9 Team Tournament Bracket Double Elimination

Nine teams, one first-round game, seven byes: 16 games, a 17th if the final is replayed, and the right drop for every loser.

9 Team Tournament Bracket Double Elimination

Names: 0

The first name is Seed 1; empty lines are skipped. No names gives a blank bracket to fill in by hand. One name more than there are teams makes the bracket bigger. Random draw shuffles the names into the seeds.

9 teams, double elimination: 16 or 17 games. Seeds 1 to 7 have a bye.

Seed 1: Bye
Loser to Game 6
Loser to Game 10
Seed 4: Bye
Seed 5: Bye
Loser to Game 10
Loser to Game 11
Seed 3: Bye
Seed 6: Bye
Loser to Game 9
Seed 2: Bye
Seed 7: Bye
Loser to Game 6
Loser to Game 12
Loser to Game 15
Loser out: 9th
Loser out: 7th to 8th
Loser out: 5th to 6th
Loser out: 7th to 8th
Loser out: 5th to 6th
Loser out: 4th
Loser out: 3rd
If the losers bracket team wins Game 16
Champion

Tap a team to send it through; tap it again to take the result back. The bracket scrolls sideways.

Next step Want every team to play every team? 9 team round robinTen teams next time? Notes for the 10 team sheet

9 Team Tournament Bracket Double Elimination: how it works

A 9 team tournament bracket, double elimination, runs to 16 games, or 17 when the losers bracket team wins the first final. Seed 8 plays Seed 9 while Seeds 1 to 7 wait. Enter your nine teams or print the sheet blank.

The one first-round game

Nine teams go on a 16-line sheet, so only Seeds 8 and 9 play in round one. Games 2, 3 and 4 follow Game 1, so its winner rests before meeting Seed 1 in Game 5. The Game 1 loser gets the Game 4 loser, Seed 2 or Seed 7, in Game 6. The other quarterfinal losers drop a round later, into Games 9 and 10. Give it the Game 5 loser instead and Seeds 8 and 9 could replay Game 1 at once.

Shared places and the final

The Game 6 loser is ninth. Then the losers bracket plays two games a round: the losers of Games 9 and 10 tie for seventh, the losers of Games 11 and 12 for fifth. Fourth is the Game 14 loser, third the Game 15 loser. In Game 16 the unbeaten Game 13 winner needs one win. Its opponent needs two: Game 16, then Game 17, the if game.

Tips

  • Two courts need 9 slots before the if game: pair games in number order, 1 with 2 up to 13 with 14, then play 15 and 16 singly. Three courts need 8, four 7.
  • Seeds 2 and 7 are the only bye teams that can finish ninth, because only the Game 4 loser drops into Game 6. The other five cannot finish below seventh.
  • Seeds 8 and 9 need five straight wins for an unbeaten title; the bye seeds need four. No champion plays more than eight games.

Questions and answers

How many games does nine-team double elimination take?

Sixteen, or seventeen if the final is replayed: eight in the winners bracket, seven in the losers bracket and the championship. A 9 team double elimination bracket has two more than the 8 team sheet, Games 1 and 6, both made by the ninth team or player.

Which seeds get a bye with nine teams?

Seeds 1 through 7. Seven of the 16 lines are empty, one opposite each of them. Seed 1 still has to win at least four games, and its first opponent, the Game 1 winner, arrives warmed up.

What if eight or ten teams turn up?

Change the Teams box, or type a tenth name and the sheet grows. Names stay; results clear, because a tenth team takes away Seed 7's bye and moves nearly every game number. These notes fit nine only; each size on the double elimination list has its own.

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Every game in the 9-team double-elimination bracket

9 teams, double elimination: 16 or 17 games. Seeds 1 to 7 have a bye.

