Question 1

Is EliteBrackets free to use?

Accepted Answer

The app is free to download and use. You only pay when you register for a tournament — any fees are set by the tournament director and shown clearly at checkout before you pay.

Question 2

What are your support hours?

Accepted Answer

Our support team monitors tickets daily, with most responses within 24 hours. Urgent tournament-day issues are prioritized.

For immediate tournament-day help, reach out to your director first — they can resolve most on-site issues faster than we can.

Question 3

How do I create my first tournament?

Accepted Answer

From the Tournaments page, click "New tournament" and the create wizard walks you through the basics: name, dates, venue, registration window, and your first divisions.

It starts as a draft that only you can see. A checklist in the sidebar shows what's left before you can publish — usually a header image (added under Branding) and Stripe payouts so players can pay. When you first open a draft, a short guided tour points out each of these.

Once the checklist is green, hit Publish to make the tournament visible and open registration. You can keep editing afterward.

Question 4

What is an organization, and how do I join one?

Accepted Answer

An organization groups directors who run tournaments together — a club, a league, or a company. When you create a tournament you can run it under one of your organizations, and it carries that organization's service fee instead of the standard one.

You join by invite link: open the link someone at the organization sent you and click Join. Your organizations are listed on the Organizations page in the director sidebar, with your role and any special fee each one gives your tournaments.

To leave, click Leave next to it on the Organizations page. Tournaments you already created under it keep their organization and fee. The owner of an organization can't leave it — contact support to transfer ownership first.

Being in an organization doesn't give you access to other members' tournaments. To work on someone else's tournament, they add you as a director on it.

Question 5

How do free tournaments work?

Accepted Answer

Some organizations have the service fee waived. Tournaments you run under one of them charge players no service fee, and if you also set your entry and division fees to $0, the tournament is completely free — you can publish it without connecting Stripe.

In the create wizard, pick the organization under "Run this tournament under". If an organization waives the fee it's selected for you, and you can switch to Personal instead.

While a tournament is a draft you can change its organization from its Settings page, and the fee updates to match. Once it's published, the organization and fee are locked, because players have already seen the price.

Question 6

Is there a guided walkthrough for setting up a tournament?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The first time you open a new draft tournament, a short spotlight tour highlights the key stops: your dashboard, the publish checklist, Divisions, Settings, and Branding (where the required header image lives).

To take it again, click "Take a tour" on a draft tournament's dashboard. You can turn the guided tours off (or back on) under Settings → Guided tours.

The tour runs on the web app on a desktop-sized screen — on a phone or narrow window it steps aside, since the sidebar it points to is tucked away.

Question 7

How do I add divisions and stages?

Accepted Answer

Inside a tournament, open the Divisions page and add a division (e.g., Mens 4.0, Womens Open). Each division has one or more stages — typically Round Robin followed by Single Elimination, but you can configure any combination.

Stages run in order; completing one automatically opens the next with the advancing teams seeded in.

Question 8

How do I message my players?

Accepted Answer

Each tournament has a Messages page — a unified inbox of player conversations and your broadcasts. Filter tabs across the top (All, Conversations, Announcements) let you focus on one or the other.

Use Conversations to read and reply to individual players. Compose an Announcement to broadcast to everyone in a division or team. There's also a top-level Messages inbox that groups every tournament's conversations together, and unread counts show in the sidebar so you don't miss anything.