Inviting Participants

In addition to hosting a sign-up page where participants may register on their own, tournament organizers can also manually invite them. This is helpful in making sure that everyone is in place before the competition starts. With the help of this feature, participants can be assigned to their matches, change displayed name in the bracket, remove, and even make substitutions for last minute changes.

Add Participants

Quickly add participants using the new affixed participant additions on the lower right side of the Participants page.

Look for the + Add Participant button and add a single participant in two ways:

Display Name - Decide on a custom name that will be displayed for a participant or team. If the tournament organizer would like to manage the tournament bracket on his/her own and is not requiring participants to register, this is the suitable option.

When opting to host a tournament with just display names, certain features such as community ratings will not be available

Email or Username - Enter a participant's email address associated with their Challonge account or username. They will receive an invitation from the Notifications page when logged in to challonge.com and via email.




To recover a missed invitation, follow this guide.

Bulk Add

Already have a list of participant or team names? Use Bulk Add and input one name per line under the Participants text box.

Display names only (Display Name)



Invite users by username (Display Name, Username)



Invite users by email address (Display Name, Email)

Review Participants

Once all participants or teams are added, 3 options will also appear across their names:

Edit - Modify the name of any participant that will be shown in the bracket.



Substitute - Replace anyone using a different Display Name or another participant with a Challonge account.



Remove - Remove any participant from the bracket. This option is also used in reporting forfeits and dropped participants for ongoing tournaments.

Rearranging Bracket Seeding

Manually assign seed numbers for each team or participant by clicking the numeric seed value, or clicking and holding the 6 dots to the left of the participant until you drag to the desired location. Seeding arrangements made in the participants tab will be reflected on the bracket page.

Shuffle Seeds

Alternatively, you can also randomize seeds by clicking 'Shuffle Seeds' then clicking 'Ok'.

Seed by Community Rating

PRO Communities are able to utilize a new feature called 'Seed by Rating'. At the press of a button, all participants registered for a tournament are seeded based on their ranking on a community leaderboard. Click here to learn more about seeding via a community ranking.

Fully Customize Two-Stage Groups

Tournament organizers are now able to create their own personalized group sizes and player assignments easily.

When creating a Two-Stage bracket, you will be asked to assign each participant to their respective groups first before starting the tournament.

To start, click the Manage Groups button or the Participants tab to build your groups.





From here, you will have two options:

Assign Groups Automatically - Groups will be created based on the number of participants competing in each group, following the automatic Serpentine system. Click the Assign Groups Automatically button if this is the route you want to take.

You'll still be able to change the seeding within a group OR move a player to another group if you assign seeds automatically.

Assign Groups Manually - Decide on how many groups will be created, then assign your participants accordingly. Click the + Add Group button as many times as needed and add participants by clicking their name.



The automatically generated or created groups will be mirrored in the bracket.



Swap any participants easily before starting the tournament by manual assignment. Click the Move to another group button for each participant:



or drag and drop without impacting other groups:

Remove a participant or group

Remove any participant or the whole group by clicking the trash can button. Participants from a deleted group can still be reassigned to another.

Uneven Participant Groups

Sometimes, you might have an odd number of players registered for a bracket. Challonge's participant management can easily accommodate.
The group that has more players will have to play more matches, but at the end of the group (first) stage, participants are still advancing to the final (second) stage from both groups. The number of participants advancing from each group is defined in the tournament settings.

Updated on: 14/10/2024