Bracket templates
A bracket template is an empty knockout tree waiting for a list: the slots, the rounds and the final are drawn for you, and the entries and the winners are yours. Start from the blank bracket below, which opens with eight empty slots, or take one of the community templates and swap in your own contenders.
Start from a blank bracket
Start with an empty bracket and fill it in yourself, or pick one of the templates below and change it.
Templates from the community
Browse bracketsNo bracket templates published yet
Publish one as a template and it appears here. Anyone can then open it, change it and publish their own version.
What a blank bracket template is
A single-elimination tree with nothing written in it. Eight, sixteen or thirty two slots down the left, matchups pairing off two at a time, and one champion plate on the right. You put the contenders in the slots and decide every matchup yourself, round by round, until one is left.
It is worth being clear about what this is not. There are no fixtures, no scores, no dates, no double elimination and no way for other people to vote. It draws the tree and produces a picture of the result, which is what you want for settling the best album track or the best snack in the cupboard, and not what you want for running an actual competition.
Eight, sixteen or thirty two slots
The size decides how long the argument lasts. Eight entries is three rounds and takes a minute. Sixteen is four rounds and is the size most people mean when they say bracket. Thirty two is five rounds, which is a real evening of deciding, and sixty four is six.
Your list almost never lands exactly on one of those numbers, and it does not have to. Any count from three to two hundred and fifty six works: the tree is built to the next power of two above your count and the spare slots become byes, so an entry with nobody opposite simply walks into the second round. Twelve contenders gives a sixteen slot bracket with four byes, and it comes out even.
The size can also be changed after you start, so a template built for sixteen can be cut down or grown without starting again.
How to use a template
Opening a template gives you your own copy. The author keeps theirs, so nothing you do here affects the original or anyone else who is using it.
- Open the template. It loads in the editor as a copy that belongs to you.
- Fill the slots with names, pictures, or a picture with the name over it.
- Work through the matchups, picking a winner in each one. Change your mind and the later rounds that depended on it clear too.
- Download the finished bracket as a PNG, or publish it to get a page with its own link.
Publish a bracket template of your own
The useful templates are the ones where somebody has already typed in the field. Thirty two tracks from one album, every film in a series, all sixteen flavours a brand sells: collecting that list is the tedious part, and once it is done it is worth publishing so nobody has to do it twice.
Set the bracket up, leave the winners unpicked, then choose "Publish as template" instead of "Publish as chart" when you publish. It gets a page of its own, appears here, and anyone who opens it starts from your field with every matchup still to decide.
- Bracket maker: the editor itself, and everything a slot can hold.
- Community brackets: finished brackets people have published here.
Common questions
What is a blank bracket template?
An empty knockout tree: the slots and rounds are drawn, and the names and results are not filled in. The blank bracket at the top of this page opens one with eight empty slots, and the size can be changed once you are in the editor.
My list is not 8, 16 or 32 long. Does it still work?
Yes. Put in however many you have, from three up to two hundred and fifty six. The tree is built to the next power of two and the leftover slots become byes, so those entries skip the first round instead of facing an empty box.
Do templates come with the entries already filled in?
Usually, yes, and that is the point of them: somebody has typed in the whole field so you only have to pick winners. A template published with empty slots is still useful when the size and the styling are what you wanted.
Can I print a blank bracket?
Yes. Open the blank bracket, export it straight away without filling anything in, and you get a PNG of the empty tree to print or annotate. The downloaded file carries a thin strip under the picture with the site address on it.
Does using a template change the original?
No. You get your own copy the moment you open it, and anything you publish afterwards is a separate page. The author keeps their version exactly as it was.
Can other people vote on the matchups?
Not here. You pick every winner yourself and share the finished picture. If you want other people involved, publish the bracket and let the argument happen wherever you post the link.
How do I publish a bracket template for other people?
Fill in the contenders, leave every matchup undecided, then choose "Publish as template" in the publish dialog. It appears on this page and anyone who opens it starts from your field with the picking still to do.
Make a bracket of your own
Every template here started as somebody's own bracket. Open the bracket maker to make one from scratch.