BracketOps

Player Guide

How to use BracketOps as a player.

Player Guide

Last Updated: October 9, 2026

Welcome to BracketOps, the app your organiser uses to run Pokémon events — TCG, VGC and Pokémon GO. As a player you can register for events, submit your deck or team list, see your table and opponent each round, report your result from your phone, and follow the final results. This guide walks through each of those, in the order you meet them.

1. Getting Started

Sign in
  • Tap Sign in with Google on the login page. Google is the only way to sign in. It asks which Google account to use every time, so pick the one that belongs to the player (a child has their own: see the note below).
  • If you opened BracketOps from a link inside another app, that app's built-in browser may block Google sign-in. The login page says so and offers Copy Link to Open in Safari/Chrome: open the link in your phone's normal browser instead.
Finish your profile

After your first sign-in, BracketOps asks for a few details. You need them to register for events and to see your own matches and results.

  • First Name and Last Name: as on your Play! Pokémon account.
  • Pokemon Player ID: the number on your Play! Pokémon account (also called a POP ID). No Player ID yet? You get one through your Play! Pokémon account, or at your first Play! Pokémon event.
  • Birth Year: this sets your age division. Once you choose a year, the line under it names the division that year gives this season, so a wrong year shows up before you save. It is a preview of the season's divisions: an event can set its own cut-offs, and a Pokémon GO event has a single Open division.
  • Tick the box to confirm you have checked your Player ID and year of birth, then Complete Profile.
Your Player ID and year of birth are locked once saved: you can't change them yourself, so check them before you save. If one is wrong, use Request a correction beside This field is locked. on your profile, and the BracketOps admins will look at it.

You can tap Not now and come back later. Until the profile is complete, your home page shows a Finish setting up your account card, and an event's registration card says Complete your profile to register.

Setting this up for a child? Use one account per child, each signed in with its own Google account, and enter the child's details. Each child then has their own registrations, matches and inbox.
Player ID check pending

If the Player ID you enter has played at BracketOps events under a different name, it isn't linked to your account straight away. Your home page and profile show Player ID check pending with a short code, and you can't register online until it is linked. Show the organiser of your next BracketOps event your Play! Pokémon ID and that code; once they have checked it, the Player ID is linked.

The full story, including what to do if it says Player ID not linked, is on the Help page under Why is my Player ID waiting for a check?

2. Finding an Event

Your home page lists events in up to four groups: Live Now, My Upcoming Tournaments (events you have registered for), Upcoming Tournaments and Past Tournaments (events you played in). Each event you are in carries your own status: Registered, Waitlist, or Update when something has happened to your registration. A dot beside the name means there is a registration update you haven't read yet.

Not every event is listed. An organiser may share the event's link instead, or put up a QR poster at the venue that opens the event page when you scan it.

3. Registering

Register

Open the event and use the registration card near the top of the page. What it shows depends on the organiser's settings:

  • Register while registration is open. You need to be signed in with a complete profile.
  • Opens followed by a time before registration opens, and Registration Closed once it has closed. While the organiser has registration switched off, you can't register.
  • Online registration closed with The event has started. Please see the organiser. between the event starting and round 1 being paired.

Under the Register button is a short notice: your name, age division, pairings, match results and standings for the event will appear on its public page. If you are under 16, make sure a parent or guardian knows.

Your answer

You get your answer the moment you register:

  • You're in: you have a seat. Once the organiser or a judge has checked you in at the venue, it says Checked in.
  • On the waitlist, with your number in line (for example #3 in line). If a seat opens before the event, you are moved in automatically. If the organiser is seating the waitlist by hand, the card says so; check back.
Withdrawing
  • Withdraw is on the same card until the event starts. If anyone is waiting, your seat goes to the next person in line.
  • On the waitlist, Leave waitlist stays there for as long as you are in line, even after the event has started.
  • If you register again later, you go to the back of the line.
  • Once the event has started you can't withdraw online: The event has started, so you can't withdraw online. Please tell the organiser.
Staying up to date

Changes to your registration (a seat from the waitlist, a seat the organiser gave you, being removed, the event being cancelled) show as a notice on the event page and in your inbox.

A change to an event's date, time or deadlines is not sent to anyone. Check the event page before you travel.

4. Deck and Team Lists

If the event needs a list, a button for it appears on the event page once you have a seat: Submit Deck List for TCG, Submit Team List for VGC and Pokémon GO. Under it is when submission closes, with a countdown that turns amber in the last 24 hours and red in the last 6.

Deck Lists (TCG)

Paste your list as exported from Pokémon TCG Live, press Validate, then Submit Deck. Validation checks the card count, the deck-building rules and that every card is legal; you can't submit until it passes. You can edit and resubmit (Edit Deck List) until the deadline or until the event starts, whichever comes first.

