Skip to main content

Feed-In Draw

Overview​

A Feed-In draw (also known as "staggered entry") is a structure where participants enter the draw at different rounds rather than all starting in Round 1. Participants "feed in" at specified rounds, playing against winners from earlier rounds.

In the factory, this draw type is represented by the constant FEED_IN.

Structure​

Unlike a standard elimination bracket where all participants begin in the first round, a feed-in draw staggers entry points:

Round 1:  P1 vs P2  -->  Winner
                              vs  P5 (fed in at Round 2)  -->  Winner
Round 1:  P3 vs P4  -->  Winner                                    vs  P7 (fed in at Round 3)
                              vs  P6 (fed in at Round 2)  -->  Winner

Key characteristics:

  • Each round after the first introduces new participants.
  • Fed-in participants face winners from previous rounds.
  • The number of participants fed into each round is configurable.

Use Cases​

  • Consolation structures where losers from successive main draw rounds feed in at progressive rounds.
  • Formats where late entries or qualifiers need to join an in-progress bracket.
  • As a building block for more complex draw types like FEED_IN_CHAMPIONSHIP.

Generation​

const { drawDefinition } = engine.generateDrawDefinition({
  drawSize: 16,
  drawType: 'FEED_IN',
});

Feed-in behavior can also be controlled via the Feed-In Policy.

As a qualifying structure​

Since 7.9.0 a FEED_IN structure can be a qualifying structure of any drawSize — a staggered-entry qualifying draw, where later-arriving entrants are fed into later rounds. It produces qualifyingPositions qualifiers only when that count divides drawSize at least twice over, so its final round is never before its last fed round: 12 positions give 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 qualifiers; 13 give only 1; 10 give 1, 2 or 5. Any other count is refused with INVALID_VALUES. Qualifying seeds take the fed positions first — the lowest seed numbers in the latest fed round — and the remaining seeds are spread across round 1. getFeedInQualifyingPositions returns the valid counts for a drawSize, and drawType: 'FEED_IN' is accepted in qualifyingProfiles[].structureProfiles for generateDrawDefinition and by addQualifyingStructure.