# Show HN: FIFA 2026 bracket predictor – see live crowd % as picks come in

> Source: <https://quizzy.earth/p/0Dpwk5TjHe/fifa-world-cup-2026-predict-the-bracket-live>
> Published: 2026-06-27 23:57:17+00:00

Built this on top of a side project (quizzy.earth).

The interesting engineering problem was the best-thirds seating logic – FIFA pre-publishes a 495-row lookup table (Annexe C) covering every possible combination of third-place qualifiers. AI kept hallucinating bracket rules so I ended up reading the actual regulations PDF. Each of the 495 scenarios has up to 24,000 valid bracket arrangements; FIFA pre-commits to one per scenario so there's no ambiguity on the night.

For a half-finished bracket I fall back to bipartite matching (seat the most-constrained team first). The moment all 8 thirds are chosen it switches to the official lookup.

No sign-up. Anonymous picks. Curious what HN thinks the brackets looks like.

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48702980](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48702980)

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