Tournament formats: Swiss-system

General Information

Swiss Bracket (with eliminations)

The Swiss Bracket is a variation of the Swiss-system.

This elimination tournament format can be operated manually by tournament organizers in Swiss-system tournaments (it is not a separate tournament format). It often takes the form of a 16-team tournament, with teams getting disqualified or qualified after accumulating a set number of wins or losses.

Swiss Bracket (without eliminations)

A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format where every team plays a fixed number of rounds.
The team’s ranking changes on the tournament’s leaderboard for every match won or lost.

Tournaments created with the Swiss-system format can support up to 1024 team slots.

The maximum slots limitation may vary depending on the Organizer and the Game Mode (e.g., 5v5, 1v1, etc.).

This format focuses on:

  • Number of Wins (Swiss Score),
  • The participants’ manual seed at the moment the tournament started (Manual Seed),
  • The participants’ average skill level at the moment of the last change of the tournament lineup (Join Skill Level),
  • Previous opponents in the tournament (to avoid playing the same opponent more than once).

Manual Seeding

Before a Swiss Tournament starts, tournament administrators can set a Manual Seed for each registered participant (from the Participants tab), which will be considered during the generation of every round. 

When participants in each Swiss Score group are ranked, those with a Manual Seed will receive a higher rank than those without one. Among those with Manual Seed, the lower the seed, the higher their rank.

Join Skill Level

The participant's Join Skill Level is the team's average FACEIT skill level up to the last time its lineup was updated during registration. The lineup includes roster members and substitutes. Join Skill Level ranks participants without a Manual Seed from highest to lowest.

Rounds Setup

Navigate to Tournament > Settings > Schedule

From there, a tournament admin can set the number of rounds the tournament can generate once it starts. If not enough participants have joined, rounds are adjusted automatically after sign-ups and before the tournament starts. Each round can be generated only if all previous rounds' matches are finished.

Playing fewer than optimal rounds does not guarantee the best participant will win while playing more rounds is unlikely to significantly change the outcome compared to the optimal number of rounds. Playing fewer rounds can leave you with more than one participant with a top score. The Swiss-system doesn’t guarantee a fixed number of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, … places (even when using a Buchholz tiebreaker).

To determine the optimal number of rounds for a Swiss-system tournament, you can use the following calculation:

  • Log^2(x), where X is the number of registered participants, equals the number of rounds,
    • Example: X = 256, Log^256(x)=8  (8 rounds should be optimal),

Note: round up the outcome of the calculation, e.g., 5.55 -> 6

The round selection UI indicates how many rounds have to be played to determine a single winner based on the following:

  1. The number of available slots (when registration is open),
  2. The current number of participants (when registration is closed).

How do I eliminate or qualify a team?

  1. As Senior Admin+, navigate to Tournament > Participants tab,
  2. Ensure that the entire team is aware before proceeding,
  3. Open the action menu (three dots), click “Eliminate” or “Qualify,” and confirm the action.

If you cannot do so as a tournament admin, please request that FACEIT Tournament Operations do so via Discord.

You can only undo eliminations until the next round of matches has been generated. Once generated, it cannot be undone!

How do I generate the next round?

  1. As Senior Admin+, navigate to Tournament > Matches,
  2. Ensure that all team inquiries have been handled and teams have been eliminated or qualified if needed,
  3. You will see the ‘Generate Round X’ button appear. Once available, click it, and the process should start automatically.

 

The Swiss-system Matching Algorithm - Logic

This system ensures fair and balanced matchups while prioritizing similar skill levels and scores.

The Swiss-system format matches opponents using these steps for each round:

  1. Each participant is provided with a Swiss Score
    • Each participant gets a Swiss Score, which equals the number of matches they've won.
      • Example: 1 win = score of 1.
  2. Participants are grouped by their Swiss Score
    • Participants are grouped based on their scores.
      • Example: All participants with a score of 1 are grouped together, those with a score of 2 are in another group, and so on.
  3. Participants in each group are ranked by
    • Participants in each group are ranked by:
      • Manual Seeding (if set, in ascending order; unseeded players are ranked last).
      • Skill Level (in descending order; higher skill ranks first).
  4. Balancing Groups
    • If a group has an uneven number of participants, the lowest-ranked player in that group is moved to the next group below, becoming the highest-ranked player there.
      • If this adjustment reaches the last group, a BYE is added to balance it. BYEs are positioned in the middle of the group.
  5. Participants within each group are matched using Folding Strategy, in a best effort basis
    • Participants in each group are matched using the Folding Strategy:
      • The top-ranked player faces the bottom-ranked player, the second-highest faces the second-lowest, and so on.
  6. Handling Repeat Matches
    • If a participant has already faced everyone in their group:
      • The algorithm attempts to match them with a similarly ranked player from an adjacent group.
      • If no match is available, it checks further groups, moving down the rankings until a match is found.

