Start with the first tournament size that is equal to or greater that the number of teams you wish to use. Fill in a missing team with a bye. Example: if you have five teams then use the eight team tournament size and mark teams ranked six through eight as byes. Seed all byes at the lowest rank. If a bye plays in every game of the first round then all teams advance and the tournament will start at round two. Larger tournaments are managed using concurrent sixteen team blocks.

Bye Rule

1. Give byes at the start of the tournament
2. Balance byes as much as possible
3. Byes get the lowest ranked seed

Room Scheduling

Schedule in a backward pattern. Schedule the final game first and the first games last. Imagine you have a champion and are playing the games backwards. Your final, semifinal, and quarter-final games should be the most exciting and have the largest audience. Schedule the best room for the final game. The first and second best rooms for the semifinal games. The first through fourth best rooms for the quarter-final games and so forth. Stop using the small, inaccessible, inappropriate, or inhospitable rooms as soon as possible. Make allowances for pedestrian traffic, it can interfere with the tournament or the games.