Hello fellow darters!  Since league season has begun, I thought I would share some bracketing information with you.  Bracketing is basic knowledge for setting up dart leagues.  The information can also be used to set up round robin tournaments throughout your league.

Bracket Set Ups
Bracket Schedules for 4 to 8 Teams
For setting up Darts Leagues & Round-Robin Tournaments.

To use: assign each team a number, 1, 2, 3, etc. To be fair, draw these number assignments from a hat, or other random method. Note that if there is an odd number of teams (3, 5, 7, etc.) then one team will have a "Bye" each night.. that is, they will not play that night. Leagues should always try for an even number of teams per division to reduce the number of Byes.

Each column represents one night of league play. For example, using the 4-team bracket, on the first night of league, Team 1 plays Team 2, and Team 3 plays Team 4. Go to the next column for the second night of league play, etc. Repeat the Bracket as many times as desired to make the season last longer.

For Tournament use, the same method applies, except that all rounds are played immediately, one after another. For Singles play, each number would represent an individual, instead of a team.

Four Team Bracket
| 1-2 | 1-3 | 1-4 |
| 3-4 | 2-4 | 2-3 |

Five Team Bracket
| 1-2 | 1-3 | 1-4 | 1-5 | 2-3 |
| 3-4 | 2-5 | 3-5 | 2-4 | 4-5 |

Six Team Bracket
| 1-2 | 1-3 | 1-4 | 1-5 | 1-6 |
| 3-4 | 4-6 | 2-6 | 2-4 | 2-3 |
| 5-6 | 2-5 | 3-5 | 3-6 | 4-5 |

Seven Team Bracket
| 1-2 | 1-7 | 3-1 | 2-3 | 5-7 | 1-4 | 1-5 |
| 3-4 | 4-6 | 7-2 | 7-4 | 2-4 | 6-7 | 2-6 |
| 5-6 | 5-2 | 4-5 | 1-6 | 3-6 | 3-5 | 3-7 |

Eight Team Bracket
| 1-2 | 1-3 | 1-8 | 1-7 | 1-6 | 1-5 | 1-4 |
| 3-4 | 4-7 | 2-7 | 5-8 | 3-8 | 4-8 | 2-8 |
| 5-6 | 2-5 | 3-6 | 3-2 | 2-4 | 3-7 | 3-5 |
| 7-8 | 6-8 | 4-5 | 4-6 | 5-7 | 2-6 | 7-6 |

The number sequence used to construct the Brackets is fairly obvious, and can be easily extended to work for almost any number of teams. However, most leagues assign teams to Divisions of 8 teams or less, to allow for different skill levels. Also, with more than 8 teams, the league seasons start to get pretty long, assuming that the Bracket is played at least twice per season.

Good Luck!

Until Next Time!
Tony