The Matching Algorithm - Example

Round 1

Participant Wins Manual Seed Join Skill Level Comment
Team A 0 Seed 1 5  
Team B 0 Seed 2 7  
Team C 0 Seed 3 6  
Team D 0 - 9  
Team E 0 - 8  
BYE BYE added to the middle of the group
Team F 0 - 7  
Team G 0 - 6  
Team H 0 - 5  
Team I 0 - 4  

Matches:

  • Team A vs. Team I
  • Team B vs. Team H
  • Team C vs. Team G
  • Team D vs. Team F
  • Team E vs. BYE

Round 2

Participant Wins Manual Seed Join Skill Level Comment
Swiss Score  = 1
Team A 1 Seed 1 5  
Team B 1 Seed 2 7  
Team E 1 - 8  
Team F 1 - 7  
Swiss Score  = 0
Team G 1 - 6 Due to uneven number of participants in group with Swiss Score=1, Team G was moved to group with Swiss Score=0 and received highest rank in it
Team C 0 Seed 3 6  
Team D 0 - 9  
BYE BYE added to the middle of the group
Team H 0 - 5  
Team I 0 - 4  

Matches:

  • Team A vs. Team F
  • Team B vs. Team E
  • Team G vs. Team I
  • Team C vs. Team H
  • Team D vs. BYE

Round 3

Participant Wins Manual Seed Join Skill Level Comment
Swiss Score  = 2
Team B 2 Seed 2 7  
Team F 2 - 7  
Swiss Score  = 1
Team G 2 - 6 Due to uneven number of participants in group with Swiss Score=2, Team G was moved to group with Swiss Score=1 and received highest rank in it
Team A 1 Seed 1 5  
Team D 1 - 9  
Team E 1 - 8  
Swiss Score  = 0
Team H 1 - 5 Due to uneven number of participants in group with Swiss Score=1 after moving Team G to it, Team H was moved to group with Swiss Score=0 and received highest rank in it
Team C 0 Seed 3 6  
BYE BYE added to the middle of the group
Team I 0 - 4  

Matches:

  • Team B vs. Team F
  • Team G vs. Team E
  • Team A vs. Team D
  • Team H vs. Team I
  • Team C vs. BYE

Round 4

Participant Wins Manual Seed Join Skill Level Comment
Swiss Score  = 3
Swiss Score  = 2
Team B 3 Seed 2 7 Due to uneven number of participants in group with Swiss Score=3, Team B was moved to group with Swiss Score=2 and received highest rank in it.
Team A 2 Seed 1 5  
Team E 2 - 8  
Team F 2 - 7  
Team G 2 - 6  
Team H 2 - 5  
Swiss Score  = 1
Team C 1 Seed 3 6  
Team D 1 - 9  
Swiss Score  = 0
Team I 0 - 4  
BYE BYE added to the middle of the group

Matches:

  • Team B vs. Team G (played against Team H already)
  • Team A vs. Team H
  • Team E vs. Team F
  • Team C vs. Team D
  • Team I vs. BYE

F.A.Q.

What if multiple teams finish with the same score?

If this happens, the Buchholz tiebreaker creates a more granular ranking. A tiebreaker is a rule used to determine the ranking among teams that have the same point score at the end of the tournament.

What are the tiebreakers in Swiss-system tournaments?

Swiss tournaments on FACEIT use the Buchholz score as the primary tiebreaker. 

The default secondary tiebreaker requires tied teams to play a tiebreaker match between each other.

The Buchholz score is the sum of a participant’s opponent’s wins. The Buchholz score gives one point for each match the opponents you faced won.

Your team’s points are considered more valuable if you achieve them against teams with a better performance in the tournament.

 

When is the Swiss-system the best format?

Swiss is also known as the expedited Round-robin, which allows a winner to be determined out of a large pool of participants without needing everyone to play every team in the tournament. 

Unlike single elimination brackets, Swiss-system tournaments are mostly non-eliminatory, allowing teams to win still or keep playing for a high ranking and a prize after losing a match.

What are the challenges of running Swiss-system tournaments?

Swiss-system tournaments may be operationally challenging and often rejected by content creators due to the effort involved.

The FACEIT tournament system matches teams and generates rounds using a Swiss-system algorithm by simply clicking a button.

I am playing - can I still win the tournament after losing a match?That depends.

A participant may still win a Swiss tournament after losing matches if the number of rounds is larger than the minimum number required to determine a winner. Check the tournament’s rules to determine if you can win a prize after losing a match.

I am playing - Is the next round generated right after my current match ends?

No.

Since match results impact the next round’s team matching, all matches of the previous round need to be finished, and all admin calls need to be resolved. 

A tournament admin must manually trigger the round generation from the Matches or Settings page.

 

 

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