Brackets overview

A bracket competition asks participants to predict the outcome of a single-elimination tournament, such as the AFL finals series, the World Cup knockout stage, or March Madness.

Participants fill out their bracket before the tournament starts, picking winners for each matchup all the way to the final. Points are awarded for each correct prediction, with later rounds typically worth more.

For what a bracket competition looks like from a participant’s side of the screen, see brackets on fanzava.com.

In this section

Scoring presetsWhat each round is worth, the champion bonus, and how the leaderboard breaks ties.Multiple brackets per participantUp to five brackets each, ranked by a participant’s best, plus bracket pools.Pick visibilityWhat the field’s picks show before and after the bracket locks.Custom tournamentsWhat to send Fanzava’s team to set up a bracket for your own tournament.

How it works

1. Fanzava’s team builds the bracket: the teams, their seeds, the draw order and the lock time. Ask for it when you arrange the competition
2. Participants fill their bracket: before the entry deadline, each participant picks a winner for every matchup, all the way to the final
3. The tournament plays out: once the bracket locks, each result is recorded as its match is decided, and Fanzava advances the winner and rescores every bracket automatically. Where results come from depends on the match
4. Points accumulate: a participant whose bracket is still alive after three rounds is leading; one whose champion was eliminated in round one is catching up on points alone

How results are recorded

After the bracket locks, a result reaches it one of two ways. Scoring runs the same after either.

From the results feed. Every five minutes Fanzava checks each locked bracket for a matchup still waiting on a result. It records the matchup by itself when its two teams have met in a match that:

• is one of the competition’s own matches, and Fanzava’s results feed has marked complete
• started after the bracket locked
• has a winner
• is the only completed match between those two teams

By Fanzava’s team. Everything else is entered by hand:

• a match the feed shows as level, such as one settled on penalties, because a level match has no winner to record
• a match the feed does not carry, or one outside the competition’s rounds
• every custom tournament, which has no feed behind it
• play-in games, which are settled before the bracket locks

You do not record results yourself. If one looks wrong, contact support with the matchup and what it should say.

What a bracket can be

A bracket is a single-elimination draw of 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 or 128 teams, played from round one to the final. It can be split into regions and can include play-in games. There are no byes: every first-round slot holds a team or a play-in winner. Round names (quarter-final, semi-final, final) follow from the size of the draw.

It suits any knockout tournament that fits that shape, such as the World Cup knockout stage or March Madness. For one that Fanzava does not run from its own fixtures, see custom tournaments.

Key difference from tipping

In tipping, participants make predictions round by round. In brackets, they make all predictions upfront. This means:

• A participant whose early picks were wrong is out of contention for perfect-bracket prizes, but still scores points for later-round correct picks
• Bracket competitions create a natural narrative (“my champion is still alive”) that tipping doesn’t have

✓

Tip

Run brackets alongside a regular tipping competition to give participants two ways to compete. Many hubs run an AFL tipping comp plus an AFL finals bracket simultaneously.

i

Note

Bracket competitions are separate from tipping competitions. They have their own leaderboard and are configured independently.