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A bracket pool is a prediction pool where you commit to the entire knockout stage all at once — before a single match is played. You pick who wins every Round of 32 matchup, who advances to the quarterfinals, the semis, and ultimately who lifts the trophy. Once the bracket locks, you’re along for the ride. This is Toqui’s Cascading Bracket mode. It’s the most dramatic way to run a pool. It’s also the hardest.
Cascading Bracket is one of three preset scoring modes. To compare it with Casual and Escalating, see Scoring modes. For everything about deadlines and lock timing, see Set prediction deadlines for your pool.

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How it works

1

Your pool uses Cascading Bracket mode

The organizer selects Cascading Bracket when creating the pool. This enables the bracket prediction interface for all members.
2

Members predict the entire bracket up front

Once the bracket is available, members fill it in end to end before any knockout game kicks off. You don’t wait for matchups to be confirmed by real results — you pick them yourself, and your own picks cascade downstream.If you pick Argentina to beat Croatia in R32, Argentina automatically appears in your R16 slot. Your R16 winner cascades to your QF slot, your QF winner to your SF slot, and so on through the final.You pick a winner and a scoreline for every matchup in every round — Cascading Bracket isn’t a winner-only mode. Score predictions count toward your points the same way they do in every other Toqui mode.Change your mind on an earlier pick? The downstream slots that depended on it get cleared so you can re-pick — the original matchup doesn’t exist in your bracket anymore.
3

The bracket locks

All knockout picks lock together at a single deadline — by default, the kickoff of the first knockout game. There are no per-match or per-round deadlines for the knockouts.
There’s no grace period once the bracket locks. Set a reminder before the first knockout match starts so you don’t miss the deadline. See the transition window for the timing details that matter most.
4

Teams advance — or crash out

As matches are played, the app tracks which teams actually advance. If your predicted team wins, the team you slotted in the next round stays alive in your bracket and the Team Advancement rule earns you points — even if an earlier upset means your predicted matchup never happened.If your predicted team loses, the score-based rules earn 0 for that match and every downstream slot that depended on that team is broken. An early upset can unravel an otherwise strong bracket — but Team Advancement keeps you scoring on the picks you got right downstream.
5

Points accumulate through the final

Points scale with each stage. Getting the final right is worth far more than getting an R32 match right. A member who predicts a lot of early upsets can be overtaken in the last two rounds by someone who called the final correctly.

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How points work

Points use the same escalating scale as the Escalating preset. Correct picks in later rounds earn significantly more than early rounds.
StageExact scoreCorrect outcome
Round of 325 pts3 pts
Round of 167 pts5 pts
Quarter-final10 pts7 pts
Semi-final15 pts10 pts
Third-place match20 pts15 pts
Final30 pts20 pts
The “exact score” column applies when both your winner and your scoreline match the actual result. “Correct outcome” applies when your winner is right but your scoreline isn’t. Scoring rules stack the same way as in every other mode — see Scoring modes for the full list. These score-based rules check your prediction against the actual matchup. If the matchup you predicted for a specific match never happens (because one of the teams was knocked out earlier), the score-based rules earn 0 points for that match regardless of the scoreline you wrote down. The new Team Advancement rule below is the one exception — it rewards picking the team that advanced even when the matchup itself changed. For score-based rules, scoring uses the full-time + extra time result. Penalty kicks don’t factor into the calculation — see How scores are read. Team Advancement is the only rule that counts shootout winners.

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Team Advancement

Team Advancement is a scoring rule built specifically for Cascading Bracket pools. It rewards picking the right team to win a knockout match, even when your bracket has gone off the rails.

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The problem it solves

In a cascading bracket, you predict the whole bracket up front. Once an upset happens, your predicted matchups stop matching reality — and under the regular score-based rules, those broken matchups score 0 because the matchup itself never happened. Team Advancement breaks that gate. As long as you picked the team that actually advanced, you score — regardless of who they ended up playing.

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How it works

  • Trigger: the team you predicted to advance wins their knockout match.
  • Counts wins by: full time, extra time, or penalty shootout. This is the only rule that rewards shootout winners — score-based rules ignore penalty goals.
  • Applies to: every knockout round, including the third-place playoff and the final. Group-stage matches don’t get a Team Advancement score.
  • Independent of your scoreline: your “Brazil 2–1 France” guess can be totally wrong; if Brazil advances, you still get the Team Advancement points.

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Default points per round

Tuned to sit between Correct Outcome and Exact Score at every stage, growing as rounds get more decisive:
StageTeam Advancement
Round of 324 pts
Round of 166 pts
Quarter-final9 pts
Semi-final13 pts
Third-place match18 pts
Final25 pts
As with every other rule, organizers can adjust the per-stage point value or switch the rule off entirely from the Scoring Rules screen.

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Example

You predicted Brazil vs. Germany in the quarter-final, with Brazil winning 2–1. In reality an earlier upset broke your bracket, so Brazil plays Japan in your slot — and Brazil wins on penalties.
RulePoints
Exact Score0 — the matchup didn’t happen
Correct Outcome0 — the matchup didn’t happen
Team Advancement9 — Brazil advanced, which is who you picked
Without Team Advancement, the quarter-final is a wipe-out. With it, you still earn something for reading the run correctly.

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The cascade effect

The name “Cascading Bracket” refers to what happens when an upset occurs. Your predicted bracket assumed Team A would reach the final. If Team A is knocked out in the quarters, all the points you had lined up for the semis and final — for every match you expected Team A to play — disappear with them. This creates moments of collective suspense that a regular per-match pool doesn’t produce. One result can simultaneously reshape dozens of members’ standings.

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The deadline: don’t miss it

All bracket picks must be submitted before the first knockout-round kickoff. That’s a single hard deadline for the entire bracket. If a member hasn’t submitted before that moment, they can’t predict any knockout game for the rest of the tournament.
Share the deadline date and time with your group when you share the invite link. A WhatsApp reminder the day before the first knockout match starts goes a long way. For the full rundown of how deadlines work, send members to When can I make my predictions?.

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Is bracket mode right for your group?

Bracket mode is best for groups that want the one-shot bracket prediction feel — the kind people gather for, debate over, and screenshot. It rewards conviction: you commit to a vision of how the tournament will play out, then watch it unfold.It’s low-maintenance once submitted — no per-match or per-round deadlines for the knockouts. Members fill the whole bracket, then sit back as the tournament plays out.
If your group includes members who want to engage with every match — submitting fresh picks each round, adjusting their strategy based on how the group stage went — Escalating gives them that. Bracket mode takes that choice away by design.
No. In Cascading Bracket mode, the bracket submission is the pool. Members who don’t submit a bracket before the deadline won’t have knockout stage picks and won’t earn points for those rounds.