What are the different types of tournament formats?

There are quite a few different ways to run tournaments, but there are about 7
formats that are far more popular than the rest. If you read on, there is a brief
description of each tournament type. By clicking on the link to that particular
format you will get a complete explanation along with printable brackets for
each format.

Single Elimination Tournament

The single elimination format is by far the easiest to organize. The name says it
all, if a team loses one time they are out of the tournament. This type of
tournament works best if you have a large number of teams and a short time
frame. Single elimination tournaments don't work well for "matches" that are
very short in time. For example an Arm Wrestling Tournament, where a match
takes just a few seconds. If participants are traveling to enter the tournament,
they would like to be around for more than 3 seconds. So you would be better
of using one of the other formats listed below. Check out our Single Elimination
Tournament Brackets.

Double Elimination Tournament

The double elimination tournament is my favorite format, and along with single
elimination is the most popular. To be eliminated from this type of tourney, a
team or player must lose two times. There is a winner's bracket and a loser's
bracket, everyone starts in the winner's bracket. Upon defeat they will move to
the loser's bracket where they will battle their way to play in the championship
match, which they must defeat the winner's bracket champion twice. Check out
our Double Elimination Tournament Brackets.

Triple Elimination Tournament

Not quite as popular as the Single and the Double, the triple elimination format
is good to add to you arsenal if you are looking to add a few extra matches for
the participants. Just as with the other two, Triple Elimination simply means
that a team or player needs to lose 3 times in order to be eliminated from the
tournament. When a team loses in the winner's bracket they will drop to loser's
Bracket 1, when they lose there they will drop to loser's bracket 2. If beaten in
loser's bracket 2 they are eliminated from the tournament. Check out our Triple
Elimination Tournament Brackets.

Round Robin
The Round Robin Tournament is fairly popular and simply means that every
team will play every other team in the tournament one time. This allows for a
wide variety of opponents, and as opposed to an elimination tournament the
teams can see how they match up with all teams. Based on the number of
participants, the round robin format can be broken up into "pools". A pool is a
group of teams that will play round robin and the winner of each pool will
usually face off in a championship tournament. Example: A normal 24 team
Round Robin Tournament would have 276 games, so the ideal way to run this
would be to break it up into 6 Pools of 4 teams which would have 36 total
games. You could then take the 6 winners from each pool and have a single
elimination tournament to decide the overall championship.
We have basic Printable Round Robin Schedules and we also have a Round
Robin Generator which will allow you got customize your tournament by typing
in team names, locations, number of pools ect..

3 Game Guarantee Tournament

The 3 Game Guarantee format is popular in the Softball world as it allows teams
traveling from far distances to be assured they are getting in enough games to
make it worth their time and money. Each team will play a minimum of 3
games, the format is similar to double elimination. There is a winner's bracket
and a loser's bracket, the main difference being teams that lose their first two
games will get to play an extra game in the loser's bracket in order to assure
everyone gets to play at least 3 games. Check out our 3 Game Guarantee
Tournament Brackets.

Consolation Tournaments
Consolation tournaments are very popular in the wrestling world. There are
quite a few variations to the consolation brackets, but the basic idea behind
them is the same. When a team wins in the first round they move/stay in the
winner's bracket for the duration of the tournament and will be playing for the
overall championship. When a team loses in the first round they will be moved
to the Consolation Bracket where they will have no chance of winning the
tournament, but instead be competing for the consolation championship. Some
Consolation Brackets will also have the losers of later rounds of the winner's
bracket drop down to the consolation bracket to compete for the consolation
championship. Check out our printable Consolation Tournament Brackets.

Compass Draw Tournaments

Last, but not least, is the Compass draw tournament, which is used widely in
Tennis and Pickleball, but is actually a really nice format that can be used for
any sport. The are various brackets on each draw sheet that are marked by
points on a compass(East, West, North, South, Northeast, Northwest,
Southeast, Southwest). When a team loses they are moved to a different
bracket, winners always just advance in their current bracket. This allows
players to play in plenty of matches and as the tournament progresses the
bracket is designed to automatically pair them with others of their skill level.
Check out our printable Compass Draw Tournament Brackets.