He then protected all cells except the team name entry cells so no one could accidentally break the bracket mid-tournament. The next morning, Mark printed 8 copies of the Excel sheet (legal size, landscape). He taped two sheets together to make one giant bracket. The teams loved it. No byes were unfair. Every loss had a path.
He also added a column that referenced the exact cell in the losers bracket sheet. For example: ="LB Round 2, Game L4" Step 5: The Finals Logic (The “If Necessary” Game) In double elimination, if the losers bracket winner beats the winners bracket champion, a final second match is played. 20 team double elimination bracket excel
He labeled columns: A: Game # | B: Round | C: Winner’s Bracket Matchup | D: Loser Goes To... He then protected all cells except the team
He had two bad options: turn away 4 teams (and face their wrath) or run a 32-team bracket with 12 “ghost” byes (and confuse everyone). Then he remembered: Excel doesn’t care about ugly numbers. Excel cares about logic. The teams loved it