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How to manually seed a playoff bracket (choose which teams play)

  • Updated

To choose the playoff teams yourself, set the bracket's Playoff Seed Method to Manual (or Manual Across Divisions) on 1 Configuration > Scheduling, create the playoff schedule, and pick a team for each first-round spot on 4 Create Schedule > Playoff. Teams you don't pick don't play, so this is also how you leave out a team that opts out of the playoffs.

Applies to: Admins and schedulers · All plans (2nd Playoff: Enhanced, Elite and Enterprise; 3rd and 4th Playoff: Elite and Enterprise) · League divisions (tournament brackets offer Seed Method Manual on their own pages)

Where: Schedules > Leagues & Divisions > (division) > 1 Configuration > Scheduling, then More Options > 4 Create Schedule > Playoff

Playoff Seed Method options

  • By Standings: TeamSideline places teams from the regular-season standings once every regular-season game has a result, using the Playoff Seed Source (Top - Regular Season; a 2nd, 3rd or 4th Playoff can also use Next - Regular Season). Until then the bracket shows places such as 1st and 8th.
  • Manual: you pick each first-round team from the division's own teams. Spots you haven't filled show TBD.
  • Manual Across Divisions: the same, but the lists include every team in your organization's active leagues for the same sport, shown as team, division, league and season.
  • N/A - Not Configured: no seed method yet. Choose one of the other three before you save.

Step 1: Set the seed method

  1. Go to Schedules > Leagues & Divisions and click the division's Edit Division icon (pencil). Its 1 Configuration > Scheduling page opens.
  2. Under Division Schedule Types, make sure Playoff (or 2nd Playoff, 3rd Playoff or 4th Playoff) is checked.
  3. Under Playoff Configurations (or the 2nd, 3rd or 4th section), choose the Playoff Type.
  4. Set # of Playoff Teams to the number of teams that will play.
  5. Set Playoff Seed Method to Manual or Manual Across Divisions. Leave Playoff Seed Source at N/A - Not Configured; only By Standings uses it.
  6. Click Save.

If the playoff settings are grayed out with "To change, delete playoff schedule first.", see Change the seed method of an existing bracket below.

Step 2: Create the playoff schedule

  1. On Leagues & Divisions, open the division's More Options menu and choose 4 Create Schedule > Playoff (or 2nd Playoff, 3rd Playoff or 4th Playoff).
  2. Click Create. If the Playoff Type is Manual, click Manual instead and add each game with Add Game (see How to build a Manual Playoff Schedule).

What you'll see: "Your playoff schedule has been created for you to review." The games are grouped by Playoff Round, and every first-round spot is TBD. With manual seeding, Create doesn't need the division to have as many teams as # of Playoff Teams, but 3 Time Slots needs at least half that many time slots.

Step 3: Pick the teams

  1. In each first-round game, choose a team in the Home drop-down and one in the Away drop-down. Each list starts with TBD.
  2. If the bracket gives some teams a bye, a later-round game also has a Home drop-down, with an earlier game's winner (for example R1-G1 Winner) as Away. The team you pick there skips the first round.
  3. Check that each team appears only once. TeamSideline doesn't stop you from picking a team twice.
  4. Change any game's Week or Time Slot if needed, then click Calc & Save.

What you'll see: "The Schedule has been calculated, saved, and is shown below. You can now view this schedule on the Standings & Results page." The teams appear in the bracket right away; manual seeding doesn't wait for the regular season. A game gets score boxes on Edit Scores once both its teams are picked, and winners move on as you enter playoff scores.

Change the seed method of an existing bracket

Once a playoff schedule exists, its Playoff Configurations are locked ("To change, delete playoff schedule first.").

  1. On 4 Create Schedule > Playoff, click Delete and confirm. Delete is hidden while any game in that playoff schedule is Played, Forfeit by home or Forfeit by away; change those games back to Not played with both scores cleared on Edit Scores first. Regular-season results don't block it.
  2. On 1 Configuration > Scheduling, change the Playoff Seed Method and click Save.
  3. Repeat Step 2 and Step 3.

Deleting removes that playoff schedule's games, including any week and time slot changes you made. The division's other schedules stay.

If it doesn't work

  • There's no Create button. The page asks you to "complete all required Division Configuration page items, create a minimum of Teams on the Teams page based on your playoff configuration, and create the minimum number of Time Slots on the Time Slots & Location page." With manual seeding, check that the Playoff Type isn't N/A and that 3 Time Slots has enough time slots.
  • "The Division Playoff section has 4 configurations -- Playoff Type, Number of Playoff Teams, Playoff Seed Method, and Playoff Seed Source. To enable Playoffs for this Division you need to make a selection from all 4 configurations." Choose the Playoff Type, # of Playoff Teams and Playoff Seed Method. Seed Source is needed only for By Standings.
  • "Error creating schedule." with a request to contact support. TeamSideline has no ready-made bracket for that type and number of teams. Choose a different # of Playoff Teams or Playoff Type.
  • "Review the order of your Playoff Rounds. There are at least two Playoff Rounds that have the same Date/Time Slot combination." Two playoff games use the same time slot in the same week (a TC alert marks them). Change one game's Time Slot or Week. TBD time slots can be shared.
  • "Review the start of your Playoff Rounds. There is at least one Playoff Round that starts before the end of your Regular Season." A playoff game is on or before the last regular-season game. Move it to a later Week.
  • "The Schedule has changed since you started editing it. Please re-calculate the schedule and try again." Someone else saved this playoff schedule while you were editing. Reload the page and make your changes again.
  • A game has no team drop-downs. It already has a result, or the bracket isn't seeded manually.
  • There's no Delete button. A game in that playoff schedule has a result, or your admin role doesn't include the 4 Create Schedule Delete permission.

Yellow alerts such as AC (Availability Conflict), OC (Overlapping Conflict) and HC (Holiday Conflict) are warnings; they don't stop Calc & Save.

Good to know

  • By Standings always seeds from the regular-season (1st Half) standings. To seed from other results, such as 2nd Half standings or a tiebreaker game, seed the bracket manually.
  • Each bracket (Playoff, 2nd Playoff, 3rd Playoff and 4th Playoff) has its own seed method, so a top bracket can be By Standings and a bottom bracket Manual.
  • Playoff Type Manual is different: you build every game yourself with Add Game, and there's no bracket diagram.
  • If a By Standings bracket already exists and a team drops out before the first round, you can check External Team on that team in 2 Teams instead of rebuilding. The team leaves the standings, the teams below it move up and unplayed first-round games are seeded again. Its opponents keep their results.
  • To add or remove a team during the season, see How to add or remove a team after the schedule has started.

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