A Tournament Bracket is a competition between multiple candidates with multiple eliminatory rounds. It begins with a first round of matchups between candidates. The loser of a matchup is directly eliminated, while the winner advances to the next round. The different rounds are played and in each one of them half of the candidates are eliminated until a single candidate is crowned as champion.

Users of the promotion participate by voting for the candidate they believe will be the winner of the matchups in each round, and they get points for each correct guess. A public ranking will be generated with the points that users accumulate.

In this tutorial we explain how to create your Bracket tournament, how to upload the candidates for the different matchups, how to generate the different eliminatory rounds and how to customize the bracket visual with the Matchups results.

 

These are the contents of the tutorial:

1. Steps to create a Bracket tournament

2. Add candidates 

3. First round pairings

4. Bracket setup options

5. First round opening

• Automatic Mode

• Manual mode

6. Closing a round and generating the next one

• Automatic Mode

• Manual Mode

7. Customization of the Voting page

8. Where is the bracket visual shown in my promotion?

9. Publication of the results of the matchup

10. How can I test the tournament before activation

11. Points obtained and users Ranking

12. Completion of the tournament: winning candidate 

13. Bracket tournament with categories, divisions or conferences

 

Steps to create a Bracket tournament

Here we explain all the steps to create a Bracket Tournament: 

 

Step 1. Create the promotion

1. Access the Easypromos Control Panel and log in with your email and password to manage and create your promotions:

2. Then click the "Create new promotion" button to start designing your promotion. 

3. All available applications will be presented on the next page. Select "Tournament Bracket" in the Multi-stage section:

2. Add candidates

Once the promotion is created, the first step is to add the candidates, who are the applicants who will face each other in the different rounds, with direct elimination. To do this, follow the steps that we indicate below.

 1. Access the Editor > Pages > Brackets and click on "Create your first bracket" to get started:

 

2. Next, enter the name that your Tournament will have and decide how many candidates will face each other. Depending on the number of candidates, the competition will have a different amount of rounds:

• 4 candidates: 2 rounds.
• 8 candidates: 3 rounds.
• 16 candidates: 4 rounds.
• 32 candidates: 5 rounds.
• 64 candidates: 6 rounds.

Note: If you are creating a competition with more candidates (For instance 32, 64, 128) check the section Bracket tournament with categories, divisions, or conferences.

3. Next, select the type of Matchup:

• By the users' votes. In this case, the promotion participants are the ones who will determine which candidate goes to the next round through their votes. For instance, a popularity contest where different cities, restaurants, establishments, etc., face each other in a competition that also takes place in various stages. In this type of Bracket tournament, with their votes, the users will get the candidates to go through the different participation rounds.
• By the score of a real matchup. In this scenario, the tournament is based on an event or external vote. This is the case, for example, in sports competitions such as the World Cup which presents a series of matches in rounds or phases (eighths, quarters, semifinals, etc.). In this case, the administrator must indicate which match goes to the next round based on the actual result of the different matches. The users will participate by making their predictions of which team will go to the final and will get points accordingly.

4. Click on the "Add Candidates" button to start registering the candidates that will face each other throughout the rounds:

5. You will be offered three alternatives to upload the candidates:

• Add one by one
• Add in bulk entering text - one candidate per line.
• Add in bulk uploading images - You will upload an image per candidate, in this case the name of the image file will be used as the candidate name.

Once you have added all candidates, the tournament will be generated:

 

Do you need to create a competition with a number of candidates different from 4, 8 or 16?

If you need to create a bracket tournament that does not quite have 4, 8 or 16 candidates, you have the option to create “byes”: some of your candidates will be exempted from the first round, and will advance automatically to the next round. 

This will allow you, for example, to create a tournament where only 6 candidates compete. In this case, what you need to do is choose a bracket with 8 contenders, but 2 of them will be byes. In this way, there will be 2 candidates who will automatically go to the next round as they will not compete with real aspirants.

