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Tutorial8 min read

Run your first tournament: a complete walkthrough

Rift Team

Documentation · Apr 18, 2026

Before you start

Decide your format ahead of time: how many teams, single-elim or double-elim, best-of-3 or best-of-5, and which game. Rift supports any combination, but locking it in before you publish saves rework.

Step 1 — Create the tournament

From the dashboard, click 'New tournament' and pick a game from the supported list (or author a custom stat schema). Set the bracket format, max players, and start date. The Community tier caps you at 16 players and 1 active tournament; upgrade to Organiser for 256 players + unlimited concurrent events.

Step 2 — Open registration

Share the public registration link in your Discord, social channels, or pinned channel. Players sign in with Discord (or email) and join your bracket directly. Team owners can invite their roster in bulk via Discord username.

Seeding

Once registration closes, drag-and-drop teams in the seed editor. Higher seeds get easier first-round matchups. Rift can also auto-seed by ELO if you've run prior events.

Step 3 — Run the bracket

Match-day morning, hit 'Start tournament'. The bracket goes live, players see their first matches, and your stream embed (if configured) shows the upcoming match queue. Score each match as it completes — winners advance automatically.

Step 4 — Stream + cast

Drop your Twitch / YouTube / Kick stream URL into the tournament settings. Casters can pull the bracket overlay assets from the broadcast tab. Viewers on your tournament page see the live stream + bracket + leaderboard in one view.

Step 5 — Finals + champion

When the final completes, the bracket auto-finalises with the champion's badge. Pro League plans get a one-click VOD archive + champion announcement post.

Next steps

Once you've run a couple of brackets, set up an automated weekly scrim cup template and watch your community grow. Talk to us in the Rift Discord for organiser tips.

RT

Rift Team

Documentation at Rift

Contributing to the Rift blog with insights on product development, engineering, and best practices.

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