Free printable 8 team double elimination bracket: winners bracket, losers bracket with every drop-in marked, grand final and the if-needed reset. 14 or 15 games on one page.
How the 8 team double elimination bracket works
Seeds play 1 vs 8, 4 vs 5, 2 vs 7 and 3 vs 6 in the winners bracket. A team is out after two losses: the loser of every winners-bracket game drops into the losers bracket on the line marked "Loser of game …". The losers of games 1–4 meet in games 8 and 9, the losers of games 5 and 6 come in at games 11 and 10, and the loser of the winners final (game 7) plays the losers final, game 13.
The winners-bracket champion (winner of game 7) meets the losers-bracket champion (winner of game 13) in the grand final, game 14. If the losers-bracket champion wins it, both teams have one loss, so game 15 decides the title. That makes 14 games, or 15 with the reset, and every team plays at least 2.
Fewer than 8 teams
With 5 to 7 teams the empty lines are byes for the top seeds, and some losers-bracket games turn into byes as well. That is easy to get wrong on paper; Bracket Maker fills in the byes for any number of teams. For 4 teams or fewer a round robin is usually simpler.
Double elimination bracket, 8 teamsTournamentDate
Numbers on the left are seeds (1 = best team). Write each score in the small box next to the name.
Paste the names and Bracket Maker draws the bracket, adds the byes for any number of teams, moves the winners on as you enter scores and names the champion. Right here in your browser, or offline in the free Android app.
How elimination brackets work: byes up to the next power of two, standard seeding, n − 1 games for single elimination, 2 × (n − 1) for double elimination, and the grand final reset.
Frequently asked questions
How many games are in an 8 team double elimination bracket?
14 games, or 15 if the grand final is reset: 7 in the winners bracket, 6 in the losers bracket, then the grand final (and the reset if it is needed).
Why do the losers of games 5 and 6 cross over?
So that teams from the same half do not meet again straight away: the loser of game 6 plays in game 10 and the loser of game 5 in game 11, against teams from the other half of the winners bracket.
How many rounds does an 8 team double elimination bracket have?
3 rounds in the winners bracket and 2 × (3 − 1) = 4 in the losers bracket, then the grand final.