16 Team Double Elimination Bracket
A blank 16 team double elimination bracket: upper bracket, lower bracket, grand final and reset, 31 numbered games in all. Every lower bracket slot says which game its team drops from. Print it, or fill it in online.
- 16 teams
- 30 or 31 games
- 4 upper + 6 lower rounds
- no byes
Click the bracket to open it full size, or scroll sideways to see all of it.
How a 16 team double elimination bracket works
The upper bracket (winners bracket) is a normal 16 team single elimination bracket. It has 4 rounds and 15 games, and its winner reaches the grand final without a loss.
A team that loses in the upper bracket drops into the lower bracket (losers bracket). The lower bracket has 6 rounds and 14 games. Teams that lose later in the upper bracket join later in the lower bracket, and the drop order is reversed to make early rematches less likely. A loss in the lower bracket knocks a team out. The bracket image labels every drop, for example "Loser of G1".
The lower bracket winner has one loss and the upper bracket winner has none. They meet in the grand final (G30). If the lower bracket team wins, both teams have one loss, so a reset game (G31) decides the title. That is why a 16 team double elimination bracket has 30 games, or 31 with the reset.
Every team plays at least 2 games, because a team is only out after its second loss. The most any team can play is 9: a team that loses once in the upper bracket, wins the lower bracket, then wins the grand final and plays the reset.
For the rules that apply at every size, see how a double elimination bracket works.
Order of play
Every game in the bracket, numbered as on the printable sheet. Upper and lower bracket games can run side by side once the games that feed them are finished.
| Round | Game | Matchup |
|---|---|---|
| Upper round 1 | G1 | Seed 1 v Seed 16 |
| G2 | Seed 8 v Seed 9 | |
| G3 | Seed 4 v Seed 13 | |
| G4 | Seed 5 v Seed 12 | |
| G5 | Seed 2 v Seed 15 | |
| G6 | Seed 7 v Seed 10 | |
| G7 | Seed 3 v Seed 14 | |
| G8 | Seed 6 v Seed 11 | |
| Upper round 2 | G9 | Winner of G1 v Winner of G2 |
| G10 | Winner of G3 v Winner of G4 | |
| G11 | Winner of G5 v Winner of G6 | |
| G12 | Winner of G7 v Winner of G8 | |
| Upper round 3 | G13 | Winner of G9 v Winner of G10 |
| G14 | Winner of G11 v Winner of G12 | |
| Upper final | G15 | Winner of G13 v Winner of G14 |
| Lower round 1 | G16 | Loser of G1 v Loser of G2 |
| G17 | Loser of G3 v Loser of G4 | |
| G18 | Loser of G5 v Loser of G6 | |
| G19 | Loser of G7 v Loser of G8 | |
| Lower round 2 | G20 | Winner of G16 v Loser of G12 |
| G21 | Winner of G17 v Loser of G11 | |
| G22 | Winner of G18 v Loser of G10 | |
| G23 | Winner of G19 v Loser of G9 | |
| Lower round 3 | G24 | Winner of G20 v Winner of G21 |
| G25 | Winner of G22 v Winner of G23 | |
| Lower round 4 | G26 | Winner of G24 v Loser of G14 |
| G27 | Winner of G25 v Loser of G13 | |
| Lower round 5 | G28 | Winner of G26 v Winner of G27 |
| Lower final | G29 | Winner of G28 v Loser of G15 |
| Grand final | G30 | Winner of G15 v Winner of G29 |
| Reset (if needed) | G31 | Rematch of G30, played only if the lower bracket team wins it |
16 teams in other formats
| Format | Games | Games per team | Time slots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 team single elimination bracket | 15 | 1 to 4 | 4 |
| 16 team double elimination bracket | 30 or 31 | 2 to 9 | 8 or 9 |
| 16 team round robin schedule | 120 | 15 | 15 |
| Swiss system | 32 | 4 | 4 |
Fill it in online
Open this bracket in Easy Bracket Maker to type in real team names, keep this seeding or shuffle it, and enter scores as games finish. Winners move on automatically and losers drop to the right lower bracket game. Export it as SVG, PNG, CSV or a printable sheet, or send players a link. It runs in your browser and saves on your device; there is no account.
Open the 16 team bracket →Other sizes
For a different number of teams, see the 15 team double elimination bracket or the 17 team double elimination bracket, or pick any size below.
- 3 teams
- 4 teams
- 5 teams
- 6 teams
- 7 teams
- 8 teams
- 9 teams
- 10 teams
- 11 teams
- 12 teams
- 13 teams
- 14 teams
- 15 teams
- 16 teams
- 17 teams
- 18 teams
- 19 teams
- 20 teams
- 21 teams
- 22 teams
- 23 teams
- 24 teams
- 25 teams
- 26 teams
- 27 teams
- 28 teams
- 29 teams
- 30 teams
- 31 teams
- 32 teams
Questions
How many games are in a 16 team double elimination bracket?
30, or 31 if the grand final goes to a reset. Every team except the champion loses exactly twice, which makes 30 games; the reset is the one extra game, played when the champion has also lost once.
Who gets a bye in a 16 team double elimination bracket?
Nobody. 16 is a power of two, so the bracket fills evenly and every team plays in round 1.
How many games does each team play?
At least 2 and at most 9.
How long does a 16 team double elimination tournament take?
With one court and 30-minute games, the 30 games take 15 hours back to back (15.5 hours with a reset). With enough courts to play every ready game at once, it takes 8 rounds (9 with a reset), because each game waits for the games that feed it.
What is a grand final reset?
The upper bracket winner reaches the grand final unbeaten. If the lower bracket team wins it, both teams have one loss, so one more game decides the champion.