Tournament games calculator

How the time is worked out

Court time is games times minutes per game. Clock time puts games in the same round on different courts at the same time, and a round waits for the one before it. A round with 4 games on 2 courts takes two slots.

Real events run a little longer than the calculator: add 10 to 15 percent for warm-ups, disputes and late teams.

Reading the result

The calculator gives three numbers. Games is how many matches will be played. Court time is games multiplied by the length of each game. Clock time is how long the event takes when games in the same round run side by side on your courts.

A 16-team single elimination bracket is 15 games; at 30 minutes that is 7 h 30 min of court time, but on four courts the clock time is 2 h 30 min, because rounds of 8, 4, 2 and 1 games finish together.

Common mistakes

Forgetting the replayed final in double elimination adds a whole game at the end. Counting every game at the same length hides that finals run longer. Planning one court per game ignores rests and warm-ups; add 10 minutes between rounds for a realistic day.

Questions