8 team bracket
Eight entrants make 3 rounds and 7 matches in an 8-slot draw. Type your names over the sample ones and print.
The bracket
Quarter-finals
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AshfordHalstead
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DunmoreEastfield
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FernhillCastleton
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GrantonBellweather
Semi-finals
Final
Winner
What an 8-team draw looks like
8 entrants need a 8-slot bracket, because a knockout draw halves the field each round and only a power of two halves cleanly all the way down. That gives 3 rounds: quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
Eight is a power of two, so the draw fills exactly and nobody sits out. Every entrant plays in round one and the bracket is symmetrical — which is why organisers who can choose the field size choose one of these.
The match count is fixed at 7 whatever the byes do, because every match eliminates exactly one entrant and all but the winner must be eliminated. That identity is the quickest way to check any bracket, printed or drawn: count the boxes, and if it is not 7 something is wrong with it.
Running an 8-entrant tournament
Seven matches is one session. At fifteen minutes a match on a single court or table it is under two hours including the gaps, which is why this size is the default for an evening.
Seeding 8 entrants means seed 1 meets seed 8 first and cannot meet seed 2 before the final. The slot order for 8 slots runs 1, 8, 4, 5, 6, 3, 7, 2, generated from the size rather than copied from a table — which is what makes it right here and not only for sixteen.
If nobody has a ranking, draw it at random instead. A guessed seeding is worse than none: it puts an error into the draw systematically, and with 8 entrants that error decides the tournament more often than the guess was ever worth.
Printing an 8-team sheet
8 slots — 8 entrants and no byes — fits one A4 sheet in landscape at a size somebody can write in.
The print stylesheet removes the header, the navigation, the advertisement and the URL, so 4 first-round boxes and everything after them are all that reaches the paper. Names print into the boxes if you have supplied them and come out empty if you have not, which is how one page gives you both a filled 8-entrant draw and a blank sheet to fill in at the table.
Print a spare. A 8-entrant draw takes one name written in the wrong box to become a sheet somebody has to redo, and it happens at most draws.
Common questions
How many matches in an 8 team tournament?
Seven — always one fewer than the field. Every match eliminates one entrant and all but the winner must be eliminated, so byes do not change the total.
How many rounds does an 8 team bracket have?
Three: quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. 8 entrants fill a 8-slot draw, and 8 halves three times before it reaches one.
Does an 8 team bracket need byes?
No. Eight is a power of two, so the draw fills exactly and every entrant plays in the first round.