Types of Tournaments

Up and Down
Round Robin
Single Elimination
Consolation
Double Elimination
Ladders



Up and Down
(King or Queen of the Court)

Advantages

  • Easiest to understand and run
  • Good for large numbers
  • Great if you have a time limit
  • Seeding is not important
  • Flexible game time

Disadvantages

  • Mismatches in ability at first
  • Must have Tiebreaker
  • No Champion is determined
Best Use

When you have a limited time frame
When playing is more important than determining a champion
The Up and Down tournament is best when you have a short period of time and limited courts or fields. It is an easy tournament to run and allows for more playing time than other tournaments.
First determine the length of time that you want your games to be. Take the total time that you have available and divide it by the number of games that you would like to play.
Example: If you have six courts, number them one through six. Assign players/teams to each court. Try to place the better players on courts one, two, three. Play your first game. When the time limit is up the winners move up one court (toward #1, the King or Queen court). The losers move down one court. (All other winners and lossers must change courts.) The winners on court one stay on court 1, the losers on court 6 stay on court 6. If there is a tie, the team/ player that had the highest score first wins. Example: the score is 4-4, if my team reached 4 first, we win.
If you have more players/teams than courts, have one player/team waiting to play next on a court. When you use this system, the winners move up and play, the losers go down and sit out the next game.
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Round Robin

Advantages

  • All teams/players play each other
  • True results
  • Seeding is not important
  • Good use of facilities
  • No one is eliminated

Disadvantages

  • Requires many games
  • Many games will not be close
  • Very long tournament

Best Use

League Play
When you need true standings

Round Robin tournaments are best for league play or one day tournaments that guarantee a certain number of games. All teams/players play each other at least once. If you have a large number of teams/players create a second, third or fourth pool. The number of courts or fields usually determines the number of pools used. This is easy for participants because they play all their games on one court or field. You can also have them referee and keep score.

The smaller the number of teams/players in the pool the shorter time it takes to complete pool play. Four to six participants per pool are best.

When using Round Robin for a one-day tournament combine it with Single Elimination. Use the Pool winners and runners-up to fill out a single elimination bracket. These teams/players will play for the championship.

Have a “tiebreaker” system in place before the start of the tournament.

Download Chart

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Single Elimination

Advantages

  • Easiest to understand and run
  • Good for large numbers
  • Seeding is very important
  • Good use of facilities
  • No one is eliminated

Disadvantages

  • Requires many games
  • Many games will not be close
  • Very long tournament

Best Use

League Play
When you need true standings

The single elimination tournament is best when you have a large number of entries, a short period of time, and a limited number of courts or fields. It is the easiest of all the tournaments to run. When players win, they continue and when they lose, they're out. The downside of this type of tournament is that half of your players will be out after the first round. Therefore, you should have some activity planned for the people who are eliminated.

Accurate seeding is needed to run a good tournament. Minimally, try to seed the top four entries. See more if you can.

If you have a large number of players, you can have multiple tournaments. An example is to divide the entries into beginning, intermediate and advanced skill ability groups and have three separate tournaments. However, be sure that your groups are still race and gender balanced.

This is a great format to use at the end of a Round Robin tournament to determine an overall champion.

Download Blank Seed Template with Eight entries

Download Blank Seed Template with Sixteen entries

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Consolation

Advantages

  • Easy to understand and run
  • Good for large numbers
  • Requires fewer games
  • Requires fewer facilities
  • Guarantees two games
Disadvantages
  • Seeding very important
  • Does not maximize the use of multiple playing facilities
  • Takes longer to finish

Best Use

Good for large numbers

The Consolation is a single elimination tournament with a loser’s bracket. After the first round, the winners move out on the right side of the “original” bracket. The losers are put on a “new” bracket. (If your “original” bracket is 16, use an 8 bracket for the consolation side.) On both brackets, after the first round, if you lose you’re out.

The winner of the “original” bracket is the Tournament Champion. The winner of the “new” bracket is the Consolation Champion.

Accurate seeding is needed to run a good tournament. Minimally, try to seed the top four entries. Seed more if you can. Have some activity planned for the people who are eliminated. (Refereeing, Judging, Scoring)

If you have a larger number of entries, you can have multiple tournaments. An example would be to divide the entries into Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced skill ability and have three separate tournaments.

Download Blank Seed Template with Eight entries

Download Blank Seed Template with Sixteen entries

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Double Elimination

Advantages

  • Two games guaranteed
  • Team/Player can lose one game and still win tournament
  • Requires few facilities
  • Seeding is not important

Disadvantages

  • It takes longer to finish
  • Some players play more games
  • Does not maximize use of multiple playing facilities


Best Use
When time and facilities are limited
When final standings are important

This is very similar to the Single Elimination tournament with one major difference; you must lose two games to be eliminated from the tournament. This also means the tournament takes longer to finish.

Winners move out to the right of the bracket. Losers move to the bracket below the winners bracket (L1-L11).

Seeding is basically the same as the Single Elimination (see Seeding Bracket).

There is a “crossover” that takes place when losers of the quarterfinals move to the losers' bracket. Follow the bracket template. This allows the player/teams to play a different team. However in the final rounds of the losers’ bracket players/teams will likely play a team twice.



It’s important to cross the losers to a different bracket. This eliminates playing the same team twice in a row. Eventually, the losing teams may play the same team twice.

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Ladders
(Extended Tournaments)

Advantages

  • Easy to understand and run
  • Tournament runs itself
  • No one is eliminated
  • You can conduct it over any period of time

Disadvantages

  • The number of games depends on the player’s initiative in challenging opponents
  • Must have Tiebreaker
  • Try to limit to 15 entries
Best Use

 Individual sports in a recreational setting

This is the most popular form of an extended tournament. It is best with pairs or individual entries, such as racket sports. Ladders can be created by ability grouping (Beginning, Intermediate or Advanced). Players challenge the person or team above them on the ladder. If the challenger wins they exchange places with the loser of the game. If the challenged player wins they stay where they are on the ladder. Set a time limit for challenging, usually one week is fine. If a player does not challenge within that time period they move down the ladder. Also, do not allow players to play the same person or team twice in a row.



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