Games of the 9-team double-elimination bracket, in playing order
GameRoundTeamsWinner goes toLoser goes toNotes
1Winners round 1Seed 8 vs Seed 9Game 5Game 6Winners bracket, round 1, and the only game in it, because Seeds 1 to 7 all have byes. The winner earns a quarterfinal against Seed 1 in Game 5. The loser drops to Game 6 and has to wait for Game 4 to produce its opponent.
2Winners quarterfinalSeed 4 vs Seed 5Game 7Game 10Winners bracket quarterfinal. It is played ahead of Game 5 so that the Game 1 winner gets a rest before it faces Seed 1. The winner goes to the top-half semifinal, Game 7. The loser drops to Game 10 and misses the first losers bracket round.
3Winners quarterfinalSeed 3 vs Seed 6Game 8Game 9Winners bracket quarterfinal. The winner meets the Game 4 winner in Game 8. The loser drops to Game 9, where it waits for whoever wins Game 6.
4Winners quarterfinalSeed 2 vs Seed 7Game 8Game 6Winners bracket quarterfinal with the hardest drop on the sheet. The winner goes to the bottom-half semifinal, Game 8. The loser falls to Game 6, a full round earlier than the other three quarterfinal losers, because the Game 1 loser needs an opponent.
5Winners quarterfinalSeed 1 vs Winner of Game 1Game 7Game 10Winners bracket quarterfinal. Seed 1 plays for the first time; its opponent has a game in its legs already. Whoever wins plays the Game 2 winner in Game 7. The loser drops to Game 10 against the Game 2 loser.
6Losers round 1Loser of Game 1 vs Loser of Game 4Game 9Out (9th)Losers bracket, round 1, and the first elimination game. The Game 1 loser meets a team from the far end of the sheet, never the Game 5 loser, so Seeds 8 and 9 cannot be drawn together again straight away. The loser is out and finishes ninth, the only place below fourth that is not shared. The winner goes to Game 9 against the Game 3 loser.
7Winners semifinalWinner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 2Game 13Game 11Winners bracket semifinal in the top half, which holds Seeds 1, 4, 5, 8 and 9. The winner is through to Game 13, the winners bracket final. The loser drops to Game 11 to face the Game 9 winner.
8Winners semifinalWinner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 4Game 13Game 12Winners bracket semifinal in the bottom half, which holds Seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7. The winner takes the second place in Game 13. The loser drops to Game 12, where it cannot meet a team it has already played.
9Losers round 2Winner of Game 6 vs Loser of Game 3Game 11Out (7th to 8th)Losers bracket, round 2. The Game 6 winner is playing its second game on this side; the Game 3 loser is playing its first. The loser is out and ties for seventh with the Game 10 loser. The winner goes to Game 11, where the Game 7 loser drops in.
10Losers round 2Loser of Game 2 vs Loser of Game 5Game 12Out (7th to 8th)Losers bracket, round 2, between two quarterfinal losers from the top half. A Seed 1 that is upset in Game 5 lands here. The loser shares seventh place with the Game 9 loser, and the winner goes to Game 12 to meet the Game 8 loser.
11Losers round 3Winner of Game 9 vs Loser of Game 7Game 14Out (5th to 6th)Losers bracket, round 3, and the first game that can be a rematch. It happens only one way: the Game 1 loser wins Games 6 and 9, while the Game 1 winner beats Seed 1 and then loses Game 7. The loser is out and ties for fifth with the Game 12 loser. The winner plays the Game 12 winner in Game 14.
12Losers round 3Winner of Game 10 vs Loser of Game 8Game 14Out (5th to 6th)Losers bracket, round 3. These two can never have met: the Game 10 winner started in the top half of the winners bracket and the Game 8 loser in the bottom half. The loser takes the other share of fifth place, and the winner joins the Game 11 winner in Game 14.
13Winners finalWinner of Game 7 vs Winner of Game 8Game 16Game 15Winners bracket final. Both teams are still unbeaten. The winner goes to Game 16, the championship, holding a spare loss. The loser drops to Game 15 and is one win from a second shot at the title.
14Losers round 4Winner of Game 11 vs Winner of Game 12Game 15Out (4th)Losers bracket, round 4, between the last two teams that came up through the losers side. It can be a repeat of any game from 1 to 5. Seeds 4 and 5, say, meet again if the Game 2 winner loses Game 7 and both teams then keep winning. The loser is out and finishes fourth. The winner goes to Game 15 against the Game 13 loser.
15Losers finalWinner of Game 14 vs Loser of Game 13Game 16Out (3rd)Losers bracket final. The Game 14 winner is playing its fifth or sixth game of the tournament, the Game 13 loser its fourth or fifth. The loser is out and finishes third. The winner goes to Game 16 and has to beat the unbeaten team twice.
16ChampionshipWinner of Game 13 vs Winner of Game 15Champion, or Game 17 if the losers bracket team winsRunner-upChampionship. The Game 13 winner has not lost, so a win here finishes the tournament in 16 games. If the Game 15 winner takes it, both teams are level on one loss and Game 17 is played.
17If necessaryWinner of Game 16 vs Loser of Game 16ChampionRunner-upThe if game, also called the bracket reset. It is on the schedule only when the team from the losers bracket wins Game 16. 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. We start from the full 16-slot double elimination bracket with standard seeding (1 v 16, 8 v 9, 5 v 12, 4 v 13, 3 v 14, 6 v 11, 7 v 10, 2 v 15 down the sheet), leave slots 10 to 16 empty, and remove every game that would have an empty slot in it. That gives Seeds 1 to 7 a first-round bye and sends each loser to the place it would have in the full bracket. All 65,536 possible sets of results for the 16 scheduled games were then played through the layout by script, twice, with two separately written programs, to confirm that every team is out after exactly two losses, that the games always number 16 or 17, which finishing places are shared, where a rematch can happen and how many games a champion can play. The game count (2n - 2, or 2n - 1 when the winner is not undefeated), the two-game final and the names 'if game' and 'bracket reset' were checked on 2026-09-18 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-elimination_tournament. Licence: own work