Most offices choose a format in about ten seconds, usually whichever one somebody remembers from last time. It is also the choice that settles whether you finish before people drift home and whether the winner deserves it, which is a lot to hang on ten seconds.
So: four formats, what each one costs you in matches, and a rule at the bottom for anyone who’d rather not read the reasoning.
Single elimination
Lose once and you’re out. Pairs play, winners advance, the bracket halves each round until one player is left. Everybody already understands it, which is worth more than it sounds.
Matches: one fewer than the number of players. Eight players is seven matches, sixteen is fifteen, thirty-two is thirty-one.
Rounds: eight players takes three rounds, sixteen takes four, thirty-two takes five.
Good for: one afternoon, one table, a clear winner by the end of lunch. It is also the only format on this page you can draw on a whiteboard without concentrating.
The weakness: one unlucky frame or one dodgy call ends somebody’s whole tournament. Half the field is out after the first round, back at their desks while the event they turned up for carries on without them. Seeding matters more here than anywhere else. Put your two best players in the same quarter of the draw and your final is between the third and fourth best, which everyone in the room will notice.
If the player count isn’t a power of two, the first round needs byes. Give them to the top seeds, and put the byes in the bracket positions that keep the second round balanced.
Double elimination
Two brackets. Everyone starts in the winners bracket. Lose once and you drop into the losers bracket, where you keep playing. Lose twice and you’re out. The winners-bracket champion meets the losers-bracket champion in a grand final.
Matches: two times the players minus two, plus one possible bracket reset. Eight players is fourteen or fifteen, sixteen is thirty or thirty-one, thirty-two is sixty-two or sixty-three. Roughly double single elimination.
Good for: when the winner has to be the actual best player and you have the time for twice the matches. Bragging rights that survive a quarter. Small fields too, where one early loss otherwise means sitting out most of your own tournament.
The weakness: it takes twice as long, and the losers bracket baffles anybody who hasn’t seen one before. Drawing one by hand is a miserable job. On a single table it jams up too, because the losers bracket runs more rounds than the winners and every one of them has to happen somewhere.
Round robin
Everyone plays everyone. Points for wins build a table, and the table decides the winner.
Matches: players times players minus one, divided by two. Eight players is twenty-eight matches, sixteen is a hundred and twenty, thirty-two is nearly five hundred.
Good for: eight players or fewer, or anything you’re running as a league over several weeks. The fairest format there is, because no single result decides anything.
The weakness: the match count explodes past eight players. Dead rubbers turn up once the title is settled, and two people always finish level, so agree a tiebreak before you start. Head to head first, then games or frames difference.
Swiss
The chess format, and badly underused in offices. Everyone plays the same number of rounds. In each round you are paired against somebody on the same record as you. Nobody is eliminated, and the best record after the last round wins.
Matches: half the players per round, for a fixed number of rounds. Sixteen players over four rounds is thirty-two matches. Thirty-two players over five rounds is eighty.
Good for: big fields on a short clock. Everyone plays every round, so nobody is back at their desk fifteen minutes in, and it costs a fraction of what round robin would. Use as many rounds as it takes to halve the field down to one: three for eight players, four for sixteen, five for thirty-two.
The weakness: the pairings need working out each round, which is a pain by hand and trivial with software. The winner is occasionally decided on tiebreaks rather than a final, which lands flat in a room that was expecting a showdown. If people want a final, take the top four into a short knockout afterwards.
Match counts at a glance
| Players | Single elim | Double elim | Round robin | Swiss (rounds) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 7 | 14 to 15 | 28 | 12 (3) |
| 16 | 15 | 30 to 31 | 120 | 32 (4) |
| 32 | 31 | 62 to 63 | 496 | 80 (5) |
Multiply by your average match length and divide by the number of tables to get a running time. A pool frame is ten to fifteen minutes. A best-of-five table tennis match is about ten. A darts leg is five. A FIFA match is twelve including menus. Do that sum before you promise sixteen people a round robin.
A rule for choosing
- One afternoon, one table, any number of players: single elimination.
- You want the right winner and can spare two sessions: double elimination.
- Eight or fewer and you’d rather run it over a few weeks: round robin.
- Sixteen or more and you want everyone playing all afternoon: Swiss, with a top-four knockout if people want a final.
- Twelve to twenty-four and you want the familiar shape: round-robin groups of four, then a single-elimination bracket for the group winners and runners-up.
Two extras worth adding
A third-place match. In single elimination the two losing semi-finalists otherwise go home with nothing to play for. It is one extra match and it usually runs on a spare table while somebody sets up the final.
Best-of from the semi-finals. Single frames or games in the early rounds to keep things moving, then best of three from the semis onwards. A handful of extra matches, and the final stops being a coin toss on one lucky break. We do this every time.
Sport-specific notes
Pool and darts usually mean one table or one board, so match count is your hard limit. Single elimination or Swiss for anything above eight. Our office pool tournament guide walks through the practicalities.
Table tennis matches are quick, so round robin stretches to slightly larger groups, and a challenge ladder beats any bracket for ongoing play.
Mario Kart breaks every format above, because four people race at once. It wants heats rather than a bracket, covered in how to organise a Mario Kart tournament.
FIFA and other one-on-one video games behave like pool: fixed match length, one console is one table. Double elimination works well because the matches are short enough to afford it.
Whichever you pick, write the format down before the first match and put the bracket where everyone can see it. Desk Champ draws single elimination, double elimination and round robin brackets, adds byes automatically for awkward player counts, lets players log results from a phone, and keeps the live bracket on a screen so nobody has to ask who they’re playing next. Its double elimination grand final is a single match, so if you want a bracket reset, agree that as a house rule before the day.