How Lil' Brackets works
Updated
Five steps, one couch
Sign up (grown-ups only)
A grown-up enters an email address and taps the magic link. There's no password. Add each kid with a nickname and a sticker animal; you can add yourself, grandparents and other grown-ups too.
Hand over the phone
Each game shows two big mascot characters. Your kid taps the one they like, gets a happy bounce, and the next game appears. No reading, no stats. A full bracket is 63 taps.
Or fill it in yourself
Grown-ups can choose to fill in the whole bracket on one screen instead, which is the quickest way to copy a bracket made somewhere else.
Start a pool
Share a six-letter code or a QR code. Kids compete with kids, grown-ups with grown-ups, and every family gets a combined score.
Watch the stickers roll in
Every right pick drops a sticker into your kid's sticker book, and finishing a round earns a trophy. On game days kids can tap to cheer for their team for a bonus sticker.
What your kid sees
Every game is two big, friendly mascot characters on a bright card, with the team's seed in the corner. Your kid taps one, the winner bounces, and the next game slides in. After each round there's a little trophy celebration, and when the bracket is done the champion pick becomes their team for the season.
The characters are our own drawings, made to look friendly for little kids. They aren't team logos, so there's nothing to read and nobody needs to know a single player's name.
Play-in games. In 2027 each tournament has 76 teams, so 12 play-in games on March 16 and 17, 2027 decide the last spots in the 64-team bracket. Until a play-in is played, its spot shows both teams side by side, like “Texas or Xavier”, and picking it means “whoever wins”.
Scoring, stickers and trophies
Points double each round, the same as most office pools, so a perfect bracket is worth 192 points:
| Round | Points per right pick |
|---|---|
| Round of 64 | 1 |
| Round of 32 | 2 |
| Round of 16 | 4 |
| Round of 8 | 8 |
| Semifinals | 16 |
| Championship | 32 |
Every right pick also drops a mascot sticker into your kid's sticker book. Finishing a round, getting at least one right in a round, or calling a perfect round earns a trophy. On game days, kids can tap to cheer for their team for a bonus sticker, which gives you a reason to check in together every night of the tournament.
Family pools
Start a pool and share its six-letter code or QR code with grandparents, cousins, neighbours and friends. Kids are ranked against kids, grown-ups against grown-ups, and every family gets a combined score. Grown-ups can play their own bracket too (they usually lose to the toddlers).
The 2027 season
- Make your free account and add your players any time before the tournaments.
- Brackets open on Sunday, March 14, 2027, as soon as the fields are announced.
- Play-in games are on March 16 and 17, 2027.
- Picks lock on Thursday, March 18, 2027, when the first first-round game tips off.
- The championships are in early April 2027; stickers and trophies keep coming until then.
Tools for grown-ups
- Fill in the bracket on one screen, the quickest way to copy a bracket from somewhere else.
- Mirror mode lists your kid's picks in order, to copy into the office pool.
- Print the bracket for the fridge, or print our free sticker sheets.
- Share cards for the family chat, behind a quick grown-up check.
- Fix a pick any time until the games start.
Kids never type anything, there are no ads, and kids' data is deleted 30 days after the last championship. The privacy policy has the details, and the FAQ answers the rest.