How the Preference Tournament Generator Works
Type your candidates one per line (or separated by commas), pick a bracket size, and press the button. The list is shuffled at random and turned into a round‑one bracket you can read out loud. Candidates can be anything: songs, snacks, travel spots, movie characters. Press the button again for a completely different draw.
How byes are assigned
A bracket only fills perfectly when the number of candidates is a power of two: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. With an awkward count such as 5 or 6, the tool picks the next power of two above it (8 for five or six candidates) and turns the leftover slots into byes, handed out at random. A candidate with a bye skips round one and starts in round two. The number of byes is printed with the result so the host can announce it.
Shuffling and limits
The order is shuffled with the Fisher-Yates algorithm, so every candidate has the same chance of landing in any slot. Repeated names are reduced to one entry and the number removed is shown in the result. Up to 64 candidates are supported.
Frequently Asked Questions
The next larger bracket size is used and the leftover slots become byes, assigned at random. The number of byes is shown with the result.
No. It builds round one and reports the total number of rounds. Later rounds depend on who wins, so they are not generated.
Duplicates are collapsed into a single candidate, and the number removed is shown in the result.