Organize a Tournament Bracket With Uneven Players
Tournament brackets are set up for specific numbers of players, but can't always be played correctly if you have an uneven number of teams. Read below the jump to learn how to assign match-ups correctly when you have less than a full bracket.
Contents
Steps
- Understand Byes
- Byes are the empty slots in a bracket
- A player matched against a Bye wins automatically
- Each Bye is treated as a player. The only difference is that it always loses.
- A Bye is a huge advantage. Above all your goal is to distribute them as equally as possible. No player should get two byes unless every player has one.
- Number your slots
- Start with two slots--a single match-up: [1 2]
- To expand them to 4 slots, insert two new numbers inside each pair: [1 X] [X 2]
- Make each new pair sum to (number of slots + 1): [1 4] [3 2] (In this case each pair sums to (4+1)=5)
- Expand again for 8 slots. Make each pair sum to (8+1)=9: [1 8] [5 4] [3 6] [7 2]
- Continue until you have enough numbers. Place them in your bracket in order
- Use the lowest numbered slots for players; the rest for byes.
- Decide who will get the Byes. Here are some suggestions:
- If you have a ranking, or seed of each player/team, place the best at #1, the second best at #2 and so on. This will keep the stronger teams apart until later rounds.
- If you are running a casual pool tournament, you could just give each player the next available number. This means the sooner they sign up, the better chance of getting a Bye.
- A third method is to draw numbers. With this method you must wait until you know how many players you will have. Late arrivals are no problem; assign them the next available number.
- In all cases, the Byes must get the highest numbers. This spreads them out evenly ensuring that no player gets too many.
Tips
- This method works for double or single elimination charts.
Warnings
- Never give a Bye a lower number than a player, when using the numbering system described here.
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