Overview A double elimination bracket requires each team to lose twice before elimination. With 18 teams, the bracket is not perfectly balanced (not a power of 2, like 16 or 32). Therefore, 14 teams start in the winners' bracket Round 1 , while 4 teams receive byes to the winners' bracket Round 2.

Example: For Match 8, Team A formula: =VLOOKUP(8, MatchesTable, 6, FALSE) but careful – you need to store winner of Match 1. Better: Create a named range Matches (A:G). Then in cell for Team A of Match 8: =IFERROR(INDEX(Matches[Winner], MATCH(8, Matches[Next Match ID], 0)), "") – adjust based on your layout.

Match 8: W-M1 vs W-M2 Match 9: W-M3 vs W-M4 Match 10: W-M5 vs W-M6 Match 11: W-M7 vs Team 15 (bye) Match 12: Team 16 vs Team 17 (bye vs bye) Match 13: Team 18 receives bye to Round 3 (WB Semifinal)

Simpler: Manually link cells: =F2 for winner of Match 1 into Match 8’s Team A slot. Highlight rounds where both teams are filled. Use formula: =AND(ISBLANK(TeamA)=FALSE, ISBLANK(TeamB)=FALSE) → green background.