ECS: Japan 2026 - Fatal Fury

A Double-Elimination tournament format means that a competitor must lose two matches to be completely eliminated from the tournament. It consists of two main brackets: the Upper Bracket (Winners Bracket) and the Lower Bracket (Losers Bracket).

1. Upper Bracket (UB)

• All players start here.

• Winning a match advances the player to the next round of the Upper Bracket.

• Losing a match drops the player down into a specific round of the Lower Bracket (giving them a second chance).

• Example from the image: Xiaohai won against mi2ha4 (3−2) in the UB Semifinals, advanced to the Upper Bracket Final, defeated ZJZ (3−0), and successfully qualified directly for the Grand Final.

2. Lower Bracket (LB)

• This bracket consists of players who have lost once in the Upper Bracket, playing against survivors of previous Lower Bracket rounds.

• A loss in the Lower Bracket results in complete elimination from the tournament.

• Example from the image: Laggia started in the Lower Bracket Round 1, won consecutive elimination matches against Nemo, mi2ha4, POONGKO, and ZJZ to fight his way back up to the Grand Final.

3. Grand Final

• The winner of the Upper Bracket (Xiaohai) faces the winner of the Lower Bracket (Laggia).

• To win the entire tournament, the Lower Bracket finalist usually has to win two consecutive match series (known as "resetting the bracket"), because the Upper Bracket finalist hasn't lost a match yet. Meanwhile, the Upper Bracket finalist only needs to win one match series to secure the championship.