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Knockout Bracket Settings: Placement Finals, Legs, and Bracket Naming

Knockout bracket configuration​

Score7's knockout (single elimination) format includes several settings that let you customize how the bracket works. Two of these are Premium features: knockout legs and bracket naming.

Placement finals​

By default, a knockout bracket only determines 1st and 2nd place — the winner and runner-up of the final match. But many tournaments also need a 3rd/4th place match, or even placement matches for all positions.

How to configure:

  1. Go to Tournament Settings on the Overview page
  2. Find the Placements setting
  3. Use the slider to choose how many placement finals to generate

The slider uses a logarithmic scale:

  • Top 2 — only the final (default)
  • Top 4 — adds a 3rd/4th place match
  • Top 8 — adds 5th/6th and 7th/8th place matches
  • All finals — generates placement matches for every position

Placement rounds are labeled with ordinal suffixes: "3rd/4th place", "5th/6th place", etc.

Bracket merge point (Grand Final vs Semifinals)​

In a double elimination tournament, the winners' side and the losers' side eventually come back together. The bracket merge point setting decides where they meet.

You get two choices:

  • Grand Final (default) — the two brackets converge in a single grand final: the last participant standing in the winners' side plays the last one standing in the losers' side. This is the classic double elimination ending.
  • Semifinals — the two brackets cross earlier, at two semifinals. Each semifinal pairs a survivor from the winners' side against a survivor from the losers' side, and the two semifinal winners then meet in the final. This gives you a more traditional four-participant finish.

How to configure:

  1. Go to Tournament Settings on the Overview page
  2. Set your format to Double elimination
  3. Find the Bracket merge point setting
  4. Choose Grand Final or Semifinals

This setting is only available for double elimination, and the Semifinals option needs at least 7 participants.

Optional 3rd/4th place match​

When you choose the Semifinals merge point, you can also turn on a 3rd/4th place match. The two participants who lose the semifinals then play one extra match to decide who finishes third. Leave it off and the two semifinal losers simply share third place.

Changing it later​

You can switch the merge point at any time — even after matches have been played. Score7 rebuilds only the part of the bracket that changes (the rounds around the merge point) and keeps your already-played rounds and their results intact. Because it does touch the bracket, Score7 shows a confirmation first so the change is never a surprise. It's a heads-up, not a roadblock — you decide whether to go ahead.

Knockout legs (home & away)​

For leagues and competitions that use a two-legged format (home and away matches), you can set the number of legs per round in a knockout bracket.

How to configure:

  1. Go to Tournament Settings on the Overview page
  2. Find the knockout round you want to edit
  3. Set the number of legs — from 0 to 10 per round

How it works:

  • Each leg is a separate match with its own score
  • The aggregate score across both legs determines who advances
  • If the aggregate is tied, you can manually select the winner using the aggregate winner override

Example: A 2-legged quarterfinal. Leg 1: Team A 2–1 Team B. Leg 2: Team B 1–0 Team A. Aggregate: 2–2. The organizer selects the winner manually (e.g., based on away goals or extra time).

This is a Premium feature.

Bracket naming​

By default, knockout brackets are named "Knockout", "Upper Bracket", "Lower Bracket", etc. You can rename any bracket to match your tournament's branding or language.

How to rename:

  1. Go to the Matches section
  2. Click the bracket name or find the rename option
  3. Enter a custom name (e.g., "Gold Cup", "Championship Bracket", "Plate")

This is useful for:

  • Cup & consolation tournaments — name the main bracket "Cup" and the consolation bracket "Plate" or "Shield"
  • Multi-stage tournaments — give the knockout stage a specific name
  • Multi-language events — use your preferred language for bracket labels

This is a Premium feature.

Aggregate winner override​

In multi-leg knockout matches, the winner is normally determined by the aggregate score across all legs. But sometimes you need to override this — for example, when using an away goals rule, or after extra time / penalties that aren't captured in the score.

To override:

  1. After entering results for all legs in a round
  2. Use the aggregate winner control to manually select which participant advances
  3. The selected participant moves to the next round regardless of aggregate score

Match labels​

Score7 automatically labels every match in a knockout bracket based on its position in the draw:

  • Named rounds: Final, Semifinals, Quarterfinals, Round of 16, and so on — assigned automatically based on bracket size
  • Numbered matches: When a round has multiple matches, each one gets a number (e.g., "Quarterfinal #1", "Quarterfinal #2")
  • Placeholder labels: Before a match's participants are decided, the bracket shows where they'll come from — for example, "Winner of Semifinal #1"
  • Double elimination: Upper and lower bracket matches use ordinal round labels (1st Round, 2nd Round, etc.) and the grand final is labeled accordingly. Cross-bracket placeholders include the bracket name (e.g., "Loser of Upper Bracket 1st Round #2")

These labels update automatically as participants advance through the bracket — no manual naming needed.

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