Consolation Bracket

A consolation bracket, sometimes called a dropdown bracket, is a type of division format where losers from a main single elimination bracket feed in as the lose their first match.

Single elimination bracket are most commonly used for the consolation bracket of a division. Round robin tournament brackets and group pool play bracket are also used.

Sometimes the consolation bracket can have a consolation bracket itself. In this case, the losers of the main draw drops into the first dropdown bracket, and the losers of that draw feed into a lower consolation bracket. Advanced dropdown brackets include: Feed-in Dropdown, Olympic Format Division, and Triple Knockout tournament brackets.

A consolation bracket is typically used in tournaments to allow participants who lose in the main draw in the first round of competition to play more instead of having one win and they go home.

The winner of the consolation bracket doesn’t win the main draw, rather they win a separate award for winning the dropdown consolation bracket.

Consolation brackets are not often used for leagues and seasons because a team could be eliminated after 2 games.

Some tournaments schedule consolation matches at the same time as the main draw matches to avoid scheduling conflicts. Other directors choose to have consolation brackets play at the start or end of the day.

In the main draw when a participant with a first round bye loses, sometimes a consolation bracket saves a spot for this loser, and others consider the bye as a match played and don’t hold a dropdown position for them.

Advantages

Weaker players competing against higher seeded players in the first round sometimes have very little chance to win. The consolation bracket provides the early losers a chance to compete against a closer skill level player and improve their ranking.

Guarantees two more matches instead of lose and go home.

Disadvantages

The consolation bracket format requires more matches to be played compared to Single elimination brackets If there is limited available time to play, it may be hard to schedule additional matches.

Some players don’t like to play consolation brackets because they feel they should have won in the main draw and they are “too good” for it. This can often lead to no show matches where opponents would get byes into the next round.