To configure it, follow the steps indicated below:

 

1. Create the 6 real candidates.

2. Once created, click in the orange area "Add 2 byes":

3. Once you created the two byes, order these exemptions so that they are paired with actual candidates. You can match them with specific candidates or with random candidates. They should be paired like this:

 

4. In this way, as you can see in the following screenshot, only 6 candidates will really compete in the first round, and the restaurant "Cheers" and "Central café" will go directly to the second round, where they will compete with the other two candidates who passed the first round.

 

3. First round pairings 

The next step is to match the candidates that will face each other in the first round. For this you have two methods:

 

1. Manual pairing: You will be able to manually indicate the pairs of candidates that will face each other in the first round. To do this, you only have to sort dragging and dropping the candidates according to the couples you want to face:

2. Random Matching: This option allows the system to randomly match the candidates that will face each other in the first round. To do this, click on the "Reorder" button to modify the order of the candidate pairs:

 

4. Bracket setup options

Below we detail the different configuration options of the Bracket tournament that you will find in the "Settings" tab:

• Name of the tournament: From there you can modify the name of your competition if you wish. This name appears on the tournament page. 
• Resolution of the Matchups: This option allows you to decide how you want to resolve the matchups and the generation of the different rounds of the competition. You can choose between:
  • • By the score of a real Matchup. If the tournament is based on an event or external vote. For instance a World Cup where there are series of matches that take place in rounds or phases (eighths, quarters, semifinals, etc.). In this case, the administrator must indicate which match goes to the next round based on the actual result of the different matches. In this Round the users will participate by making their predictions of which team will go to the final and will get points according to their successes.
    • By the users vote. In this case,promotion participants are the ones who will determine which candidate goes to the next round through their votes. Example: a popularity contest where different cities, restaurants or establishments, etc., face each other. in a competition that also takes place in different stages. In this Qualifying Round, with their votes the users will get the candidates to advance in the different rounds of participation

 

• Enable automatic mode: This option allows rounds to be generated automatically as users vote. To do this, you can define a start and end date for each round, and after closing each round, the system will automatically generate the next round with the candidates who received the most votes. This option is only available when the Result of the match is by the votes of the users. This option is explained in detail in the next point of the tutorial.

 

In the "Display options" section you will find a series of options that will allow you to customize the display of the page where the Bracket tournament will be presented:

• Candidate view: Decide how you want to present the candidates in the competition (just the name, the picture and the full name, the picture and the short name, or just the picture).
• Mark eliminated candidates with a cross: Allows you to mark with a cross the candidates who are being eliminated in the different rounds.
• Show Matchup results: This option allows to show the numerical result of each confrontation in the Bracket visual of the tournament and in a public way. Example: Los Angeles Lakers 117 -  115 Chicago Bulls.
• Flip images so candidates face each other: This option will automatically flip the candidate images to the right on the Brackets visual page so that the candidates are facing off. Note: When designing the images, you should take into account that they are oriented according to the writing.
• Background color: This is the background color where the Bracket graphic is displayed.
• Header color: This is the header color of the tournament chart.
• Layout: You will be able to define the visual of the Bracket with light or dark style.
• Label of the rounds: This is the name by which each round will appear on the Bracket chart

 

5. Start of the tournament: First round opening

Once all the candidates have been uploaded, the next step is to open the first round of the competition so that the bracket tournament is activated and users can start participating. There are two ways to start the competition:

 

a) Automatic mode

This mode is only available when the criteria for selecting the winner of each matchup is based on the votes of the users (and not on the score of a real matchup as in the result of a real event).

Automatic mode allows you to program the opening and closing dates of each round, so that the system will open and close the rounds automatically.

 To enable automatic mode follow the steps indicated below:

1. In the "Settings" tab, check the box "Enable automatic mode" and then click "Schedule dates".
2. A window will open where you can indicate the start and end date of each round.
3. Finally, click on the "Candidates" tab and click on the "Start Competition" button to activate the first round.

Clicking on it will generate the first round of matches of the competition with the start and end dates you have programmed, so that users can start voting.

 

b) Manual mode

This modality can be enabled both when the resolution of the matchups is based on the result of a real confrontation (such as a sporting event), as well as Matchups where the winners are decided by the votes of the users.

This modality implies that as the tournament administrator you must access the Editor, after closing each round, to mark which is the candidate who has won each match, either according to the votes of the users or according to the result of the real event (for example, according to the result of a match).

