Monrad System

The Monrad system (popular in Scandinavian padel and badminton) is similar to a progressive knockout but with a specific pairing structure based on bracket positions rather than free-form score matching. It resembles a knockout bracket visually, but no player is eliminated. After each round, winners advance in the bracket and losers drop to a lower position. By the end, every player has a unique ranking based on their bracket path. It's particularly efficient: with 8 teams, only 3 rounds are needed to produce a complete ranking of all positions from 1st to 8th.

• Players or teams are placed in a bracket of 8 or 16.
• Round 1: Adjacent players in the bracket play each other (1v2, 3v4, 5v6, 7v8).
• Winners and losers are sorted into separate sub-brackets.
• In subsequent rounds, winners of each sub-bracket play each other, and losers play each other.
• After 3 rounds (for 8 players) or 4 rounds (for 16 players), every player has a definitive position.

1. Set the bracket size (8 or 16 teams).
2. Seed the initial bracket to separate the strongest teams.
3. Use a pre-made Monrad template - these are available for 8, 16, and 32 players.
4. Play each round, then slot winners and losers into the correct bracket positions.
5. After the final round, announce the complete standings.

Padel tournaments (especially in Scandinavian-style events), club events where you want a complete ranking from a small number of rounds.

• Very efficient - determines all positions in minimal rounds.
• Fixed bracket structure makes it easy to pre-plan court scheduling.
• Less flexible than Swiss if players withdraw mid-tournament.