Worked Example: Knockout — 16-Player Single Elimination

Step 1: Create the Tournament

1. Dashboard → New Tournament
2. Select Knockout tournament type
3. Name: “Singles Championship”, Sport: Padel
4. Schedule: Sunday, 4 courts, 9:00–16:00

Step 2: Register Players

Open registration and confirm 16 singles players.

Step 3: Create the Draw

1. Go to Draws tab → New Draw
2. Select Straight Bracket (Knockout)
3. Configure:
   • Name: “Championship”
   • Format: Singles
   • Knockout scoring: Padel (best-of-3, 6 games, tiebreak)
   • Third-place match: Enabled
4. Click Create

Step 4: The 3-Step Knockout Wizard

After creating the draw, the setup wizard appears inline:

Step 1 — Select Players

1. Entry type: Singles participants
2. Draw size: 16 (the smallest power-of-2 bracket that fits 16 players)
3. Select all 16 confirmed players from the list

Step 2 — Assign Positions

1. Choose a method:
   • Spin Wheel: Randomly assigns all 16 players to bracket slots in one click
   • Manual: Click a player, then click a bracket slot to place them. Click two occupied slots to swap.
2. The bracket diagram shows the full tree: Round of 16 → QF → SF → Final

Step 3 — Match Setup (Sessions)

1. Configure one session per bracket stage:
   • R16: 4 courts, start 9:00, 8 matches (2 rotations)
   • QF: 4 courts, start 11:00, 4 matches (1 rotation)
   • SF: 2 courts, start 13:00, 2 matches
   • Final + Bronze: 2 courts, start 15:00
2. Review the session schedule matrix
3. Click Generate Bracket

Step 5: What Gets Generated

The system creates all 4 stages at once:

• Round of 16: 8 matches with real player names — assigned courts/times from the session config
• Quarterfinal: 4 matches — both sides TBD (fill as R16 matches complete)
• Semifinal: 2 matches — TBD
• Final & Bronze: 2 matches — TBD

TBD matches already have their court and time assigned, so the full schedule is visible upfront.

Step 6: Score & Auto-Advance

1. Start tournament → score R16 matches
2. As each match completes, its winner automatically appears in the QF slot
3. No manual advance needed — the bracket updates live
4. Semifinal losers auto-drop into the bronze match

BYEs: What If You Have Fewer Than 16 Players?

If only 12 players register, the 16-slot bracket still works:

• 4 BYE slots are placed at standard positions (outer extremes of the bracket)
• Bye-adjacent players skip R16 and appear directly in the QF
• No “vs BYE” match is created — the bye player is placed into their QF slot at generation time
• The bracket diagram shows muted “Bye” placeholder cards in R16

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