MTR Appendix E — Recommended Number of Rounds in Swiss Tournaments

The following number of Swiss rounds is required for Premier tournaments (such as Regional Championship Qualifiers). It may be used at the Tournament Organizer’s discretion for non-Premier tournaments.

 

Players (Teams) Swiss Rounds Playoff
4 (Team/2HG Only) 2 Single-Elimination Rounds (No Swiss) None (Run Single Elimination)
5-8 3 Single-Elimination Rounds (No Swiss) None (Run Single Elimination)
9-16 4 (if Limited Format with Booster Draft in Playoffs)
5 (All Other Formats)
Top 8 (If Limited Format with Booster Draft in Playoffs)
Top 4 (All Other Formats)
17-32 5 Top 8
33-64 6 Top 8
65-128 7 Top 8
129-226 8 Top 8
227-409 9 Top 8
410+ 10 Top 8

Team tournaments consider each team as a single player for this purpose.

In tournaments where awarded byes are used, each player with a 1-round bye should count as 2 players, each player with a 2-round bye should count as 4 players, and each player with a 3-round bye should count as 8 players when using the above chart.