In a single$-$elimination tournament, the schedule is determined by placing the teams in a vertical list called "the tournament bracket". In the first round the top two teams in the bracket play each other, then the next two, etc. In the second round the top two remaining teams play each other, then the next two, etc. This continues until there is only one team left $--$ the tournament winner.

The number of teams in the tournament should be a power of $2--$ if it isn't, byes are added to the bracket. Byes are never placed so that they will "play" each other. When a team's opponent is "bye", there is no game played and the team automatically advances as if it had won a game. Here is an example with a bracket of length $4$ containing one bye $($see Example $0).$