Single elimination, double elimination or round robin: pick by the numbers

The format decides how many games you have to fit into the day and how many each team is guaranteed. Choose from those two numbers.

Games needed for N teams

• Single elimination: N − 1
• Double elimination: 2N − 2, plus 1 if the final is replayed
• Round robin: N × (N − 1) ÷ 2

So 8 teams is 7, 14 or 28 games. 16 teams is 15, 30 or 120.

Games guaranteed per team

• Single elimination: 1
• Double elimination: 2
• Round robin: N − 1

Choose single elimination when time or courts are short, or the field is large. It is the only format where 32 teams finish in an afternoon. Half the teams play once and go home.

Choose double elimination when you want every team to play at least twice and the best team to win. It needs about twice the games.

Choose round robin when the group is small and everyone came to play: six friends, a class, a league night. Past ten teams or so it only works over several weeks, or as pools of four or five that feed a bracket.

Courts matter as much as teams. On one court, 8 teams in double elimination is 14 time slots. On two courts it is 8.

The full guide, with a table of time slots for one to four courts: https://bracketmaker.co/blog/single-vs-double-elimination-vs-round-robin

Make any of the three, free: https://bracketmaker.co

Written with AI assistance.