The differences between the Premium and Free Versions of MSTW Bracket Builder are:

The Premium version supports single and double elimination tournaments of up to 16 teams with (optional) consolation games. The Free version supports basic single elimination tournaments of up to 64 teams. See the FAQ below for how the Premium version handles 64 team tournaments.

The free version is a manual system. That means you enter ALL the data that appears on the front end via the short codes. For example, if enter only the first round games on the Update Tourney Games admin screen, the second round games (and all following rounds) will be empty on the front end. You will have to enter the second round games as, says, “Game 1 Winner” vs “Game 2 Winner”, “Game 3 Winner” vs “Game 4 Winner”. Then when you mark the first round games as final, you have to update those games with the actual winners of the games. In the premium version, you only enter the games for the first round, the remaining games are automatically filled with “Game 1 Winner” etcetera, and when the games are marked final, “Game 1 Winner” is automatically replaced with the game’s winner based on the final scores provided.

The free version is a text-based system. That means there is no capability to enter team logos, for example. In fact, if in the first game the winning team is entered as “Team A”, it can be entered as “Team Alpha” in the next round, or the loser of the game can be entered as advancing. There are many opportunities for data entry errors. In the premium plugin, teams may be selected from the teams database, which is shared with the MSTW League Manager plugin. You enter a team’s information one time, then simply select it for use in multiple tournaments. Fast, simple, and error-resistant.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is the plugin responsive?
The tournament brackets are not responsive. The tournament tables provide much better results on small screens.

Can I import the games I created in the free version to the premium version?
Not in the current versions of the plugins. This feature may be included in a future release.

How does the Premium version handle 64 team tournaments?
Most big tournaments, like the NCAA basketball tournament, are divided into “regions” of some sort. So create four 16 team tournaments, one for each “region”, then create another four team tournament for “the final four”.

Why aren’t 32 and 64 team double elimination tournaments supported?
First, because there aren’t many of them around (that I know of). Second, the required screen width would become WAY too big.

Help! My brackets and bracket lines are all screwed up. What can I do?
The first problem one might encounter is that the HTML container of the short code must be wide enough for the entire bracket. The table below provides the minimum size for each bracket size. Note that these numbers are not exact. You may be able to squeeze a few more pixels from each, especial the Free version.

If that looks okay, send me a link to your messed up page, and I’ll try to help you out.