Run your playoffs

Playoffs turn your regular-season standings into a bracket. You set the format, preview the seeds, then start the playoffs.

Set the format

Open Front Office → More → League settings. In Playoffs, the switch says whether this season has them. Turn it off to end the season on the regular-season standings instead; see End the season and start the next.

In Playoff format:

• Teams is how many teams make the bracket: from 2 up to the number of active teams, with 16 at most. The highest seeds get first-round byes when a round needs them.
• Earlier rounds and Final set each series to best of 1, 3, 5 or 7. The first team to win most of a series' games moves on.
• Show bracket to players after is how long you see the preview before it starts on its own, from Right away to 48 hours.

Choose Save changes. These settings lock once the playoffs start.

Preview the bracket

Open Front Office → Schedule. The Playoffs section is under your published schedule. Choose Preview bracket: OVRWire seeds the teams from the current standings, tiebreaks included, and shows every series.

First settle every regular-season dispute, forfeit claim and result still waiting on a confirmation or a review. Games nobody played don't hold up the playoffs: they're recorded as No result or Double forfeit, by your league's rules, when the playoffs start, so the preview asks for a Reason. To settle one yourself instead, choose Resolve this game.

If a result, a team or a game changes after the preview, choose Refresh preview and add a reason. If you change the playoff format, preview the bracket again.

Start the playoffs

Choose Publish now · Start playoffs. OVRWire asks first and says how many unplayed games it will settle; choose Start playoffs to go ahead. Otherwise the preview starts on its own after the wait you chose, unless something blocks it, such as a game still waiting on a ruling. Then settle it and start the playoffs from the preview.

Starting the playoffs makes the bracket public. Each ready series gets its first game on the next of your league's usual game nights, and each next game is added when the one before it is final. The higher seed hosts games 1, 3, 5 and 7. Open public bracket shows what players see.

Paid time

The playoffs start only while the season is live. A paid season starts its playoffs within its 12 paid weeks. After they end, choose Renew in Billing to start them. See Billing, renewal and your season.

The champion

When the final series is decided, the season ends and the winner is the champion. If a correction later changes who won the final, the champion changes with it.