How many matches in a 20 team single elimination bracket?

Nineteen: four in the first round, then eight, four, two and the final. A third place play-off makes it twenty.

How many byes are there with 20 teams?

Twelve. A thirty two slot bracket has twelve empty places and they go to seeds 1 through 12, so only seeds 13 to 20 play in the opening round.

Should 20 teams use groups instead?

Often, yes. Four groups of five guarantees every team four matches, and the top two from each group makes a tidy sixteen team knockout with no byes at all.

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20 Team Single Elimination Bracket

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Twenty teams needs a thirty two slot bracket, which leaves twelve empty places. Seeds 1 through 12 take those byes and the remaining eight teams play four opening matches, after which the draw is a clean sixteen team bracket the rest of the way.

Nineteen matches over five rounds is a full day. If your event promises every team more than one match, consider four groups of five playing a round robin first and taking the top two into a sixteen team knockout, which is what tournaments this size usually do.

How the draw is structured

Entrants

Matches played

Rounds

Byes

Round by round

Round	Matches	Entrants left after it
Round 1	4	16
Round of 16	8	8
Quarter-Finals	4	4
Semi-Finals	2	2
Grand Final	1	1
3rd Place	1	1

Opening round by seed

Seeds are paired so the strongest and weakest meet first, which keeps the top seeds in opposite halves of the draw. This is the order the board is drawn in, top to bottom.

Seed 1: bye
16 v 17
Seed 8: bye
Seed 9: bye
Seed 4: bye
13 v 20
Seed 5: bye
Seed 12: bye
Seed 2: bye
15 v 18
Seed 7: bye
Seed 10: bye
Seed 3: bye
14 v 19
Seed 6: bye
Seed 11: bye

Why there are 12 byes

A knockout bracket has to halve cleanly every round, so it is built at the next power of two above the field. 20 entrants are drawn into a 32 slot bracket, which leaves 12 slots empty. Those go to the top seeds, so seeds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 sit out the opening round and enter in round two. If you would rather the byes fell at random, shuffle the seeds before generating.

How long it takes

Rounds run one after another, because a round cannot start until the one feeding it has finished. Matches inside a round can all run at once, so the number of courts you have decides the day more than the number of entrants does.

Courts	10 min matches	20 min matches	30 min matches
1	3h 20m	6h 40m	10h
2	1h 50m	3h 40m	5h 30m
4	1h 10m	2h 20m	3h 30m

Playing time only. Add changeovers, warm-ups and the gap between rounds.

Questions

How many matches in a 20 team single elimination bracket?: Nineteen: four in the first round, then eight, four, two and the final. A third place play-off makes it twenty.
How many byes are there with 20 teams?: Twelve. A thirty two slot bracket has twelve empty places and they go to seeds 1 through 12, so only seeds 13 to 20 play in the opening round.
Should 20 teams use groups instead?: Often, yes. Four groups of five guarantees every team four matches, and the top two from each group makes a tidy sixteen team knockout with no byes at all.