Need a hand?

Getting started

The welcome screen has two ways in: Create a tournament to start your own, or Import a tournament file to open one someone sent you.

1. Tap Create a tournament and give it a name, date, and color palette.
2. Add a team for each side, with a color and a symbol or photo.
3. Add a game, choose its format, and pick who’s playing.
4. Tap Present and start recording winners.

To switch tournaments or start another, tap Change tournament at the top left (two arrows on iPhone), then choose one or tap New tournament.

Presenting and recording winners

• Tap Present: in the sidebar on iPad, or at the top of the screen on iPhone. The leaderboard comes first; choose a game from the menu under the header.
• Tap a competitor in a ready match to record the win. Tap the other competitor to correct it.
• Undo reverses the last result change, including any later results a correction cleared.
• Pinch to zoom and drag to look around a bracket. The percentage button fits the whole bracket on screen. One side and Both sides switch the bracket’s layout.

Formats

Each game can be single elimination (with a third-place game), double elimination (with a losers bracket and a grand final, replayed once if the losers-bracket champion wins it), or round robin. A game takes 2 to 64 entries: whole teams, solo players, or pairs and groups of teammates.

How points work

• Every match win earns the game’s points, including third-place and losers-bracket wins.
• Set what a win is worth in Edit tournament: points for the team and, separately, points for each winning player. New tournaments start at 3 and 1.
• Any game can use its own points instead, in Edit game. Changing points rescores results already recorded.
• BracketJam records winners, not game scores. Draws, forfeits, and placement bonuses aren’t supported yet.

Teams only, or players too

A tournament works with teams alone. Turn on player tracking to add rosters, solo and partner games, random groups, player trading cards, and player standings alongside the team leaderboard.

Backups and new devices

• When you’re signed in to iCloud with iCloud Drive on, BracketJam backs up a few seconds after each change. Each iPad and iPhone keeps its own backup in your iCloud.
• On a new device, or after reinstalling, the welcome screen offers Restore tournaments.
• iCloud backup, under Change tournament, shows the status, turns backup off, and lists your other devices’ backups to restore or delete.
• Tournaments don’t sync live between devices. Each device keeps its own library, and restores another device’s backup only when you ask.

Sharing a tournament

Choose Export tournament in the Tournament options menu, or Export all tournaments in iCloud backup, then send it with AirDrop, Messages, or Mail, or save it to Files. Files include photos and music. To bring one in, use Import tournaments under Change tournament, or share the file to BracketJam from another app.

Victory music

In a team’s editor, choose an audio file from Files. It plays when that team or its players win. While a song plays, the speaker button in the presentation header stops it.

Free and Pro

BracketJam is free and runs a complete small event: as many tournaments as you like, each with up to 8 teams and one single-elimination game, plus custom points, the full presentation, iCloud backup, and export and import.

BracketJam Pro is a one-time purchase: $9.99 in the US, or the price shown in your country’s App Store. It adds more teams and games, round robin and double elimination, player tracking, every custom photo (team, player, and game photos, the logo, and the background), and victory music.

• To buy or restore Pro, tap Change tournament and choose Unlock BracketJam Pro, then Restore purchase if you’ve bought it before.
• Pro works on all your iPads and iPhones signed in to the same Apple Account, and Family Sharing can share it with your family.
• Tournaments that already go past the free limits, like one made with Pro and then imported or restored, stay fully playable without Pro. Only adding more needs Pro.

Requirements

An iPad or iPhone with iPadOS or iOS 17 or later. iCloud backup needs an iCloud account with iCloud Drive turned on.

Still need a hand?

Write to support@ramifystudios.com. See BracketJam privacy for how the app handles your data.