In a double elimination bracket a team is out only after its second loss: the first one sends it to the losers’ bracket, where it can play its way back to the grand final. With 8 teams that’s 14 games, plus a 15th if the grand final needs a second game. It suits darts, cornhole, pool or game nights where nobody wants to travel for a single game.
How 8 teams move through it
| Side | Rounds | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Winners’ bracket | Round 1, round 2, winners’ final | 4 + 2 + 1 |
| Losers’ bracket | Four rounds | 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 |
| Grand final | One game, a second if needed | 1 (+1) |
Losers’ round 1 pairs the four first-round losers. In losers’ round 2 the two survivors meet the two teams that lost in winners’ round 2, then the last two on the losers’ side play each other, and the winner meets the loser of the winners’ final. The second-round losers drop in crosswise (the top game’s loser goes to the bottom of the losers’ side), so teams that just met don’t meet again straight away.
Reading the bracket
Every game has a code: W1 to W7 on the winners’ side, L1 to L6 on the losers’ side and GF for the final. An empty losers’ slot says where its team comes from (“Loser of W5”), which makes the printed sheet easy to run by hand at a table.
Bigger fields
Change the number of teams for 3 to 64. Byes in the first round also carry into the losers’ bracket, so a 6-team event still works. Above 16 teams, the PDF prints the winners’ side and the losers’ side on separate landscape pages.