A tournament with a Top 8 will need two phases. The first phase will be for the swiss portion of the tournament followed by a Playoff phase for the top cut.

Phase #1: Swiss Phase Settings

Phase #2: Playoffs Phase Settings

Once you select Playoffs as your Matching Method, the top section will expand to ensure your settings for the cut are accurate.

Swiss Followed By Playoffs Logic

Whenever a Swiss phase is followed by a Playoffs phase, Melee will automatically do the following actions:

1. The final round of Swiss will be “Power Paired”. Power pairings involve 1st Seed playing against the 2nd Seed if possible. If not, due to playing previously, they will instead be paired against the 3rd Seed. This logic cascades until all players are paired and is deterministic meaning it will be the same every time it is calculalted.
2. The Top 8 is bracketed and will pair 1st Seed v 8th Seed, 2nd Seed vs 7th Seed, 3rd seed vs 6th seed, and 4th seed vs 5th seed. The winners of 1 vs 8 and 4 vs 5 will play in semifinals, the winners of 2 vs 7 and 3 vs 6 will play on the other side of the bracket. Then the winners of those 2 semi final matches will meet in the finals.