Bracket types
The right bracket for every class.
Choose how each division, or each class, is run. The international wrestling formats are built in, and so are the formats clubs and other sports use.
The wrestling standard
The default. It picks the format from the number of wrestlers in the class, under the UWW freestyle rules.
UWW formats by number of wrestlers
One pool for up to five wrestlers, two pools and semi-finals for six or seven, and a knockout with repechage from eight. Two bronze medals.
Round robin and small classes
For a class of a few wrestlers, a youth class, or a class that should wrestle more.
Round robin
Everyone wrestles everyone. Or set a limit on how many matches each wrestler has.
Three wrestlers, comeback
The first loser wrestles the third wrestler, and the two winners meet in the final.
Three wrestlers, shortcut winner
The same, but there is no final if the two have already met.
Best of three
Two wrestlers, and the first to win two bouts takes it. A deciding bout is made only if it is needed.
Single elimination
A knockout, with three ways to decide third place.
No bronze bout
The two semi-final losers share third place.
With a bronze bout
The two semi-final losers wrestle each other for third place.
Shortcut bronze
No bronze bout: third goes to the semi-final loser beaten by the champion.
Double elimination and repechage
Second chances for wrestlers who lose. Some formats give a second chance to everyone beaten by a finalist (repechage), and some give everyone who loses a place in a losers' bracket.
Two bronze medals
Everyone beaten by a finalist wrestles back. The two repechage winners each take bronze. You can limit second chances to a round or later.
With a bronze bout
The same, but the two repechage winners wrestle each other for a single bronze medal.
Wrestleback
Only wrestlers beaten by a finalist in the round you choose, or later, get a second chance. Bronze is shared, or a bout.
Losers' bracket to the final
Everyone who loses drops into a losers' bracket. Its winner meets the winners' bracket champion in the final.
True double elimination
As above, and if the losers' bracket winner wins the final, the two wrestle again for gold.
True second double elimination
Repechage with two bronze medals, plus a bout for silver: the repechage winner from the champion's side against the finalist who lost.
Two bouts guaranteed
Everyone who loses drops into a losers' bracket, so everyone wrestles at least twice. The winners' final decides gold and silver, and the losers' bracket decides bronze.
Pools, then a knockout, and placement
Pools, then a knockout
From one to eight pools, then the best from each pool go through to a knockout with a bronze bout. You choose how many pools and how many go through, and the pools are kept even with the strongest wrestlers apart.
Placement
No bouts at all. The organizer enters every place by hand, for a class that is decided another way.
How you choose
- Set a bracket type for a whole division, and every class in it follows.
- Draw any one class another way when it needs it, before you draw it.
- If a type does not fit a class (three wrestlers' types need exactly three, for example) you are told why, and nothing is drawn.
- The bracket keeps its type and settings, so its results can always be worked out again.
Still to come
Coming
- Judges' voting brackets, for kata and similar
Not sure which bracket suits your event?
Tell us about your classes and we will help you choose. We are running pilots now and launch in Q4 2026.
Get in touch