Feed-In Dropdown

A feed-in dropdown is a consolation bracket in which losers of a main Single elimination bracket drop into after their loss. Losers from the first round all the way to losers in the quarterfinal round feed into a position.

Losing in an early round of the main draw will require the team to have more matches in the feed-in dropdown. After winning a match in the feed-in dropdown, the player advances to the next round and waits for a loser from a later round in the main draw to feed in.

Losers from the semi final round of the main draw usually compete in a separate third place playoff match and do not drop into the feed-in dropdown.

As opposed to double elimination brackets, once a participant loses and drops into the feed-in dropdown, they are no longer competing for the division championship.

Using a feed-in dropdown format allows up to 8th place to be determined for final division standings

Most commonly used for tournament play and not recommended for leagues and seasons.

Advantages

Allows a player that loses in an early round to still win 5th place, as opposed to a classic plate dropdown where only losers of the quarters compete for 5th place.

A feed-in dropdown division guarantees all division participants at least two matches.

Disadvantages:

More games have to be scheduled for competition so this format is harder to use if you have limited space.

Harder to set times because depending on the number of players, sometimes losers from two different rounds in the main draw feed into the same round of the feed-in dropdown, so the feed in match has to be played later.