Team Lists (VGC)

Paste your Pokémon Showdown team export, fill in your Trainer Name, Battle Team and Switch Profile, press Validate, then Submit Team. The same deadline rules apply.

Team Lists (Pokémon GO)

Enter your Player Name and In-game Nickname, then your team of six: each Pokémon's species, CP, HP, fast attack and charged attacks. Then Submit Team List. The same deadline rules apply.

Paper Lists

If you hand in a paper deck list at the venue, staff can mark it as received, and your card then says Staff accepted your paper deck list. You can still submit online before the deadline (Submit Deck List Online), which replaces the paper mark.

After submitting, View My Deck List (or View My Team List) shows exactly what you sent, including after the event.

Your list is visible only to you, the event's organiser and its judges. It is never on the public page.

5. On the Day

Check-in

Before round 1, check in with the organiser or a judge at the venue. They tick you off on their screen.

Your Dashboard

Once round 1 is paired, the event page opens on your Dashboard:

  • The current round, your Table Number and your Opponent. A bye says You have a BYE.
  • Tournament History: each round you have played, your opponent, table and result.
  • Player Record: any penalty or deck check recorded for you at this event. For a penalty, the penalty, its category and severity, the round and the time; for a deck check, the round and whether it passed. A judge's notes are never shown here.
Pairings

Switch to Pairings to see every table. Type in Find your name... to jump to yourself; your own match is highlighted. Other players' names are shortened on the public pairings (first name and last initial), except your own opponent's.

At an event run in TOM you don't need to keep reloading: while the page is open it updates itself each time new pairings or results arrive from TOM. At an event BracketOps runs itself, refresh the page (pull down on a phone) to see the next round's pairings or your official result.

Dropping

To leave an event that has started, tell the organiser, who records the drop. At an event BracketOps runs itself (no TOM), your Dashboard then says You have dropped from this tournament.

During the event, standings are for staff. Players see the final results once the event is complete (section 7).

6. Reporting Your Result

If the organiser has turned on online result reporting, your Dashboard has a Report Match Result button during your match.

  1. When your match is over, tap Report Match Result, then I Won, I Lost or Tie. There is no Tie button at Pokémon GO events or in top cut.
  2. The status line shows where things stand: Pending Submission, Awaiting Opponent, Confirmed when your reports agree, or Conflict when they don't. Your page doesn't update itself when your opponent reports: refresh it (pull down on a phone) to see their report.
  3. Made a mistake? Tap the right button to change your report, or the same button again to take it back.
  4. On a Conflict, talk to your opponent and fix the result, or call a judge.

Your report is not the official result. The organiser records the official result: in TOM, or when they finalise the round at an event BracketOps runs itself. Once it is in, the reporting buttons go from your Dashboard and the match moves to your Tournament History with its official result, so your report can no longer be changed. Reporting closes when the event finishes or is cancelled.

7. After the Event

When the event is complete, its page opens on Results: the final standings. If you played, you start on your own division and are scrolled to your own placing. A Pokémon GO event has one Open tab instead of age divisions. Your Dashboard and your submitted list stay available.

8. Your Inbox and Requests

Your inbox

The bell at the top of the page shows how many notices you haven't read, and Inbox is also in the menu under your avatar. BracketOps writes to it when something happens to you: registration changes, an event you're in being cancelled, being added as a judge, changes the admins make to your account, replies to your requests, and announcements from the BracketOps admins.

It is not a messaging system: nobody can send you a message, and you can't send one. BracketOps doesn't send email yet, so this is where your notices arrive. Notices are kept for 60 days, and you can Delete any of them yourself. The full list of what does and doesn't arrive is on the Help page.

Asking the admins

From the menu, My requests › New request sends a request to the BracketOps admins: Link a Player ID, Correct a locked field (your Player ID or year of birth), or Report a problem. Report a problem is also in the menu's Help section. Replies arrive in your inbox. You can send three requests in any 24 hours.

Running events yourself

Want to organise? Your profile has an Organiser Application card: give your Pokémon League URL and Your Association with this League. The outcome arrives in your inbox.

9. Privacy

  • The public event page shows competitors' names, age divisions, pairings, table numbers, match results and standings, to anyone with the link. Other players see your name shortened.
  • Your Player ID is never on a public page. The organiser and judges of an event you're in can see it, and so can the BracketOps admins.
  • Deck and team lists, penalties and deck checks are seen only by you, the event's organiser and its judges.
  • Your email address and year of birth are seen only by you and the BracketOps admins. When you enter an event, your year of birth is also in the file the organiser exports to TOM, which uses it to place you in an age division.
  • The privacy page has the details, including how to have your information corrected or removed.