Skip to main content
Tournament Bracket is an unscored voting slide that pairs your options off and lets the room knock them out, two at a time, until one is crowned champion. Use it when a group needs to pick a favourite from a long list and you want the decision to feel like a contest, not a flat poll.

​
Tournament Bracket at a glance

​
Create a Tournament Bracket slide

1

Add the slide

In the editor, click New slide and search for Tournament Bracket. Type the question the bracket settles as the slide title, for example “Which snack should we order for the team day?”.
2

Choose the bracket size

Under Bracket size, pick 4, 8 or 16. This sets how many competitor rows there are. If you shrink the bracket and that would remove names you have typed, AhaSlides asks before it removes them.
3

Add the competitors

Type one competitor per row under Competitors, or click Paste a list and paste one name per line. Each name can be up to 100 characters, but one to three words read best in the bracket. To show a picture with a competitor, add an image to its row.
4

Set the seeding

The order of the list is the seeding: the first row is seed 1, the second is seed 2, and so on. Drag a row to move it. The top two seeds are kept apart until the final, so put your strongest options at the top.
5

Set the time per matchup

Enter the voting time in Seconds per matchup. Use 10 to 15 seconds for a quick warm-up, or 20 to 30 when people need a moment to think or talk.

​
Present a Tournament Bracket slide

Click Present and share the access code so participants can join. The bracket is drawn on your screen with every competitor in place. Click Start (or press the space bar) to begin. On your screen, the matchups play one at a time. Each one fills the screen with its two competitors and a countdown, and a live count shows how many people have voted. When time runs out, or when everyone has voted, the result is revealed and the winner moves forward in the bracket. The rounds carry on (round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, final) until the champion is crowned. Use Pause to stop the clock at any point and Resume to carry on. On each phone, participants see the two competitors of the live matchup and tap the one they want to win. They can change their pick until the matchup closes; the last tap counts. Once it closes, the phone shows which competitor goes through. At the end, everyone sees the champion and how many of their picks backed the winner.

​
Tournament Bracket settings

​
Ideas for using Tournament Bracket

  • Team events: let the room choose the menu, the music or the theme for the next team day.
  • Meetings: narrow eight project ideas down to the one the team will work on first.
  • Classroom: have students vote for the best book of the term, or the most useful invention in history.
  • Live events and conferences: run a “best of” vote between talks, products or photos, with a picture on each competitor.
  • Icebreakers: settle a light debate such as cats against dogs, or the best breakfast food.

​
Tournament Bracket vs. Poll and Ranking

A Poll asks everyone to choose from all the options at once, so it is quicker when you only need a single vote. Ranking puts every option in order. Tournament Bracket compares options two at a time and builds suspense round by round, so it suits a list you want to whittle down to one winner as a group activity.

​
Frequently asked questions

​
What happens if I have fewer competitors than the bracket size?

Leave the extra rows empty. The bracket plays at the smallest size that fits your competitors, and any spare places become byes, so the top seeds go straight through to the next round. For example, six competitors play in a bracket of 8 and seeds 1 and 2 skip the first round. Name at least two competitors.

​
What happens if a matchup is a tie?

The higher seed goes through, which is the competitor higher up in your list. This also applies when nobody votes in a matchup, and the screen says why that competitor advanced.

​
Is Tournament Bracket scored?

No. There are no correct answers, points or leaderboard. Participants only see how many of their picks backed the winning competitors.

​
Can I see the results after the session?

Yes. The presentation report shows the finished bracket with the vote count for every matchup, and each participant’s picks. Have a question? Contact our support team: if you’re logged in, use the chat bubble in the bottom-right of your dashboard; otherwise contact us here or email hi@ahaslides.com. Want to connect with other users? Join the AhaSlides community to share tips, request features, and see how others engage their audiences.