create-pools

Generates a Pools & Playoffs bracket: round-robin pools followed by a knockout elimination tree.

bracket-creator create-pools [flags]

Flags

Flag	Short	Default	Description
`--file`	`-f`	—	CSV file with participants (required)
`--output`	`-o`	—	Output `.xlsx` path (required)
`--courts`	`-c`	`2`	Number of shiai-jo (courts) to distribute pools across
`--players`	`-p`	`3`	Minimum players per pool
`--max-players`	`-m`	—	Maximum players per pool
`--pool-winners`	`-w`	`2`	Players that qualify from each pool
`--round-robin`	`-r`	`false`	Force full round-robin in every pool
`--team-matches`	`-t`	`0`	Players per team (0 = individual tournament)
`--with-zekken-name`	`-z`	`false`	Use second CSV column as zekken display name
`--seeds`	—	—	CSV file with seed rankings
`--determined`	`-d`	`false`	Do not shuffle input order
`--single-tree`	—	`false`	Produce one tree sheet instead of one per court
`--number-prefix`	`-n`	`""`	Assign consecutive numbers with this letter prefix (e.g. `K` produces K1, K2, …)
`--title-prefix`	—	`""`	Prefix added to sheet titles

Examples

Minimal — two courts, random draw:

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

Three courts, pools of 4–5, top 2 qualify, full round-robin:

bracket-creator create-pools \
  -f participants.csv -o tournament.xlsx \
  -c 3 -p 4 -m 5 -w 2 -r

Team tournament (3 players per team, 2 courts):

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

With zekken names and seeding:

bracket-creator create-pools \
  -f participants.csv -o tournament.xlsx \
  -z --seeds seeds.csv

Seeding

Seeding distributes top competitors so they land in separate pools and on opposite sides of each court's elimination bracket.

Create a seeds CSV:

Rank,Name
1,Cersei Lannister
2,Daenerys Targaryen
3,Eddard Stark

Pass it with --seeds seeds.csv. Names must match the participant CSV exactly (case-sensitive). Unseeded participants are placed randomly around the seeds.

Output sheets

The generated Excel file contains:

Sheet	Contents
Data	Raw participant list
Time Estimator	Expected duration per phase
Pool Draw	Pool assignments grouped by court
Pool Matches	Individual match schedule
Elimination Matches	Knockout bracket match schedule
Names to Print	A3-ready name labels
Tree (one per court)	Visual bracket tree for display