The NCAA Softball tournament begins on May 16 and takes a winding path to crown a champion. 5wins will take you through the formats of the Regionals, Super Regionals, and Women’s College World Series (WCWS) in preparation for this year's competition, and to help you fill out your bracket.

At every stage of the postseason competition, the key is double elimination, meaning one loss will not eliminate a team from the tournament. Double elimination can happen in two ways.

1. A best-of-three series: one team is eliminated after losing to another team twice out of three potential games
2. Winners & Elimination Bracket:
   1. Two teams play, and the loser of that game goes on to play another team that also lost. The winners remain in the “winners” bracket. The teams that lost move to the “elimination bracket.”
   2. The winner of the game in the “elimination” bracket moves back into the “winners” bracket. The loser of the game in the “elimination” bracket now has two losses and is finished in the tournament.
   3. All of the teams that remain in the winner's bracket have zero losses in that round. The team that returns to the winner’s bracket must beat their undefeated competition twice to move to the next round of the tournament (remember, all teams need two losses to be removed). If the team that came from the elimination bracket loses once again in the winners bracket, they are eliminated from the tournament for already having two losses in that round.

Example two of a double elimination format.

Regionals

May 16-18

Sixty-four teams start in the regional round, where they are sorted into 16 groups with four teams each. The top 16 teams are seeded and host a “regional.” Those four teams will each play an individual double-elimination tournament to determine which team will advance to the super-regional stage. This plays out like scenario two above. While early upsets are still possible, double elimination makes it more likely that the best team from the group of four will advance to the next round.

Super regionals

May 22-23

The original seeding of teams determines which team hosts in the super regionals, with the higher seeded team hosting. This holds even if the seeded team fails to advance out of the regional.

The super regionals are a simple best-of-three series between two teams. This is scenario one above.

The Women’s College World Series

May 29-June 6

The WCWS is at the Softball Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City each year. The eight remaining teams are again sorted into two brackets to play another four-team double-elimination tournament (scenario two). Those brackets produce one winner each, who face each other in a final best-of-three series (scenario one).

The most unique aspect of the WCWS bracket is the concept of bracket crossover, which has the team that loses its second game in one bracket fighting for its life in the other elimination bracket. So, if Arkansas won its opening match in bracket one and then lost the next day, it would play its remaining matches against the elimination bracket of bracket two.

After the crossover games, bracket one and one will each have one team from the Winners and Elimination brackets. If the team from the winners' side of the bracket wins, they advance to the final. If the winners' side loses the matchup, the two teams play once more to decide which side will advance, since both teams have lost once.

Finally, two teams from each bracket face off for the title of NCAA Champion in a best-of-three series, like in scenario one.

The system is layered and it’s convoluted, but this many games and small series make sure that the most deserving teams advance, and singularly lucky teams don’t.

And Remember:

Regionals: A four-team tournament, double elimination, three of the four teams will have two losses. The team without two losses advances.

Super Regionals: Two teams showdown in a three-game series.

The WCWS: The eight remaining teams are separated into two, four-team double-elimination brackets until one team from each bracket remains.

The Final of the WCWS: The two final teams play a three-game series for the national title, with the team to win twice, taking it all.