The complete Brackify bracket guide

Follow the tournament from creation through registration, check-in, match play, results, and sharing. Available controls depend on the bracket format, its current status, your role, and account access.

Browse brackets and understand visibility

The Brackets page supports search and filters for game, format, and status. Its browse sections include Featured, Registration Open, Live, Registration Closed, and Completed. The Live section includes tournaments in Check-in as well as tournaments In Progress. Completed also includes cancelled listings.

Discoverable in public browse and eligible for public sharing and embedding when the bracket meets the embed rules.

Unlisted from public discovery. Anyone with the direct link can view the bracket; organizer and moderator access is still required to change it. Private does not mean password-protected.

A separate organizer tool that generates the bracket for review. Only the owner and moderators see the generated structure; other viewers see a waiting screen until the tournament is started.

Preview does not change Public or Private visibility, start match timers, or send tournament-start announcements. Starting publishes the preview and begins the normal tournament flow.

Choose the format before setting rules

The format determines who advances, what standings mean, and which settings are available.

Best-of series and seeding

For non-Team-Battle formats, choose Best of 1, 3, 5, or 7. In elimination formats, choose Manual, Random, or Skill-based seeding. Round Robin hides elimination-only seeding and match settings.

Season and League child formats

A multi-event parent accepts Single or Double Elimination child brackets. Round Robin and Team Battle are standalone formats. See Seasonal Events and League System for parent-specific behavior.

Create a bracket in the wizard

Open Create a bracket and work through the seven steps. The wizard validates the fields needed for the chosen format before it saves.

Discord registration gate

When enabled, a participant must connect Discord. If the organizer supplies a server invite, Brackify also verifies membership in that server before accepting registration.

Self-reporting lets eligible match participants submit their own score. Media attachments allow match screenshots or videos as evidence. Predictions can be enabled for supported formats. Each feature can be switched off by the organizer.

Registration and the participant path

Before you register

Self-registration must be enabled and the bracket must still be open. The entrant must have an available slot, meet the country rules, and pass any Discord requirement. Registration uses a signed-in, claimed Brackify account.

Guest and claim-pending entries

Organizers can manage entries that are not yet connected to a claimed account. Name-only guests and claim-pending entries cannot complete every self-service action; staff may need to manage their tournament or match check-in until the claim is complete.

No approval queue or waitlist

A valid registration joins the roster directly. The current registration flow does not put entrants into an organizer approval queue, custom application questions, or a waitlist.

Deadline: An explicit registration deadline is honored. If a standalone bracket has no deadline, registration closes at its scheduled start time. For a Season or League child, a blank deadline defaults to that child bracket’s scheduled start date and time in its own time zone. See the Seasonal Events guide .

Capacity: The organizer sets the participant limit for standard brackets. If automatic close-on-full is enabled, the bracket closes registration after the last slot is taken. Team Battle uses team slots and captain registration instead of the ordinary participant cap.

After joining: Use the same claimed account associated with your participant entry for self-service check-in and match actions. The bracket page may also offer tournament announcement preferences to registered participants.

Run the tournament through its lifecycle

From Registration Closed or Check-in, an owner or moderator can generate a preview once at least two entrants are ready. Review the seeding, byes, and generated matches, then use Start Tournament when the bracket should become visible and active.

Keep the event date accurate

Registration can close automatically at its deadline, at the scheduled start when no separate deadline is set, or when the bracket reaches capacity if close-on-full is enabled. The lifecycle service can also mark an active bracket Completed after its scheduled date has passed.

A normal start requires at least two participants or teams. Team Battle has additional checks for its team slots, captain claims, roster size, and structure. A League may block a child from starting out of sequence or lock it after results are finalized; see the League System guide .

There are two different check-ins

Whole-tournament attendance happens before the bracket starts. Match check-in happens separately for each match after play begins.

1. In Admin Panel, move the bracket to Check-in.

2. Participants open the Check-In tab and confirm attendance with the account linked to their entry.

3. Organizers can review the roster’s checked-in, pending, and no-show states and manage guest entries.

The Settings step stores a tournament check-in lead time. Selecting it does not itself switch the bracket into Check-in; the organizer controls that status transition. For in-person events, Auto-DQ settings can optionally let tournament attendance count as Round 1 match readiness.

