Formats by era: NHL, NBA, MLB, NFL, CFL, MLS and the World Cup

A bracket is not the same thing in every year. The NHL's first round was best of five until 1986; the NFL added a wild-card round; the World Cup has had four different knockouts. playoffFormat(league, year) returns the round names, the length of each series, the number of teams and the byes for a season, so a drawing says "Conference Semifinals" and "best of 7" because that is what it was called then.

Ask for a season

import { playoffFormat } from "@johnmorrisdotca/taisen-brackets";

const mlb = playoffFormat("mlb", 2022);
console.log(mlb.rounds.map((round) => `${round.name} (${round.bestOf})`).join(", ")); // Wild Card Series (3), Division Series (5), League Championship Series (7), World Series (7)
console.log(mlb.byes); // 2
console.log(playoffFormat("nhl", 1984).rounds[0].bestOf); // 5
console.log(playoffFormat("mlb", 1994)); // null

Wild Card Series (3), Division Series (5), League Championship Series (7), World Series (7)
2
5
null

null means the league had no playoff that year (the NHL's 2005, MLB's 1994) or the package does not cover it. Do not treat a missing format as an empty one: show nothing, or say so.

Which leagues, from when

LEAGUES lists them: nhl, nba, mlb, nfl, cfl, mls and worldcup. playoffEras(league) lists the eras of a league, each with the years it holds for.

import { LEAGUES, playoffEras } from "@johnmorrisdotca/taisen-brackets";

console.log(LEAGUES.join(" ")); // nhl nba mlb nfl cfl mls worldcup
console.log(playoffEras("nfl").length > 1);

nhl nba mlb nfl cfl mls worldcup
true

The year is the year the playoffs are played in, except for the NFL, whose year is its season's: 2024 is the season whose playoffs were played in January and February 2025. Each era was checked against English Wikipedia (facts only, cited in formats, which is written from the data by pnpm script and lists every era).

Use a format to draw

Give the format as roundNames and the rounds are named for the era; the halves are named for the conferences when the teams carry a group that splits them.

import { drawBracket, playoffFormat } from "@johnmorrisdotca/taisen-brackets";

const svg = drawBracket(
  [
    { sides: ["FLA", "BOS"], bestOf: 7, score: [4, 2], date: "2024-05-06" },
    { sides: ["DAL", "EDM"], bestOf: 7, score: [2, 4], date: "2024-05-23" },
    { sides: ["FLA", "EDM"], bestOf: 7, score: [4, 3], date: "2024-06-08" },
  ],
  { roundNames: playoffFormat("nhl", 2024) },
);
console.log(svg.includes("Stanley Cup Final")); // true

true

The trophy of a league

playoffFormat(league, year).emblem and LEAGUE_EMBLEMS name each league's default trophy emblem (trophy:hockey-cup for the NHL, trophy:basketball for the NBA, trophy:soccer-globe for the World Cup). It is drawn only when you plug in an emblem renderer; see marks, flags and trophies.

import { LEAGUE_EMBLEMS, playoffFormat } from "@johnmorrisdotca/taisen-brackets";

console.log(LEAGUE_EMBLEMS.nhl, playoffFormat("nhl", 2024).emblem); // trophy:hockey-cup trophy:hockey-cup

trophy:hockey-cup trophy:hockey-cup

Any other tournament

A league the package does not know, a club cup or a school tournament, needs no format: the rounds are named from the end ("Final", "Semi-finals", "Quarter-finals", then "Round of 16", "Round of 32"). roundNamesFor(count) gives the names for a bracket of that many rounds (and roundName(remaining) one round's), and roundNames: ["Heats", "Final"] replaces them with your own.

import { roundNamesFor } from "@johnmorrisdotca/taisen-brackets";

console.log(roundNamesFor(4).join(", ")); // Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, Final

Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, Final