6 Team Double Elimination Bracket

How it works

A 6 team double elimination bracket takes 10 games, or 11 when the losers bracket team wins the first final. Seeds 1 and 2 get byes while Seeds 3 to 6 play first. Type your six teams or players in seed order, best first, or print it blank.

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Where each loser drops

Games 1 and 2 are Seed 4 against 5 and Seed 3 against 6. Seed 1 meets the Game 1 winner in Game 3; Seed 2 meets the Game 2 winner in Game 4. The losers cross over: the Game 3 loser drops to Game 6 and the Game 4 loser to Game 5, so nobody meets the team it just beat. Games 5 and 6 can never be rematches.

The championship and the if game

The Game 7 winner arrives at Game 10 unbeaten, so one win ends it. The losers bracket team must win Game 10 and then Game 11, the if game. The losers of Games 5 and 6 share fifth, the Game 8 loser is fourth and the Game 9 loser third.

Tips

Two courts pair Games 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8; Games 9 and 10 run alone: 6 slots, or 7 with the if game.
Seed 1 can take the title in three games. The Game 1 winner who loses Game 3 can play seven.

Questions and answers

How many games are in a 6 team double elimination bracket?

Ten, or eleven if the final is replayed: five in the winners bracket, four in the losers bracket and the championship. Single elimination for six takes five games, and a round robin fifteen.

Which teams get a bye with six teams?

Seeds 1 and 2. Six teams go into an eight-slot winners bracket, and the two empty slots sit opposite the top two seeds.

Can two teams meet twice in this bracket?

Yes. The earliest rematch is Game 8, which can repeat Game 1 or 2. Game 9 can repeat any of Games 1 to 4, and the championship Games 1 to 4 or 7.

Every game in the 6-team double-elimination bracket

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6 teams, double elimination: 10 or 11 games. Seeds 1 and 2 have a bye.

Games of the 6-team double-elimination bracket, in playing order
Game	Round	Teams	Winner goes to	Loser goes to	Notes
1	Winners round 1	Seed 4 vs Seed 5	Game 3	Game 5	Winners bracket, round 1. Seeds 1 and 2 have byes, so only four teams play first. The winner meets Seed 1 in Game 3. The loser drops to Game 5, where the Game 4 loser comes down.
2	Winners round 1	Seed 3 vs Seed 6	Game 4	Game 6	Winners bracket, round 1. The winner meets Seed 2 in Game 4. The loser drops to Game 6 to meet the Game 3 loser.
3	Winners semifinal	Seed 1 vs Winner of Game 1	Game 7	Game 6	Winners bracket semifinal and Seed 1's first game. The winner goes to Game 7, the winners bracket final. The loser drops to Game 6, crossing over so it cannot meet the Game 1 loser straight away.
4	Winners semifinal	Seed 2 vs Winner of Game 2	Game 7	Game 5	Winners bracket semifinal and Seed 2's first game. The winner goes to Game 7. The loser crosses over to Game 5, away from the Game 2 loser it could have just beaten.
5	Losers round 1	Loser of Game 1 vs Loser of Game 4	Game 8	Out (5th to 6th)	Losers bracket, round 1, and one of the two first elimination games. It can never be a rematch. The loser is out and shares fifth place with the Game 6 loser. The winner goes to Game 8.
6	Losers round 1	Loser of Game 2 vs Loser of Game 3	Game 8	Out (5th to 6th)	The other first elimination game, also never a rematch. The loser is out and shares fifth place with the Game 5 loser. The winner goes to Game 8.
7	Winners final	Winner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 4	Game 10	Game 9	Winners bracket final between the last two unbeaten teams. The winner goes to the championship, Game 10. The loser drops to Game 9, the losers bracket final.
8	Losers round 2	Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6	Game 9	Out (4th)	Losers bracket, round 2. The first place a rematch can happen: it can repeat Game 1 or Game 2. The loser is out and finishes fourth. The winner goes to Game 9.
9	Losers final	Winner of Game 8 vs Loser of Game 7	Game 10	Out (3rd)	Losers bracket final. The loser is out and finishes third. The winner has one loss and goes to the championship, Game 10, where it has to beat the unbeaten team twice.
10	Championship	Winner of Game 7 vs Winner of Game 9	Champion, or Game 11 if the losers bracket team wins	Runner-up	Championship. If the unbeaten Game 7 winner wins, the tournament is over in 10 games. If the losers bracket team wins, both teams have one loss and Game 11 decides the title.
11	If necessary	Winner of Game 10 vs Loser of Game 10	Champion	Runner-up	The if game, also called the bracket reset. Played only when the losers bracket team wins Game 10. Same two teams, one loss each. The winner is champion and the loser finishes second.

How this list was compiled: Bracket layout worked out by Wheel of Teams by the family's method: we start from the full 8-slot double elimination bracket with standard seeding (1 v 8, 4 v 5, 3 v 6, 2 v 7), leave the unused slots empty, and remove every game that would have an empty slot in it, which gives the top seeds their byes and sends each loser to the same place it would go in the full bracket. The same script reproduces this site's published 8-team layout exactly. Every possible set of results was run through the layout by script (all 1,024) to confirm that each team is out after exactly two losses, that the games always number 10 or 11, and to find where a rematch can happen. The game count (2n - 2, or 2n - 1 when the winner is not undefeated), the two-game final and the 'if game' or 'bracket reset' wording were checked on 2026-09-26 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-elimination_tournament. Licence: own work