Tournaments on Pokékipe — the complete playbook

Host private or public Pokémon Showdown tournaments, auto-resolve matches from replay links, and follow the bracket live. Smash, Street Fighter, chess or anything else? The engine also works for communities outside the Pokémon ecosystem.

01What are Pokékipe tournaments?

The Tournaments page hosts every community tournament run on Pokékipe. You can spin one up in a few clicks and invite whoever you want — Discord friends, a server team, randoms from Showdown. The engine handles the bracket, pairings, result tracking, and arbitration. Each tournament is self-contained: matches, chat, history depend on nothing but the tournament itself.

There are two flows: public (listed on the hub, open to anyone) and private (invite-code access only). Drafts and finished tournaments don't appear in the public feed — only the ones where there's still something to do.

02Prerequisites: verified Showdown username

To create or join a Pokémon tournament, your Pokékipe account needs a verified Pokémon Showdown handle. Takes under a minute:

• Head to your account settings and click Link Showdown username.
• Type your PS username; our bot sends you a short code via PM on Showdown.
• Paste the code back into Pokékipe — verified, done.

Once verified, Join and Create flows unlock. You can still use an alt at signup time (pseudo override on the form).

03Bracket types explained

Four formats are supported, each with their strengths. Pick based on expected player count and the stakes.

Single elimination

One loss and you're out. The fastest to run — a 16-player bracket = 15 matches total. Ideal for short, informal tournaments, or large fields (beyond 64 players). Non-power-of-2 sizes (5, 7, 13…) are supported via automatic byes in round 1.

Double elimination

Losers drop into a lower bracket and get a second chance. The lower bracket winner faces the upper bracket champion in the grand final — with a possible reset if the LB wins (the bracket is re-balanced with a second round, both players then at 1 loss each).

Round robin

Everyone plays everyone — N × (N−1) / 2 matches total. Scheduled via Berger rotation so that every round has every player in a match (or on a bye if N is odd). Ideal for small groups (≤ 8 players) where you want to maximize play time. Quadratic cost: past 10 players it gets long.

Swiss

A compromise between single-elim and round-robin. Fixed round count (default ceil(log2(N)), minimum 3). In each round, every player faces another player with a similar score — 1-0 vs 1-0, 0-1 vs 0-1, etc. No one is eliminated: you play all your rounds. Final standings via Buchholz (sum of your opponents' scores).

04Non-Pokémon tournaments

The tournament engine isn't locked to Pokémon. If you're running a Smash Ultimate, Street Fighter 6, Chess, Magic, League of Legends, or any other competitive game event, the system works for you too. Just pick "Other (non-Pokémon)" in the format dropdown at creation time.

You then type a free label (e.g. "Smash Ultimate", "Chess Blitz 5+0", "SF6 Ranked"). This label shows up everywhere in place of the regular Pokémon format — tournament card, overview, stream overlay, embed.

How it works

1. Create: no Showdown verification needed — anyone can run a generic tournament.
2. Join: at the Join click, you type your free pseudo (FGC tag, chess.com handle, team name, whatever).
3. Bracket: exactly the same logic as Pokémon — single-elim, double-elim, round-robin, swiss. The engine doesn't care about the game.
4. Arbitration: no auto-report (no Showdown replay URL to parse). The host marks each winner manually via "Host resolve" in the match room.

Differences from a Pokémon tournament

• No Showdown gating — neither to create nor to join.
• Free pseudo at signup instead of the verified Showdown handle.
• Auto-report disabled — the host resolves each match by hand. Dispute and forfeit stay available as usual.

05Public vs private — invite codes

Visibility is set at creation and can be changed as long as the tournament is in draft or registration.

• Public — Listed on the tournaments hub. Any player with a verified Showdown username can click Join. Best for open community events.
• Private — Not listed publicly. A random 8-character invite code is generated when you create. Share the code or the full invite URL (/tournaments/<slug>?invite_code=XXX) with the players you want.

Switching from public to private auto-generates a new invite code. The reverse drops the code. The code stays hidden from non-hosts: only the organizer can see it and share it.

06Joining a private tournament via code

If someone shared a private tournament with you, three ways to join:

1. Click the full invite link they sent (looks like /tournaments/slug?invite_code=ABCD1234) — everything is pre-filled.
2. On the tournaments hub, paste the invite link into the Join with an invite code box and click Go.
3. If you only have the code without the slug, paste the code into that same box — we'll ask you for the slug in a second step.

Once on the tournament page, click "Join tournament". For a Pokémon tournament, you'll need a verified Showdown handle (same gating as creation). For a generic tournament, a simple free pseudo is enough.

07Hosting deep dive

Looking for the full host workflow? This page covers entry-point Q&A only — for the operational guide, head to the dedicated host workflow page.

The host workflow guide covers 12 steps in detail: configure the tournament, seed the bracket, run check-in, start, manage match lifecycle, auto-report results, handle disputes and forfeits, host-resolve mismatches, deadlines and chat, standings publication, grand final (double-elim mechanics), edit/cancel/audit trail.

08Frequently asked questions

Quick Q&A on tournament features that come up frequently. For deeper how-to questions, check the host workflow guide linked above.