Manual Mode is enabled by default in real matchups, and you can also enable it in matches decided by user votes. To do this, you just have to make sure that the option "Enable automatic mode" is not checked.

To generate the first round, you must click on the "Start competition" button that you will find in the "Candidates" tab:

 

Next, a window will open where you can configure the following options to generate the voting page:

• Points per correct prediction
• Generation of the voting system modality: 
• Full round: It will generate a single voting page with all the matches in the round. Recommended when voting dates are the same for all matches in the round.
• Per Matchup: Will generate a separate voting page for each match in the round. Allows you to define the voting dates for each individual match. Recommended when the voting of the matches of the same round takes place on different days.

By clicking on the button, the first round will be generated and users will be able to start voting on their candidates.

 

6. Closing a round and generating the next one

We will explain now how to close a round and generate the next one.

a) Automatic mode

The first round will automatically close at the date and time you have programmed and the next round will also start automatically according to the date indicated.

When a round is closed automatically, the following actions occur:

• The candidate with the most votes from each match automatically jumps to the next round.
• Candidates' progress in the competition is automatically updated.
• The ranking of participants is automatically updated according to the points obtained by success (Is considered a success to have placed a vote for the most voted candidate i.e. the winner of the matchup).
• The voting page is automatically generated for the next round based on the scheduled dates.

b) Manual mode

Once the voting phase of the first round is over, to generate the next round you must resolve all the matches in the round, that is, mark which candidate has won each match.

To do so, you must access the "1st round" tab and follow the steps indicated below, depending on the type of matchup you have created:

 

1. If the matchup is based on users' vote: you will be able to see the number of votes that each candidate has obtained so that you can confirm the winner that will advance to the next round. To do this, click on the "Solve" button, click on the candidate with the most points (winner) and confirm the result:

Once all the matchups have been resolved, you can open the next round by clicking the "Generate next round" button:

2. If the match is based on the score of a real event: After the actual event where the candidates faced each other (for example, a football match) is over, you will be able to access the editor of your Bracket tournament to mark the candidate who has won and proceed to the next round. To do this, click on the "Resolve" button, click on the team that has won the match, and confirm the result.

Optional: you can add the goals or points that each team has scored by entering the value in the "Score" field.

Once all the matchups have been resolved, you can start the next round by clicking the "Generate next round" button:

 

7. Customization of the Voting page

Once the first round has been generated and the competition has started, you will be able to customize the page where users will vote to make their predictions:

To do this, you must access the Editor> Pages> Brackets section, click on the round you are working on, where the following option will appear (Voting > Edit): 

There, you can edit the following options:

1. In the "Options" tab you will be able to edit the start and end date of the voting, if you are generating the rounds manually:

2. In the"Preview" tab, you can edit the following contents:

1. Show bracket with matchup position: The visual of the bracket tournament will be presented, indicating at each moment which match is being voted on.

2.  Message: the text that appears above the images of the candidates.

3. Only show candidate images: this option hides the name of the candidates. 

 

8. Where is the bracket visual shown in my promotion ?

From the Editor> Pages> Brackets> Brackets page section, you can decide if you want to publicly display the graphic presentation of the whole tournament, which is published by default.

By default, the tournament is displayed in the form of a textual representation that allows you to see the candidates of each round, the status of each round of the competition (open/close) and the votes of each round:

In addition, you also have the option to show a graphic representation of the competition:

The brackets have their own page within the promotion, which can always be accessed from the promotion's main menu:

Additionally, you have the possibility to present the tournament directly on the Welcome page of the promotion so that it is the first thing users see when accessing the promotion:

To do this, you must enable the "Show Brackets" option found in Editor> Pages> Welcome> Content:

 

9. Publication of the results of the matchups

As the competition progresses, the result of each matchup will be publicly displayed, so that users can see the number of votes each candidate has obtained. Specifically, the votes that can be seen will depend on the type of confrontation:

• If the resolution of the matchups is by the users votes, the votes of the completed rounds will be public.
• If the match is based on the score of a real event, votes of the completed rounds, as well as the votes of the currently active round will be visible.

