A random draw makes the bracket from chance instead of rankings: type the names, press Draw at random, and the names fill the bracket from the top in the drawn order. With 4, 8, 16 or 32 names that means the first two play each other, then the next two; with any other count, some names are drawn onto bye lines and go straight to round 2. That suits office pools, game nights, pickup leagues and any field where nobody has a ranking yet, or where a ranking would start an argument.
How the draw works
The page opens with an 8-team bracket set to Pair in list order. Paste one name per line; on this page the bracket resizes to the list, larger or smaller (2 to 68 names), so lines nobody fills become byes rather than blank “Team 7” slots. Set Number of teams yourself and it stays put; the list can then only make it bigger. Each press of Draw at random shuffles the list and rewrites it in the drawn order, so the text box always shows the draw as a plain list you can copy into a group chat. The bracket on the right shows the same games:
| Teams | First-round games | Byes | Games in all |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 6 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 8 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| 12 | 4 | 4 | 11 |
| 16 | 8 | 0 | 15 |
| 24 | 8 | 8 | 23 |
Any count that isn’t a power of two gets byes. In a random draw the bye lines are fixed in the bracket (spread evenly, the same places a seeded bracket gives its top seeds) and the shuffle decides who lands on them.
Making it fair and visible
A draw people trust is one they watch. Put the page on a TV or projector, paste the list in front of everyone, and press the button once. Agree before drawing whether a redraw is allowed; the tool lets you press again as often as you like, so the rule has to come from the group. The share button then sends everyone the same bracket, and the PDF prints it on Letter or A4 for the wall.
After the draw
Click a team to send it through to the next round; the picks follow the teams, so the bracket fills in as the event goes. For a draw that still rewards the stronger players, switch Seeding to Seeded and draw: the drawn order becomes seeds 1, 2, 3…, so the byes and the easiest first games go to whoever the luck favoured. Need everyone to play everyone instead of knockout? The round robin generator draws up a full schedule.