create-knockout

Generates a Knockout Only bracket: a direct single-elimination tree with no pool phase.

bracket-creator create-knockout [flags]

Note

create-playoffs is kept as an alias and still works, so existing scripts that invoke it do not need to change.

Flags

Flag	Short	Default	Description
`--file`	`-f`	(none)	CSV file with participants (required)
`--output`	`-o`	(none)	Output `.xlsx` path (required)
`--courts`	`-c`	`2`	Number of shiai-jo (courts) to split the tree across. Must be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16; refer to Shiai-jo count
`--team-matches`	`-t`	`0`	Players per team (0 = individual tournament)
`--with-zekken-name`	`-z`	`false`	Use second CSV column as zekken display name
`--seeds`	(none)	(none)	CSV file with seed rankings
`--determined`	`-d`	`false`	Do not shuffle input order
`--single-tree`	(none)	`false`	Produce one tree sheet instead of one per court
`--number-prefix`	`-n`	(none)	Letter prefix for competitor numbers (for example, `K` produces K1, K2, …). When omitted, one is derived from `--title-prefix`; if `--title-prefix` is also omitted, the prefix is `K`. The CLI derives this from `--title-prefix` alone, with no knowledge of any other competition, so running this command more than once for the same tournament without a distinct `-n` each time produces the same K1, K2, … tags for every one of them; pass a distinct `-n` per competition (the tournament mobile app, unlike this command, checks prefixes already in use and avoids them automatically)
`--title-prefix`	(none)	`""`	Prefix added to sheet titles
`--third-place-match`	(none)	`false`	Play a 3rd-place (bronze) match after the semifinals, deciding a single 3rd place. Kendo's default is two joint 3rd places with no bronze match

Examples

Simple two-court bracket:

bracket-creator create-knockout -f participants.csv -o tournament.xlsx

Single court, seeded:

bracket-creator create-knockout \
  -f participants.csv -o tournament.xlsx \
  -c 1 --seeds seeds.csv

Team tournament across two courts with zekken names:

bracket-creator create-knockout \
  -f participants.csv -o tournament.xlsx \
  -t 3 -c 2 -z

Shiai-jo count

--courts takes 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. The tree is split into one block per shiai-jo. Those blocks merge in pairs, so the count has to halve cleanly all the way down. Any other value stops the command with an error naming the counts to use instead, and the error always offers 1.

Being even is not enough on its own. With -c 6 the six blocks pair off into three, but three cannot pair off again. One of them would then reach the final having fought a round fewer than the other two. -c 6 and -c 10 are therefore refused, just as -c 3, -c 5 and -c 7 are.

A single shiai-jo is always allowed: -c 1 prints the whole bracket as one shiai-jo's pages. A knockout bracket has no pool finishers to cross between shiai-jo. It is seeded first, then cut into shiai-jo blocks, so the partner-shiai-jo crossing described for create-pools does not apply here. 16 is the highest. It is also the most shiai-jo a tournament can have, so 32 is out of reach.

This is a per-tournament-file rule, not a rule about your venue. A hall with three shiai-jo generates one file for two shiai-jo and another for one, and runs both at the same time. Refer to create-pools for the same rule on the pools command, and How many shiai-jo a competition can use for the full explanation.

Seeding

Works the same as create-pools; top seeds are placed on opposite sides of the bracket so they can only meet in the final. Refer to the input format for the seeds CSV layout.

Competitor numbers follow that seeded bracket order, not the order participants were listed in the input file. The top seed is numbered first, and every other competitor's number follows their position in the bracket, top to bottom. The Data and Names to Print sheets list competitors in that same order.

Output sheets

Sheet	Contents
Data	Raw participant list
Time Estimator	Expected duration per phase
Elimination Matches	Match schedule
Names to Print	A3-ready name labels
Tree (one per court)	Visual bracket tree