finalists. One extra match, and nobody shares a medal.
- A progressive knockout, where losers keep playing for the lower places. Losers of the quarter-finals play for 5th to 8th, losers of the first round for 9th to 16th, and so on, until every place is decided.
| 16 players | Matches | Matches per player | Places decided |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single knockout | 15 | 1 to 4 | 1st and 2nd (then shared) |
| With third-place match | 16 | 1 to 4 | 1st to 4th |
| Progressive (every place) | 32 | exactly 4 | 1st to 16th |
| Round robin | 120 | 15 | 1st to 16th |
The progressive knockout is a favourite for junior events and social tournaments: everyone gets the same number of matches, most of them against players of similar standard, and every player leaves with a finishing place, which also makes it ideal for series ranking points.
Run it with the tournament manager
Our free tournament manager sizes the bracket, places seeds and byes exactly as described here, adds a third-place match or plays off every place, and draws the bracket as a diagram that players can follow on their phones. Seed by ranking points automatically, or by the order you type the names.