# Lord Have Mercy

**Lord Have Mercy** is a knockout for single players in teams of two, with a twist: after every round the
winning team is split up. Both winners move on, but into different teams. Nobody wins with the same
partner twice, and the final is played by two teams that have never played together before. Use it as the
finale of a singles qualifying when you want a bracket but no fixed doubles.

Entry type of the qualifying stage: **Single**. Lord Have Mercy needs individual players to form and re-form
teams.

## How it works

1. Kickertool forms teams of two from the ranking of the qualifying stage. The **Team Seeding** decides who starts together, with the same options as under [Elimination](/kickertool/modes/elimination/#draw-teams-from-a-singles-qualifying): Highest + Lowest, Highest + Middle, First + Second, First Half + Random or Random.
2. The teams are seeded into a single elimination bracket like in [Elimination](/kickertool/modes/elimination/), including byes for the best seeds if the number of teams is not a power of two.
3. After each round, two neighbouring winning teams form the next match: the first player of team A plays with the first player of team B, the second player of team A with the second player of team B. So the two players who just won together now play against each other.
4. This repeats until the final. The two players of the winning final team share first place; the losing final team shares second.
5. The **Match for Third Place** is optional and follows the same rule: the losing semi-final teams are split and re-mixed.
6. The table shows the **Rank** per player and the **Preliminary Stage Result**.

## Example with 8 players

Round 1 with Highest + Lowest seeding: team 1+8 vs team 4+5, team 3+6 vs team 2+7. Say 1+8 and 2+7 win.
The final is then 1+2 vs 8+7: the two best players of the qualifying end up together, and their partners
from round 1 face them.

## Create Lord Have Mercy

The mode is not offered as the start mode of a discipline. Follow the steps under
[Elimination](/kickertool/modes/elimination/#create-an-elimination-after-a-qualifying-stage) and pick
**Lord Have Mercy** as the Elimination Mode. The option is only shown when the qualifying was played with
single players. The team seeding is set in the same dialog.

## Next steps

For a knockout with fixed doubles from a singles qualifying, choose [Elimination](/kickertool/modes/elimination/)
with **Draw Teams**.