Double-elimination Tournament - Conducting The Tournament

Conducting The Tournament

If the Bracket arrangement is being used then each round of the L Bracket is conducted in two stages, the first stage consisting of the winners of the previous stage (or losers of the very first round of competition) playing their matches, the second stage consisting of the winners of the first stage against the losers of that same round of the W Bracket playing their matches. This is to allow the losers of each stage of the W Bracket to "filter down" into the L Bracket.

For example, in an eight-competitor double-elimination tournament, the losers of the first round enter the first stage of the L Bracket – the L Bracket quarterfinals – and compete against each other. The losers are eliminated, while the winners proceed to the second stage of the L Bracket – the L Bracket semifinals – to face the losers of the W Bracket semifinals. The winners of the L Bracket semifinals proceed to the L Bracket finals, with the winner of that game being the Losers' Bracket champion.

The championship finals of a double elimination tournament is usually set up to be a possible two games. The rationale is that since the tournament is indeed double elimination, it is unfair to have the Winners' Bracket champion eliminated with its first loss. Therefore, while the Winners' Bracket champion needs to beat the Losers' Bracket champion only once to win the tournament, the Losers' Bracket champion must beat the Winners' Bracket champion twice. Some tournaments, however, ignore this advantage for the Winners' Bracket champion and make the final game winner-take-all or always a best-of-three set of games.

A Draw and Process tournament requires less intervention by the manager. The competitors are allocated their first round positions on the competition grid and this is played as if it were a single life event. A second grid is then produced with the competitors placed in a fixed arrangement which ensures that they cannot play the same opponents as they met in the draw. This is also played out as a single life competition. If the same person wins both draw and process then they are the overall winner and the losing finalists will play each other for second and third place, otherwise the winners of both halves play each other for first place.