How Round Robin to Bracket works
These formats run round robin pool play first, then use the pool standings to seed a playoff bracket. Teams register as fixed pairs and keep the same partner throughout, exactly as in a standard round robin — the difference is what happens after pools finish.
The three variants
Pick the variant at creation. They share an identical pool stage and differ only in the bracket.
Format | Bracket | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
Round Robin to Single Elimination | One loss and you are out | You want a clean, short playoff |
Round Robin to Double Elimination | Teams must lose twice; losers drop to a consolation bracket | You want top teams to survive one bad match |
Round Robin to Compass | Four cascading brackets; losers drop rather than exit | You want everyone to keep playing — at least 3 games guaranteed |
All three support singles or doubles divisions.
The two stages
Stage 1 — pool play. A normal set-partner round robin. Teams are split into pools, play the teams in their pool, and standings rank them. This stage behaves exactly like Round Robin (Set Partners), including single/double/custom rounds, cross-group play, court restriction, and byes for odd team counts.
Stage 2 — the bracket. You choose how many teams advance, and the app seeds them from the pool standings into a knockout bracket on the Knockout tab. Pool results stay intact; the bracket is a separate set of matches.
The bracket is not generated automatically. You trigger it when pool play is done.
How seeding works
Teams are ranked by the pool standings, using your division's configured sort — by default Wins, then Head-to-Head, then Point Differential. The bracket then pairs them so the highest seed meets the lowest, the second-highest meets the second-lowest, and the two top seeds can only meet in the final.
If the number of advancing teams is not a power of two (4, 8, 16, 32), byes are added to fill the bracket. Teams with a bye skip straight to their first real match.
When byes create a second-round matchup between two teams from the same pool, the app rearranges bracket slots to avoid it where it can, so teams who already met in pools do not immediately meet again.
Third-place match
A bronze match is created automatically when the bracket has two real semifinals. If a semifinal contains a bye, no bronze match is created. Scoring it is optional — it never blocks the final.
Key rules
Complete pools before generating. The app warns you if pool matches are still unscored and lets you continue, but the seeding will be based on incomplete standings.
The bracket is rebuildable. Clearing the bracket removes only knockout matches; pool play scores are untouched.
Partners are fixed. The team that played pools is the team that plays the bracket.