A single-elimination draw with match times and tables, sent to the players before a small tournament.
A bracket answers two questions for every player: who am I playing, and when. This draw, for eight pairs at an office table-tennis afternoon, can be clicked through to a champion. A page can't gather scores from players' phones, so somebody keeps the real results, and the page should say who.
Who it's for
The organizer, usually the person who suggested the tournament out loud. Table tennis at work, five-a-side in the park, a chess club knockout. Send it a few days ahead, once the draw is done, so people know their first match and who they'd meet next.
It suits four to sixteen entrants in a straight knockout. A league or a round robin reads better as a table of fixtures. If every player must enter their own score, use a tournament app.
What a good one contains
- The whole draw on one screen. Eight pairs, seven matches and three rounds, joined by lines. People trace their route to the final before they read a word.
- A time and a table on every match. Later rounds get a slot too, so a semi-finalist knows to be at the loading bay at 4:00 pm.
- Players beside the team names. "Front Desk" is the funnier label, but Agnes and Paulo are who the opponents go looking for.
- Empty slots that say what they're waiting for. A semi-final reads "Winner of match 1" until that match is picked.
- One tap to advance, one more to undo. Changing an early result clears the later picks that relied on it, so no pair shows in a final they didn't reach.
- A champion box. It reads "To be decided" until the final is picked, then turns red with the winners' names.
- House rules in four lines. Best of three, first to 11, losers umpire the next match. Writing it down saves an argument at 3:05.
One official copy
Each person's taps stay on their own screen, and a reload clears them. Decide before the day who keeps the true bracket. The simple way is you, on a laptop beside the table, calling results out.
If people will follow from their desks, put the results into the page between rounds. Say in the conversation where you made the page that Night Shift won match 1 and Accounts won match 2, then publish again to the same link. Anyone who reloads sees the bracket as it stands.
Leave more time between rounds than you think you need. The sample allows 25 minutes for a best-of-three, and 40 from the semi-finals to the final. Once a 4:00 semi-final starts at 4:20, nobody trusts the times on the page.
How to send it
As an open link. Players pass it to their partners and to whoever is coming to watch. A draw has nothing private on it, and nobody wants to type a password beside the table.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
