16 Team Tournament Bracket
Sixteen teams, four rounds, fifteen games, and a first round where every pair of seeds adds up to 17.
16 Team Tournament Bracket: how it works
A 16 team tournament bracket fills every line, so there are no byes and every team needs four wins: 15 games in four rounds, single elimination. The 15 teams button turns it into a 15 team tournament bracket, where Seed 1 has the only bye.
Every first-round pair adds up to 17
In a 16 seed tournament bracket each first-round game adds up to 17: 1 v 16, 8 v 9, 5 v 12 and 4 v 13 in the top half, then 3 v 14, 6 v 11, 7 v 10 and 2 v 15. Any other total means a team is on the wrong line. While higher seeds win, each quarterfinal adds up to 9 and each semifinal to 5.
Fifteen teams: one bye, and what it costs Seed 2
With 15, Seed 16 comes off the sheet and Seed 1 waits in the quarterfinals for the 8 v 9 winner. The other seven first-round games stay put, each numbered one lower. Seed 2 still opens against Seed 15, so it needs four wins for the title to Seed 1's three: break any tie for first in public. It is 14 games, and two courts still need eight slots.
Tips
- Four pools of four? Keep pool order A, B, C, D in every tier: winners are Seeds 1 to 4, runners-up 5 to 8, and so on. Round one is all cross-pool; snake order makes 1 v 16 a rematch.
- With no names it prints as a blank 16 team tournament bracket template on one landscape page.
- Half the field plays once. To promise everyone three, play pools of four and send the top two into an 8 team bracket.
Questions and answers
How many courts does a 16 team bracket need?
One court needs 15 slots, two courts 8, three 6 and four 5. Courts five to seven save nothing; only eight, one per first-round game, get down to 4. Give every winner a slot off and four courts need 8.
Is a 16 person tournament bracket any different?
No. A 16 player tournament bracket for cornhole or table tennis is this sheet with one name per line: 15 matches, 8 slots on two boards. For wrestling it is the championship side only. With no rankings, press Random draw, and agree first that it stands.
What if 15 or 17 teams show up?
For 15, delete the missing team's line in Names and set Teams to 15. Already printed? Strike out Seed 16 and send Seed 1 straight to Game 9. Seventeen needs a 32-line sheet: Seeds 16 and 17 play off to meet Seed 1 while the other 15 wait in the round of 16.
Every game in each bracket size
15-Team Bracket
15 teams, single elimination: 14 games in 4 rounds. Seed 1 has a bye.
Games of the 15-team bracket, in playing order
| Game | Round | Teams | Winner goes to |
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| 1 | Round 1 | Seed 8 vs Seed 9 | Game 8 |
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| 2 | Round 1 | Seed 5 vs Seed 12 | Game 9 |
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| 3 | Round 1 | Seed 4 vs Seed 13 | Game 9 |
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| 4 | Round 1 | Seed 3 vs Seed 14 | Game 10 |
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| 5 | Round 1 | Seed 6 vs Seed 11 | Game 10 |
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| 6 | Round 1 | Seed 7 vs Seed 10 | Game 11 |
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| 7 | Round 1 | Seed 2 vs Seed 15 | Game 11 |
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| 8 | Quarterfinal | Seed 1 vs Winner of Game 1 | Game 12 |
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| 9 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 3 | Game 12 |
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| 10 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 4 vs Winner of Game 5 | Game 13 |
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| 11 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 6 vs Winner of Game 7 | Game 13 |
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| 12 | Semifinal | Winner of Game 8 vs Winner of Game 9 | Game 14 |
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| 13 | Semifinal | Winner of Game 10 vs Winner of Game 11 | Game 14 |
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| 14 | Final | Winner of Game 12 vs Winner of Game 13 | Champion |
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16-Team Bracket
16 teams, single elimination: 15 games in 4 rounds. No byes.
