Double elimination brackets
Everybody gets a second chance, which roughly doubles the matches. Here is the structure, the arithmetic, and the decision about the grand final that has to be made before anybody plays.
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
Matches, by field size
| Entrants | Winners bracket | Losers bracket | Total | With a reset | Single elimination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 3 |
| 8 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 15 | 7 |
| 16 | 15 | 14 | 30 | 31 | 15 |
| 32 | 31 | 30 | 62 | 63 | 31 |
| 64 | 63 | 62 | 126 | 127 | 63 |
How the two brackets fit together
Everybody starts in the winners bracket. Lose once and you drop into the losers bracket; lose there and you are out. The winner of each bracket meets in the grand final, which is why an entrant who has never lost can arrive at it against somebody who has lost once.
The losers bracket has twice as many rounds as the winners bracket, because it takes entrants dropping in from every winners round and has to fold them together. That is what makes double elimination long: the losers bracket is where most of the tournament actually happens.
It is also what makes it worth running. A single-elimination draw eliminates half the field in one round, and at a club night that means half the people who turned up have finished before the coffee. Double elimination gives everybody at least two matches.
The arithmetic, and the grand final question
Every entrant except the winner must lose twice, so the count is fixed: 8 entrants is 14 or 15 matches, 16 entrants is 30 or 31 matches and 32 entrants is 62 or 63 matches. The winners bracket is n − 1 of them and the losers bracket n − 2.
The two figures differ by the bracket reset. If the entrant coming out of the winners bracket loses the grand final, they have lost once — and the tournament said everyone gets two lives — so a second grand final is played. Some tournaments do this; some declare the grand final a single match and accept the asymmetry.
Decide which before anybody plays and say so at the start. A tournament that discovers this question after the grand final has already been lost is a tournament with an argument in it, and the argument is always about fairness rather than about the rule.
Common questions
How many matches in a double elimination tournament?
Twice the field minus two, plus the grand final — so 14 or 15 for eight entrants and 30 or 31 for sixteen. The higher figure includes a bracket reset if the grand final is lost by the entrant who had not lost before it.
What is a bracket reset?
A second grand final, played when the entrant arriving from the winners bracket loses the first one. They have then lost once, and in a tournament where two losses eliminate you, one loss cannot. It is optional, and it has to be agreed before the tournament starts.
Is double elimination better than single?
It is fairer and roughly twice as long. For a field that travelled to be there, or where one bad match should not end somebody’s day, it is worth the time. For a one-evening knockout with a fixed finish time, single elimination is the only one that fits.