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Why is my playoff bracket showing "1st" or not filling in team names?

  • Updated

A bracket seeded By Standings shows standings places, such as 1st and 8th, until every game on the division's regular-season schedule has a result. One game left Not played or Scoring in progress holds back every seed. Later rounds show labels such as R1-G2 Winner until the earlier playoff game is Played or forfeited.

Applies to: Admins and schedulers with scoring access · All plans (Resend Scoring Requests: Auto Coach Scoring, Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise) · League and Tournament divisions seeded By Standings

Where: Schedules > Leagues & Divisions > (division) > More Options > Edit Scores, and 4 Create Schedule > Playoff

What the bracket labels mean

Label What it's waiting for
1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on (1st Place on game schedule reports) A By Standings seed. It fills in when every regular-season game has a result. In a 2nd, 3rd or 4th Playoff seeded Next - Regular Season, the places continue after the earlier brackets' teams, for example 9th to 12th after an 8-team Playoff.
1st (Pool A) A tournament seed. It fills in when every Pool Play game in that pool has a result.
R1-G2 Winner or R1-G2 Consolation (G2 Winner when Playoff Numbering is Game Only) The winner, or for Consolation the loser, of an earlier playoff game. It fills in when that game is Played or forfeited.
TBD A spot in a manually seeded bracket (Manual or Manual Across Divisions) that nobody has picked yet. It never fills in by itself.

Step 1: Give every regular-season game a result

  1. Go to Schedules > Leagues & Divisions and click the division's name to open its Standings page. If the division has a 2nd Half, choose 1st Half at the top: seeding uses 1st Half games only.
  2. Click Edit Scores. Weeks where every game has a result start collapsed; check the open weeks for games still Not played or Scoring in progress.
  3. For a game that was played, type both scores. You can leave Disposition at Not played; it changes to Played when you save.
  4. For a game that won't be played, set Disposition to Canceled. Use Score not kept for a game played without a score, and Forfeit by home or Forfeit by away for a forfeit.
  5. Click Save.

What you'll see: "Results saved and standings updated successfully." Once the last regular-season game has a result, team names replace the places in the bracket on 4 Create Schedule > Playoff and on your website.

Games stuck in Scoring in progress

With Auto Coach Scoring, a game is Scoring in progress while TeamSideline waits for the coaches' scores. When Which Team Scores Game is Both Teams, the score posts only after both coaches report the same score.

  • Enter the final score yourself on Edit Scores and click Save. Hover over the coach-scoring icon next to a team to see the score that coach sent.
  • Or click Resend Scoring Requests on Edit Scores to email the coaches again. You'll see "Scoring requests resent to "Scoring in progress" games."

Step 2: Move winners through the bracket

Later rounds fill in from the results of earlier playoff games. Score playoff games on the same Edit Scores page (1st Half), in the Playoff Schedule section.

  • A team moves on when its game is Played, Forfeit by home or Forfeit by away. A game that's Not played or Scoring in progress moves nobody on.
  • Playoff games offer only Not played, Played, Forfeit by home, Forfeit by away and Scoring in progress. Position Rounds playoffs also offer Double forfeit and Canceled. Other bracket games have no Canceled or Score not kept.
  • A playoff game needs a winner. If you save a tied score, TeamSideline moves the away team on as the winner, so enter a score that shows who won (for example, after a shootout) and explain it in the game's comment.
  • A playoff game gets score boxes once both of its teams are known.
  • Brackets don't reseed between rounds. Each later game takes the winner of a set earlier game, such as R1-G1 Winner, so the top seed plays whoever wins its side of the bracket, not the lowest seed left.

If a seed still shows a place

  • A game hidden from the standings is still Not played. Hide in Standings doesn't help here: the game still needs a result, or Canceled.
  • The bracket hasn't been refreshed. Click Save on Edit Scores; it refreshes the bracket even if you change nothing. Standings Update Only doesn't refresh the bracket.
  • Two teams are tied and no tie breaker separates them. Tied teams share a place (two teams in 2nd, then 3rd), so only one of them gets that seed and the last seed can stay empty. On 1 Configuration > Scoring, add Coin Toss as your last tie breaker and click Save, which recalculates the standings and refreshes the bracket, or use Edit Standings (below).
  • The bracket has more seeds than the standings have teams. External Team teams aren't in the standings, and a Next - Regular Season bracket starts after the earlier brackets' teams. Seeds below the last place stay empty; seed the bracket manually.
  • No regular-season game counts toward the standings, for example because every game was canceled. There are no places to seed from; seed the bracket manually.
  • The division has a 2nd Half. Seeds come from the 1st Half standings and fill in as soon as every 1st Half game has a result. 2nd Half results don't change them. To seed from other results, seed the bracket manually.
  • The first-round game has already been played. A game's teams don't change once it has a result, even if the standings change later.

Set the order yourself with Edit Standings

Use Edit Standings when the final order must differ from the calculation, for example after a tiebreaker game played outside the schedule.

  1. Make sure every regular-season game has a result.
  2. On the division's Standings page, with 1st Half selected, click Edit Standings.
  3. Choose each team's Place. Give every team a different place.
  4. Click Save.

What you'll see: "Standings Updated. Next time you Edit Scores & Save, the standings will be recalculated." The first Playoff bracket's unplayed first-round games take the new order right away. For a 2nd, 3rd or 4th Playoff, open Edit Scores and click Save without changing anything.

  • Your order lasts until the standings are recalculated, for example when a regular-season score is saved or Standings Update Only is clicked. Unplayed first-round games then go back to the calculated order.
  • If Playoff in Standings is Yes on 1 Configuration > Scoring, the bracket goes back to the calculated order the next time anyone clicks Save on Edit Scores.
  • For a seeding that doesn't change, seed the bracket manually instead.

If it doesn't work

  • "All scores are required for both home and away teams for played games (see Week (week), Game (home team) vs (away team))." A game is set to Played but a score is blank. Enter both scores, or choose another Disposition such as Canceled.
  • The playoff games aren't on Edit Scores. You opened the 2nd Half. Go back to the Standings page, choose 1st Half and click Edit Scores again.
  • Edit Scores or Edit Standings is grayed out or missing. Your admin role doesn't include scheduling or scoring, the league is archived, or (for Edit Standings) the division has no standings yet.
  • The seeds still don't fill in. Contact TeamSideline Support with the league and division names, which playoff bracket it is, and the matchups you expect.

Good to know

  • Seeds and winners update when scores are saved (Edit Scores, Multi Division Scoring, coach or official score reports), on Calc & Save on 4 Create Schedule > Playoff, and when the Scoring page is saved.
  • A bracket seeded Manual or Manual Across Divisions doesn't wait for the regular season. Its spots show TBD until you pick the teams on 4 Create Schedule > Playoff.
  • To show the bracket on your website, set Show Playoff Brackets to Yes on 1 Configuration > Display.

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