In this way, for each round a link to "view votes" will appear, which opens a popup with the graphs of the votes for each confrontation:

From the visual graphic of the Bracket, in the header, the "view votes" button will also appear allowing you to see the votes for each candidate:

Additionally, for competitions based on real Matchups (for example, in a playoff of a sport competition), you also have the possibility to show the numerical result of each confrontation in the visual graph itself, for instance make public the goals scored by each team in each match throughout the competition:

 

10. How can I test the tournament before activation

Before launching the promotion, you have the possibility to use the Test Mode tool, which allows you to carry out a real test of the promotion, in order to participate in it just as the users will once it is activated and thus be able to check that the promotion works as expected before launching it.

In this way, with the Test Mode you will be able to test the user experience by participating exactly as in real time, thus being able to experience all the phases of participation in the Tournament: vote in each of the rounds, see the score of the participants in the Ranking, consult the votes that each candidate has obtained in each of the matchups, etc.

Additionally, you can share the promotion in Test Mode with users who are not administrators, such as the client, an external collaborator, the graphic designer, etc. so that they can also carry out all the tests they need. To do this, the administrator of the promotion will be able to create up to three invitation links and send these to external users so that they gain access to the Test Mode.

Disabling the Test Mode will eliminate all participations and votes, as well as reset all the rounds, leaving the promotion ready to activate and launch it to your audience.

To test the operation of the Tournament, you must click on the "Start competition" button. When clicked, a small window will open where the "Enable Test Mode" button will appear, click to activate it and thus be able to generate the round, as we show in the following video:

See in this tutorial how to use the Test Mode tool to test the promotion before launching it.

11. Points obtained and users Ranking 

Users who participate by voting for candidates can earn points if they selected the winning candidate for each match. In this way, a Ranking of the participants of the promotion is generated, which will be updated with the points obtained by each user based on their successes:

As administrator of the promotion, you can configure the number of points you want to assign for each successful guess. In addition, you can define a different score for each round.

To do this, you must click on the "Start Competition" button to generate the first round. A window will open where you can set the points you want to give to users for each correct prediction: 

Every time you generate a new round, the same window will open, this way you will be able to define a different number of points for the different rounds of your tournament.

If you have configured the rounds to be generated automatically, you can also define a different score per round at the time of programming the dates of each round:

 

12. Completion of the tournament: winning candidate

Once all the rounds of the Tournament have been completed, the winning candidate identified with a star will be shown in the center of the graph:

Once you have your winner, you have the possibility to directly share the Bracket page with your users to announce that there is already a winner. To do this, you can copy from the browser the URL of the Brackets page that will have this format: https://a.cstmapp.com/brackets/ID_Promotion and this way share this link to announce the result of the competition among your audience .

 

Additionally, you can reward the participants who have voted in the promotion. For this, Easypromos provides a complete Prize and Winners Management system that will allow you to create the prize or prizes that you want to give to the users who participated in the promotion, as well as configure how you want to assign the prizes and select the winners.

Specifically, you have two ways to assign the prize to the winners, depending on your choice:

1. Carry out a giveaway among all the users who have participated. Follow the steps of our tutorial to create the prize and raffle it among all the participants.
2. Assign the prize to the player/s with the first position/s in the Ranking. In this case, follow the steps of this tutorial that explains how you can assign the prize to the participants with the most points.

13. Bracket tournament with categories, divisions or conferences

For competitions that need to present a large number of candidates, there is the possibility of creating multiple active Brackets Tournaments. This option is recommended when the competition is composed of categories or divisions, so that large competitions can be created with divisions and with a total of 32, 64 or 128 candidates.

Example: A competition is organized between the different restaurants of a city, where a total of 50 restaurants compete. In this case, the restaurants could be divided according to the zone of the city (north zone, east zone, south zone and west zone), reason why 4 brackets tournaments could be created, one for each zone. [Coming soon] The grand final can be held between the 4 restaurants that have won in each Round.

 

To create more than one Bracket in the same promotion, click on the "Create new Bracket" button that you have available in the Editor> Pages> Brackets section:

Below we show how a single promotion with different Brackets is presented, where each category or division appears as a tab that allows the user to navigate from one division to another and vote in all available rounds: