# Tournament formats and brackets (/en/businesses/events/tournaments/formats-and-brackets) The format decides who plays whom, how many matches each player gets and what a win is worth. You pick it per bracket. One tournament can run an Americano for one level and a knockout for another. --- ## Choosing a format [#choosing-a-format] | Format | Teams | Who plays whom | Good for | | ---------------------- | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | | **Americano** | Solo, partners rotate | A new partner every round | Social nights where everyone meets everyone | | **Team americano** | Fixed pairs | Every pair plays every other pair once | Pairs who want lots of matches | | **Mexicano** | Solo, partners rotate | First round random, then paired from the leaderboard | Close matches all evening, mixed levels | | **Team mexicano** | Fixed pairs | First round random, then paired from the leaderboard | Pairs of mixed levels | | **Round robin** | Any size | Every team plays every other team once | Small groups, league-style weekends | | **Single elimination** | Any size | Knockout, a loss puts the team out | Cups and finals days | | **Double elimination** | Any size | Knockout, a team is out after its second loss | Cups where one bad match should not end the day | Players sign up alone for Americano and Mexicano, and as pairs for their team variants. Round robin and the knockouts take any team size you set. For groups that feed a knockout, run the groups as round-robin brackets and add the qualifiers to a knockout bracket. Golf simulator competitions have [formats of their own](/businesses/events/tournaments/golf-simulator-competitions). The bracket's gender, **Open**, **Men**, **Women** or **Mixed**, is a label customers see. Check the pairs in a **Mixed** bracket before you generate the chart. --- ## Americano and Mexicano scoring [#americano-and-mexicano-scoring] In Americano and Mexicano, each match has a pool of **Points per match**, often 32. The two scores of a match add up to at most that, and players are ranked by the total points they win. Players level on points share a placement, and the podium shows all of them. **Americano partners.** Every player partners every other player once when the bracket has a multiple of four players, or one more than that. With one more, a different player sits out each round. **Mexicano pairing.** The first round is a random draw, or follows the [starting order](/businesses/events/tournaments/running-a-tournament#starting-order) you set. After it, Thril pairs players or pairs that sit close on the leaderboard. The matches stay even. A Mexicano bracket runs as many rounds as you have time for. Read more in [Running a Mexicano bracket](/businesses/events/tournaments/running-a-tournament#running-a-mexicano-bracket). --- ## Sets and score rules [#sets-and-score-rules] Round robin and the knockouts are played in sets. You set how many sets a match is played over, how many games win a set, and whether a set can go to a tiebreak. **Enable super tiebreak** plays the deciding set as one tiebreak. A set ends at most one game past its target, such as 7-5 or 7-6 in a set to six. A round-robin match can end level on sets. A knockout match needs a winner. ### Placement matches [#placement-matches] In a knockout, **Generate placement matches up to X place** lets the losing teams keep playing for their final ranking, down to the place you choose. In double elimination the losers' final already decides third place. --- ## Deciding the format later [#deciding-the-format-later] Turn on **Decide bracket formats after registration** when you create the tournament, or leave a bracket's format at **Not decided yet**. Sign-ups work as usual, and you pick the format once you know how many players you have. If players signed up alone and you pick a pairs format, Thril deals them into random pairs. You can swap players or reshuffle the teams afterwards. You can change a bracket's format or team size later too. Sign-ups, payments and the queue stay. Generate the chart again when the teams look right. --- ## Limits, caps and queues [#limits-caps-and-queues] - **Participant limits** work per bracket, overall or per resource, as on [events](/businesses/events/registration-and-payments#participant-limits). Limits per resource fit brackets of one player per team. - **Maximum players in the tournament** caps the confirmed players across every bracket. When it is reached, the brackets stop taking players. A bracket's queue still takes entries and promotes players when the tournament has room. - **Queuing** fits brackets of one player per team. A player in the queue can take a spot even after registration has closed.