Bracket Templates
Taikai App ships nine bracket formats, grouped by competition type. The generator offers the formats that fit your selected type — kumite formats for sparring, ranking and flag formats for kata and kobudo.
Elimination formats
- Single elimination — the classic knockout. Lose once, you're out. Fastest format to run and the default for most kumite divisions.
- Double elimination — a winners bracket and a losers bracket; a competitor must lose twice to be eliminated. More matches, fairer outcomes for early upsets.
- Repechage — competitors defeated by the eventual finalists drop into repechage brackets to fight for bronze. The standard for WKF-style events awarding two third places.
Round robin and pool play
- Round robin — everyone fights everyone. Maximum mat time per competitor; practical only for small divisions (a 6-person round robin is already 15 matches).
- Pool play — the division is split into two to four pools sized automatically; each pool runs round robin. A good middle ground: everyone gets multiple matches without the full round-robin match count.
Kata formats
- Ranking list — no head-to-head matches. Competitors perform in order, each receives panel scores, and final placement is the score ranking. Pairs with kata panel scoring.
- Kata flags — head-to-head elimination where judges raise flags for the better performance. Pairs with kata flag scoring.
- AAU kata flags — the AAU queue variant: the current leader (AKA) faces successive challengers, with hantei calls deciding each pairing.
- Kata points — bracketed kata scored numerically by the judge panel rather than by flags.
Small divisions
Every format degrades gracefully for tiny divisions. Two competitors produce a single match (or a two-entry ranking). Three competitors produce a bye plus final in single elimination, or three matches in round robin — often the better experience, since everyone gets two matches instead of one.
Tip: Use division rules with a minimum-competitor threshold to merge one- and two-person divisions before bracket day, rather than running finals-only divisions.
Choosing a format
| Situation | Suggested format |
|---|---|
| Standard kumite division | Single elimination (add repechage for WKF-style bronze rules) |
| Small kumite division (3–5) | Round robin |
| Medium division, more mat time | Pool play |
| Kata, scored | Ranking list + kata points scoring |
| Kata, judged head-to-head | Kata flags (or AAU kata flags for AAU events) |
If your divisions were created from a template with a default format, the generator pre-selects it — you only change what differs.