Bracket (Mind Loft)

Bracket takes the tournament sheet people fill in every spring and puts facts in it. Each day sixteen real contenders, for example countries, are seeded into a single-elimination draw under one question, such as which country is bigger by area. You choose a winner for every matchup, from the round of 16 through the quarters, semis and final, and only then hand the sheet in.

The difficulty comes from your own picks carrying forward. A wrong call in the first round sends the wrong contender into the later rounds, and you will not find out until the reveal. The draw is built so that early matchups are lopsided and the true final is close, and the last pick is worth eight times the first.

Every value is checked against public records and shown on the reveal, so the end screen shows the real numbers behind each matchup. A new field is seeded every day at midnight Eastern, and the Sunday Edition doubles it to 32 contenders.

On the Sunday Edition the draw opens with a round of 32, so the sheet takes 31 picks. On a phone the rounds sit in tabs above the draw, with a small map of the whole bracket showing how far you have got. A Give up button hands in a part-filled sheet, with empty slots scoring nothing.