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Tournament Styles

Knockout

You need a number of teams that is a power of 2, so 4 which is the minimum, and then 8, 16, 32 and so on. If you lack applicants you can use filler teams, the dummy user TourneyFiller is an example of how that looks but league managers often have their own filler teams on their profiles.

This format enforces Overtime.

King Of The Hill

Like Knockout, but the second round isn't seeded until the first round is fully played, this is also true for the third round if the tournament has 16 teams taking part.

This format enforces Overtime.

Double Elimination

Same number of participants required as for Knockout or King Of The Hill. In a double-elimination tournament a team is only knocked out after having lost two matches. The winning team of the main bracket becomes the first finalist, while the teams that lose one match are arranged automatically into a losers bracket, which produces the second finalist. Due to the requirement of having to lose two matches before being eliminated, a "second final" will sometimes occur.

This format enforces Overtime.

Round Robin

Each team plays every opponent once. The rounds are set from the start so you know which opponent you are facing at which stage in the tournament, which could be very important in a progession environment. There's no requirement to have an even number of teams, because if the number of teams is odd, one team each round will sit it out.

Open Round Robin

Each team is allowed to play every opponent at most once. There are no rounds or schedule or even a minimum requirement of games. Mostly used to track win records in a season of "friendlies".

Swiss

You must have an even number of teams for this kind of tournament. Each round isn't seeded until the previous one is fully played. There is a natural upper bound on the number of rounds of a Swiss-system tournament, which is equal to half of the number of players rounded up. Another guideline is log2(n)+1. Basically one more than a Knockout with the same number of teams would be.