Generating a bracket takes thirty seconds. Running the tournament around it is the hard part: deciding how to seed, what to do with an odd number of teams, which format fits the time you have, and how to break a three-way tie at 2 a.m. when everyone is waiting. These guides are the notes we wish we had when we started running community events.
Each guide is written for organisers rather than theorists. They include the formulas you need (matches, rounds, BYEs), worked examples with real team counts, and the rulings that most often cause disputes. Where a game has its own conventions, such as map vetoes in Counter-Strike 2 or overtime in Valorant, we cover those too.
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Tournament Math: How Many Matches, Rounds and Hours You Need
Before you open registration, know how long your event will take. These formulas give match and round counts for every common format, plus a quick way to turn them into hours.
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The Swiss System for Esports: Pairings, Buchholz and Round Counts
Swiss gives every team several matches without the cost of a round robin. Here is how pairings are made each round, how Buchholz breaks ties, and how many rounds you need.
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Round Robin Scheduling and Tiebreakers, Explained
Round robin is the fairest format there is, as long as the schedule is built properly and the tiebreakers are decided in advance. Here is how to do both.
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How to Run a Valorant Community Tournament
Everything you need to run a smooth community Valorant event: choosing a format, custom game settings, map vetoes, check-in, reporting and the rules that prevent disputes.
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How to Run a Counter-Strike 2 Tournament
A practical guide to running a Counter-Strike 2 community event: match settings, map vetoes, formats that fit your time, servers and the rules that prevent disputes.
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How to Run a Tournament on Discord: Channels, Check-In and Results
Most community tournaments live on Discord. Here is a server layout, registration and check-in process, and reporting workflow that scales from 8 teams to 64.
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Single vs Double Elimination: Which Format Should You Run?
Single elimination is fast and dramatic. Double elimination is fairer but nearly twice as long. Here is how to choose, with the numbers that actually decide it.
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How to Seed a Tournament Bracket (With Worked Examples)
Seeding decides who meets whom and when. Here is how standard seeding works, why the #1 seed faces the lowest seed, and what to do when you have no rankings at all.
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BYEs in Tournament Brackets: How Many You Need and Who Gets Them
An odd number of teams does not break a bracket. It just needs BYEs. Here is the formula, a lookup table for common team counts, and the rules for handing them out fairly.