Per-match check-in and Auto-DQ

For standard brackets, enable Auto-DQ and choose how a ready match is called: automatically, by an organizer, or at its scheduled time. Set the match timer from 5 to 60 minutes in the wizard. Admin settings allow a wider timer range after creation.

Both players check in: the match proceeds normally.

Exactly one account-linked player checks in: the absent player can be automatically disqualified when the timer expires.

Neither player checks in, a guest is involved, or the attendance data is unclear: the match waits in the organizer review queue.

Auto-DQ is not available for Team Battle. In Scheduled mode, a match with no scheduled time remains uncalled. If a schedule is not available for your event, use Automatic or Organizer calling.

The Match Check-In admin queue can pause or resume timers, extend an open timer, check in one or both players, resolve a reviewed no-show, or reverse an eligible DQ. A final-match DQ reversal can reopen a completed bracket; reversal is blocked when later match activity or finalized League results make it unsafe.

Record results and understand advancement

An owner or moderator can record or correct a score, select a winner, or enter a disqualification. A completed match advances its winner through the bracket.

When self-report is enabled, only participants assigned to that match may submit its result. A signed-in user who is not in that match cannot report it.

When media attachments are enabled, match participants can attach screenshots or videos as evidence. The match card displays the available evidence.

Result verification control: current limitation

The wizard and bracket details still show a “Require Verification” option, but the current result-submission flow does not hold a participant report for opponent approval. A permitted self-report is recorded as the match result and can advance the bracket. Organizers should review reports and correct disputes in Admin Panel; do not rely on this toggle as a two-player approval queue.

Single Elimination advances winners and removes losers. Double Elimination also moves first-loss participants into the losers bracket, with a reset final possible when the losers finalist takes the first Grand Finals set.

Every result recalculates standings using the organizer’s ordered ranking criteria. Review the standings table for match wins, points difference, points scored, and game/set wins.

Predictions and scoring

When the organizer enables Predictions, the bracket page shows a prediction contest. A claimed Brackify account is required to submit a pick. Submit or revise it while the bracket is Registration Open, Registration Closed, or Check-in; submissions lock when the bracket starts.

For a standard bracket, pick three different entrants to finish first, second, and third, so at least three entrants must be available. Team Battle uses its own prediction rules, including two placements when the event has only two teams; see the Team Battle guide.

A correct winner is worth 10 points, second place 6, and third place 4. Points are recalculated as actual placements become available. Round Robin placements follow the final standings.

Follow the contest

The prediction page includes a leaderboard and community pick statistics. Entries with equal points are ordered by when the prediction was last submitted.

Organizer and moderator controls

Open the Admin Panel from the bracket page. Owners and authorized moderators can manage a tournament; the current status and format determine which operations are available.

The creator is the owner. The owner can add or remove moderators and delete the bracket. Moderators can use the Admin Panel for tournament operations but do not receive owner-only moderator and deletion controls.

Admin Panel JSON export contains tournament details, participant names and email addresses, check-in status, and match scores and outcomes. The separate complete data export is a Pro feature and includes broader tournament, registration, standings, and analytics data. Keep exported participant information private.

Use the live bracket page

Bracket page tabs appear according to the bracket state and enabled features. These sections are not all visible for every viewer or every format.

Bracket visualizer and graphics

The visualizer supports zoom, image export, and views for Full Bracket, Top 8, Winners, or Losers where the format supports them. Completed standard elimination brackets can use Top 8 Graphic Studio. The completed bracket can also offer a participant result card.

Embed and OBS

Add to your site is available for a public bracket with a custom URL, excluding preview, test, and cancelled brackets. Pro organizers can copy an OBS browser-source scene link; it displays the bracket and updates while the scene is open.

The bracket page receives live updates while open. A completed Team Battle has its own Team Winners Studio; see the Team Battle guide .

Paid registration and prize pots

Paid registration is gated beta access, so the option may not appear for every organizer. If enabled, finish PayPal Business setup and accept the Tournament Payments & Prize Pots Policy before publishing paid checkout.

Set a tournament entry fee and an optional venue fee. Players see an itemized total and complete PayPal checkout before their registration is confirmed.

Non-Pro organizers currently choose whether the $0.49 Brackify service fee is shown as a separate player charge or absorbed from tournament proceeds. Pro removes that Brackify fee.

An optional community prize pot uses a separate checkout. Contributions are voluntary and its progress can be shown on the registration page.

The organizer can review registration and contribution orders, eligible refunds, and a CSV payment report from the registration page.