Games of the 16-team bracket, in playing order
| Game | Round | Teams | Winner goes to | Notes |
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| 1 | Round of 16 | Seed 1 vs Seed 16 | Game 9 | The widest gap in seeding on the sheet: top seed against bottom seed. |
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| 2 | Round of 16 | Seed 8 vs Seed 9 | Game 9 | The closest pairing on paper, and the reward is a quarterfinal against Seed 1 if the higher seed wins Game 1. |
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| 3 | Round of 16 | Seed 5 vs Seed 12 | Game 10 | Second quarter of the sheet. The winner goes to Game 10 to meet the winner of Game 4, which is Seed 4 if the higher seed wins. |
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| 4 | Round of 16 | Seed 4 vs Seed 13 | Game 10 | Seed 4 is the top seed of the second quarter, which keeps it away from Seed 1 until the semifinals. |
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| 5 | Round of 16 | Seed 3 vs Seed 14 | Game 11 | Seed 3 heads the third quarter, in the same half as Seed 2, so Seeds 1 and 3 can only meet in the final. |
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| 6 | Round of 16 | Seed 6 vs Seed 11 | Game 11 | The winner goes to Game 11, where Seed 3 is waiting if the higher seed wins Game 5. |
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| 7 | Round of 16 | Seed 7 vs Seed 10 | Game 12 | The second closest pairing of the round on paper. The winner goes to Game 12 and is lined up to face Seed 2. |
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| 8 | Round of 16 | Seed 2 vs Seed 15 | Game 12 | Seed 2 is in the last quarter of the sheet, the opposite half to Seed 1, so the two can only meet in the final. |
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| 9 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 2 | Game 13 | If seeds hold: Seed 1 v Seed 8, and in every quarterfinal the two projected seeds add up to 9. |
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| 10 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 4 | Game 13 | If seeds hold: Seed 5 v Seed 4, the tightest quarterfinal on paper. |
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| 11 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6 | Game 14 | If seeds hold: Seed 3 v Seed 6. |
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| 12 | Quarterfinal | Winner of Game 7 vs Winner of Game 8 | Game 14 | If seeds hold: Seed 7 v Seed 2. |
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| 13 | Semifinal | Winner of Game 9 vs Winner of Game 10 | Game 15 | If seeds hold: Seed 1 v Seed 4. The projected seeds in each semifinal add up to 5. |
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| 14 | Semifinal | Winner of Game 11 vs Winner of Game 12 | Game 15 | If seeds hold: Seed 3 v Seed 2. Played last before the final when there is one court, so plan a break after it. |
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| 15 | Final | Winner of Game 13 vs Winner of Game 14 | Champion | The final, the fourth game for both teams. If seeds hold: Seed 1 v Seed 2. |
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Each seed's path to the title 16
- Seed 1: Game 1, Game 9, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 2: Game 8, Game 12, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 3: Game 5, Game 11, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 4: Game 4, Game 10, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 5: Game 3, Game 10, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 6: Game 6, Game 11, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 7: Game 7, Game 12, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 8: Game 2, Game 9, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 9: Game 2, Game 9, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 10: Game 7, Game 12, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 11: Game 6, Game 11, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 12: Game 3, Game 10, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 13: Game 4, Game 10, Game 13 and Game 15
- Seed 14: Game 5, Game 11, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 15: Game 8, Game 12, Game 14 and Game 15
- Seed 16: Game 1, Game 9, Game 13 and Game 15
How this list was compiled: Layout worked out by Wheel of Teams: sixteen lines in standard seeding order, where the two seeds in every first-round game add up to 17, with games numbered round by round from the top of the sheet. Two separate scripts agree on the 15 games, on the fewest slots for one to eight courts, and on the 15 team figures quoted on this page (one bye, for Seed 1, and four wins for Seed 2). As a further check, the site's build checks every game listed here against the bracket the tool draws. The seeding rule and the round names were checked on 2026-09-18 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-elimination_tournament, and the bye rule used for 15 teams against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bye_%28sports%29. Licence: own work