32-team single elimination bracket

About a 32-team bracket

Thirty-two teams make five rounds and 31 games with no byes: sixteen first-round games, then the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and final. On one landscape sheet the bracket is tall, so the names are smaller than on a 16-team sheet.

Tabloid (11 × 17 in) or A3 paper gives the most room to write; on Letter, keep names short or use team numbers.

Byes and the first round

32 is a power of two, so there are no byes: all 32 teams play in the first round (1 v 32, 16 v 17, 8 v 25, 9 v 24, 4 v 29, 13 v 20, 5 v 28, 12 v 21, 2 v 31, 15 v 18, 7 v 26, 10 v 23, 3 v 30, 14 v 19, 6 v 27, 11 v 22). Each pairing adds up to 33, so seed 1 meets the lowest seed and seeds 1 and 2 can only meet in the final.

No seeding? Write the names in at random, or put the names into the bracket maker and choose Random draw for a reproducible draw you can print.

Round by round

Every game, in order

The same numbers as on the printed bracket, so a scorer can call out “game 5” and everyone knows where to write.

1. M1 (Round of 32): Seed 1 v Seed 32
2. M2 (Round of 32): Seed 16 v Seed 17
3. M3 (Round of 32): Seed 8 v Seed 25
4. M4 (Round of 32): Seed 9 v Seed 24
5. M5 (Round of 32): Seed 4 v Seed 29
6. M6 (Round of 32): Seed 13 v Seed 20
7. M7 (Round of 32): Seed 5 v Seed 28
8. M8 (Round of 32): Seed 12 v Seed 21
9. M9 (Round of 32): Seed 2 v Seed 31
10. M10 (Round of 32): Seed 15 v Seed 18
11. M11 (Round of 32): Seed 7 v Seed 26
12. M12 (Round of 32): Seed 10 v Seed 23
13. M13 (Round of 32): Seed 3 v Seed 30
14. M14 (Round of 32): Seed 14 v Seed 19
15. M15 (Round of 32): Seed 6 v Seed 27
16. M16 (Round of 32): Seed 11 v Seed 22
17. M17 (Round of 16): Winner of M1 v Winner of M2
18. M18 (Round of 16): Winner of M3 v Winner of M4
19. M19 (Round of 16): Winner of M5 v Winner of M6
20. M20 (Round of 16): Winner of M7 v Winner of M8
21. M21 (Round of 16): Winner of M9 v Winner of M10
22. M22 (Round of 16): Winner of M11 v Winner of M12
23. M23 (Round of 16): Winner of M13 v Winner of M14
24. M24 (Round of 16): Winner of M15 v Winner of M16
25. M25 (Quarterfinals): Winner of M17 v Winner of M18
26. M26 (Quarterfinals): Winner of M19 v Winner of M20
27. M27 (Quarterfinals): Winner of M21 v Winner of M22
28. M28 (Quarterfinals): Winner of M23 v Winner of M24
29. M29 (Semifinals): Winner of M25 v Winner of M26
30. M30 (Semifinals): Winner of M27 v Winner of M28
31. M31 (Final): Winner of M29 v Winner of M30

How long it takes

Time slots needed if each court or field plays one game per slot and a round must finish before the next starts:

Single or double elimination?

In this bracket one loss ends a team’s day, and 16 of the 32 teams are out after the first round. A 32-team double elimination bracket gives every team at least two games, at a cost of 62 or 63 games instead of 31, with a losers’ bracket of 8 rounds. The bracket maker can draw one for 32 teams.

Final placings

A finished bracket places every team. Teams knocked out in the same round share a place unless you play extra games to separate them.

• 1st: 1 team
• 2nd: 1 team
• 3rd–4th: 2 teams (or 3rd and 4th after a third-place game)
• 5th–8th: 4 teams
• 9th–16th: 8 teams
• 17th–32nd: 16 teams

Printing it

The Print button prints only the bracket, landscape, scaled to one page, with a title and a date line. Smallest text on the page for each paper size (below about 6 pt it is hard to read; handwriting needs the line, not the text):

• Letter (11 × 8.5 in): about 5.8 pt
• A4 (297 × 210 mm): about 5.8 pt
• Legal (14 × 8.5 in): about 6 pt
• Tabloid (17 × 11 in): about 7.9 pt

Tabloid (or A3) is the best fit for this size. On Letter or A4 it still fits on one page, but the text is small: keep names short, or write team numbers.

Page last reviewed 30 September 2026.