Cup and Consolation Format: How It Works in Score7
What it is
A cup and consolation tournament in Score7 is two independent knockout brackets running in parallel, each producing its own champion:
- Cup — the top finishers from an earlier stage
- Consolation — the remaining finishers from that same earlier stage
The brackets are populated once, at stage creation, from the standings of a prior round-robin or Swiss stage. They then run as two separate single-elimination tournaments. There is no path from one bracket to the other, no grand final between them, and no "first-round losers drop down" routing.
At the end of the tournament you have two winners — a Cup champion and a Consolation champion.
This is sometimes called "Cup and Plate" (the rugby convention) or "Main and Consolation". They all describe the same structure.
How it works in Score7
Cup and consolation is the final stage of a multi-stage tournament. It is not a standalone format — it always follows an earlier stage that produces standings.
- First stage — a round-robin group phase or a Swiss phase. Every participant plays a fixed number of matches.
- Promotion — when the first stage finishes, Score7 ranks every participant. The top N go into the Cup bracket, the next M go into the Consolation bracket.
- Cup bracket — runs as a single-elimination knockout. Top seeds typically play later seeds in round one, semifinals, final.
- Consolation bracket — runs as its own single-elimination knockout, completely independent. Its own rounds, its own final, its own winner.
Both brackets run in parallel — if you have the venue capacity, matches from both can be played at the same time.
Independent bracket settings
Each bracket has its own settings, configured separately on the Cup & Consolation stage:
- Number of participants — Cup size and Consolation size are independent; they don't have to be equal.
- First-round seeding — seeded by prior-stage standing or randomized.
- Placement finals — generate a 3rd/4th place match (and lower placements) per bracket. You can have a full placement set in the Cup and none in the Consolation, or vice versa.
This is one of the most flexible parts of the format — you can give the Cup the full ceremony (3rd/4th place match, formal placements) and keep the Consolation lean.
Setting it up
Cup and consolation is configured as the second stage of a multi-stage tournament:
- Click Create Tournament and choose the multi-stage format.
- First stage: pick Round-Robin Groups or Swiss.
- Second stage: select Cup & Consolation.
- Set how many participants advance to the Cup and how many to the Consolation. These two numbers together should match the total field, otherwise the lowest finishers are excluded from the knockout phase.
- Add participants and run the first stage. When it completes, both brackets are populated automatically from the standings.
Tennis usage: First Round Losers Consolation (FRLC)
In tennis, "cup and consolation" (or "main draw and consolation draw") usually refers to a different mechanic: a single-elimination main bracket where first-round losers drop into a parallel consolation bracket. This is the standard format at USTA events, junior circuits, and club tournaments.
Score7's default cup-and-consolation does not work this way — it splits from prior-stage standings, not from first-round losses. But you can still achieve the tennis FRLC structure in Score7 with a small trick.
How to run FRLC in Score7
Use a multi-stage tournament:
- First stage: Round-Robin Groups with groups of 2 participants each. Each group is a single match — that match acts as the "first round" of the main draw.
- Second stage: Cup & Consolation, with Cup size = Consolation size = N/2.
- The winner of each group-stage match advances to the Cup. The loser advances to the Consolation. This is exactly the FRLC routing.
Example — 8 players
| Stage | Matches |
|---|---|
| Group stage (4 groups of 2) | 4 matches — the "first round" of the main draw |
| Cup bracket (4 players, single-elim) | 3 matches — semis + final |
| Consolation bracket (4 players, single-elim) | 3 matches — semis + final |
| Total | 10 matches |
This is identical to a classic 8-player FRLC: 4 first-round matches, 3 main-draw matches, 3 consolation matches.
Caveats
- The UI labels the first round as "Group stage" rather than "Round 1". The mechanics are identical, the wording is different.
- Seeding into groups doesn't follow classic tennis main-draw seeding (1 vs 8, 4 vs 5, etc.) by default. If you need a specific seeding pattern, use the manual seed assignment on the first stage.
- The total field must be even. 6, 8, 10, 12... all work. Odd numbers don't fit the groups-of-2 structure.
When to use cup and consolation
- Tournaments where the top half deserves a serious knockout — and the bottom half still wants a real competition to play through, not a goodbye match.
- Sports days and club events — two trophies to hand out, two stories at the end.
- Tennis — using the FRLC workaround above.
- School tournaments — gives weaker teams a meaningful run after group play, rather than being eliminated by the strongest seeds in a single knockout.
How this differs from double elimination
These two formats both involve "two brackets" but are structurally unrelated. The differences:
| Cup and Consolation | Double Elimination | |
|---|---|---|
| Brackets connected? | No — fully independent | Yes — losers bracket feeds into a grand final against the upper bracket winner |
| How brackets are populated | From prior-stage standings, all at once | Everyone starts in the upper bracket; a loss drops you into the lower |
| Number of champions | Two — Cup winner + Consolation winner | One — overall champion |
| Grand final / bracket reset? | No grand final between brackets | Yes — and a bracket reset can occur if the lower-bracket winner takes the first grand final |
| Requires a prior stage? | Yes — always the final stage of a multi-stage tournament | No — can run as a standalone format |
| Primary purpose | Give every participant a real knockout competition at their level | Reduce the impact of a single bad match on the overall ranking |
| Best for | Tennis, school events, charity tournaments, community days | Esports, fighting games, baseball-style competitive events |
Choose cup and consolation when you want two parallel competitions producing two winners. Choose double elimination when you want one overall champion and a second-chance path through a connected losers bracket.
Naming the brackets
With bracket naming (Premium), you can rename the default "Cup" and "Consolation" labels to anything you prefer — "Gold Cup" and "Silver Cup", "Championship" and "Plate", or whatever fits your event.
Tips
- Cup and consolation works best with 8+ participants — smaller fields produce very short brackets.
- Use the auto-scheduler to keep both brackets moving in parallel.
- Make the Cup-vs-Consolation split clear to participants before the tournament starts — the first-stage standings decide everything.