Types of Tournaments: pros/cons

Single Elimination

Double Elimination

Round Robin / Pool Play

Pros Cons
Single Elimination Shortest time needed to complete. Participants don’t like to lose one
match and be out.

Double Elimination Easier to understand than pool play At least twice the number of
(lose two and your out) matches will be played than single
elimination.
Participants get to play at least 2 Depending on number of
matches before they are participants, some may have to play
eliminated. multiple back to back matches while
others do not.
Bracket end times can vary widely
depending on how the bracket plays
out. More difficult to know when
the event may conclude.

Round Robin / Pool More matches for the Can take the most time of the three.
Play participants/teams than single
elimination.
Likely even number of matches for Winners are sometimes determined
each participant/team. by tiebreakers other than head to
head competition.
In round robin tournaments, Event Managers need to have a
everyone gets the opportunity to thorough understanding of the
compete against all opponents (the NCSG tie breaker for the specific
element of luck is eliminated). Not sport.
so for Pool Play with advance to
Round Robin.
One bad match does not end all
chances of winning the event.

State Finals Formats for Tournament Sports

Single Elimination Pool Play / Round Robin Croquet

Badminton, Bocce, Basketball, Pickleball, Unique format since
Cornhole, Horseshoes, Racquetball, Table Tennis, up to 6 competing at
Shuffleboard, Tennis Softball once.
Session Topics

Brackets

Seeding

Resources (Tournament Builder Pro and/or PPA)

Scheduling Tournament Sports

Single Elimination

Determine number of matches per time slot vs number of courts / tables etc

Round Robin

Determine number of matches per time slot vs number of courts / tables etc
Single Elimination Number of courts needed per number of participants or teams in an age group

# participants or Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5

teams # matches # matches # matches # matches # matches
2 1
3 1 1
4 2 2
5 1 2 2
6 2 2 2
7 3 2 2
8 4 2 2
9 1 4 2 2
10 2 4 2 2
11 3 4 2 2
12 4 4 2 2
13 5 4 2 2
14 6 4 2 2
15 7 4 2 2
16 8 4 2 2
17 1 8 4 2 2
18 2 8 4 2 2
19 3 8 4 2 2
20 4 8 4 2 2
21 5 8 4 2 2
22 6 8 4 2 2
23 7 8 4 2 2
24 8 8 4 2 2
25 9 8 4 2 2
26 10 8 4 2 2
27 11 8 4 2 2
28 12 8 4 2 2
29 13 8 4 2 2
30 14 8 4 2 2
31 15 8 4 2 2
32 16 8 4 2 2

Don’t want to use the chart or have more than 32 in age group?

If number of participants is different than 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64, X will always be 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 (select the
next lowest of 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 below # of participants/ teams in age group). Examples: 9 Participants,
select X will be 8. 14 Participants, X will be 8.

Step 1: Number of Participants/ Teams - X. This gives you the number of 1 st round matches.

Step 2: Following rounds are halves of X till you get to 2.

Step 3: Add one more round of 2 after the first 2 to determine. Can’t do 1 because 3 rd place must also
be determined.