Direct Knockout has no league or group stage. Teams are paired in a bracket and the loser of each tie leaves the tournament.
Single leg or two legs?
- Single-leg knockout
- Each tie is decided in one match.
- Two-leg knockout
- Each tie is decided over two matches, home and away.
What if I have 3, 5, 6 or 10 teams?
A bracket naturally works with 2, 4, 8, 16, 32… teams. If your count is not one of those, the system arranges the bracket itself: some teams play a preliminary round and the rest go straight to the next round.
With 6 teams, for example, two ties are played in a preliminary round and two teams go straight to the semi-finals. With 5 teams, one tie is preliminary and three teams wait.
What is a bye?
A bye is when a team advances to the next round without playing. It appears when the team count does not fit the bracket, and no fake match against an empty opponent is created.
In Direct Knockout the draw decides who gets a bye. In chains where teams arrive from a league or group table, the bye is not random: it goes to the team at the top of the standings.
The draw in Direct Knockout
A random draw is the basic method in Direct Knockout and is always available. Seeded and pot draws are additional, package-dependent options.