It usually starts as a joke. After a smug Catan win someone says “loser does the dishes for a month”, and a week later your group is asking: what if we made this official? A tournament turns a few regular game nights into a season with a story: seeding, upsets, a final, and someone’s name on the (imaginary) trophy.
You don’t need a games café or prize money. You need a format that fits your group, a simple way to keep score, and a plan for the two or three nights it’ll take. Here’s how to set one up.
Why bother?
A normal game night is fun. A tournament is fun and makes every game count.
- People show up. “We’re playing games on Thursday” is easy to skip. “It’s the semi-final on Thursday” is not.
- It works for mixed groups. Not everyone is equally competitive, but almost everyone enjoys a bracket once it’s there.
- It gives you stories. “Remember when Sam lost the final on a tiebreaker” is the kind of thing groups bring up for years.
Pick a format that fits your group
The format is the biggest decision. The right one depends mostly on how many people play and how many nights you want to spend on it.
1. Round robin
Everyone plays everyone once (or twice). Nobody is knocked out early, and the standings slowly turn into a clear ranking.
Good for: Small, steady groups of 4–6 who meet every week or two.
The catch: The number of games grows fast: 6 players means 15 games. Past about 8 people it gets slow, unless the game is quick.
2. Single elimination
The classic bracket: lose once and you’re out. Fast, exciting and easy to follow.
Good for: Bigger groups, or a single night where you need a winner by the end.
The catch: It’s harsh. Your best player can lose one close game in round one and be done for the night, which stings if they came to play.
3. Double elimination
The same bracket, but your first loss sends you to a “losers” bracket instead of out. You have to lose twice to be eliminated.
Good for: Groups who like a bracket but find single elimination too harsh. A strong player can have one bad game without their night ending.
The catch: More games to plan, and it takes a bit more explaining the first time.
4. Swiss system
Borrowed from chess: each round you play someone with a similar record so far, instead of following a fixed bracket. Nobody is knocked out. After a set number of rounds, the best record wins.
Good for: Big groups (10+), or meetups where not everyone can play every round.
The catch: Pairing players each round takes some bookkeeping. Best done with a tool, not by hand.
5. A running “season”
No bracket at all. Every game over a set period (a month, a season, a year) earns points, the leaderboard updates as you go, and a final night decides the top spots.
Good for: Groups who already play regularly and want those nights to count for something, without a separate tournament schedule.
The catch: It rewards showing up as much as winning. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your group.
Decide what you’re playing
Two options, both fine:
- One game every round. Easiest to run and the fairest, because everyone plays the same game. Pick one your whole group knows well. A light game plays faster and keeps things moving.
- A rotating shortlist. Each round is a different game from an agreed list. More variety, and better for groups with different favourites. But you’ll need a way to compare very different games, like a 20-minute filler and a 90-minute strategy game. Which brings us to scoring.
Keep the scoring simple
A Wingspan score and an Uno score can’t be compared, so most tournaments hand out tournament points for each placing instead of using the game’s own score. Keep it simple:
| Result | Points |
|---|---|
| 1st place | 3 pts |
| 2nd place | 2 pts |
| 3rd place or lower | 1 pt |
| Didn’t play that round | 0 pts |
For brackets it’s even easier: win and you go through, lose and you don’t. Whatever you pick, agree on it before round one and write it down where everyone can see it. Nothing spoils a friendly tournament like a fight about scoring in the final.
Agree on tie-breakers in advance: first the result between the tied players, then total points across all games, then a rematch. Pick one and stick to it. You want a rule nobody argues about at 11pm.
Plan the nights
- Set the number of rounds and nights up front. An 8-player bracket fits in one night. A round robin with 6 people might take three. Tell people what they’re signing up for.
- Seed fairly, or not at all. A random draw is the easiest and fairest choice, unless you have a real ranking to go on.
- Pick a scorekeeper. Whoever stays calmest writes down the results as they happen, not from memory afterwards.
- Hand out byes fairly. If your player count doesn’t split evenly into a bracket (4, 8, 16), draw lots for byes. Don’t pick favourites.
Keep the standings visible
People want to see where they stand. For a one-night bracket, a whiteboard or a shared spreadsheet is enough. For anything longer, like a tournament over several weeks or a group that runs them often, a tool made for it saves you redrawing the bracket every time.
That’s what tournaments in Skorio are for (a Pro feature). Set up a single elimination bracket or a round robin, log each result as you play, and the standings and the winner update by themselves. Tournament games also count toward everyone’s normal stats and head-to-head records, so you don’t keep two separate systems.
Example: 8 players, single elimination, one night
- Draw 8 players into 4 first-round games.
- Play round one: four games, four winners go through.
- Play the semi-finals: two games, two winners go through.
- Play the final. One game decides it.
- The semi-final losers can play for third place while the final is set up.
That’s seven games, one clear winner, and a night with a beginning, middle and end. That’s what makes a tournament feel different from “we played some games”.
Running a tournament with your group? Skorio Pro handles the bracket, the standings and the scores in one place, and every result still counts toward your group’s normal stats.
Try Skorio for free