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

A developer built a FIFA 2026 bracket predictor that shows live crowd percentages as picks come in, solving the complex best-thirds seating logic by implementing FIFA's 495-row lookup table after AI hallucinated bracket rules. The tool uses bipartite matching for incomplete brackets and switches to the official lookup once all third-place teams are chosen.

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 Points: 1 Comments: 0