Signing In with Steam

There is no Braket account to create. That is not a simplification for this page; it is genuinely how it works. Braket signs you in through Steam, and Steam vouches for you.

How sign-in actually works

When you click the sign-in button, Braket hands you off to Steam using Steam's official OpenID login. You log in on Steam's own page, the way you always do, and Steam sends you back to Braket with one thing confirmed: that you are the owner of a particular Steam account.

The part worth underlining: you never give Braket your Steam password. You type it into Steam, never into Braket. Braket only learns your public SteamID, the long number that uniquely identifies your account, and nothing about your credentials ever passes through here. This is the same trusted handoff you have used on countless Steam-connected sites, and it is the only login Braket offers, which means there is no separate password here to be leaked, reused, or forgotten.

What comes with you

Once Steam confirms who you are, Braket pulls your public Steam profile to dress up your presence on the site. Two things arrive automatically:

Your persona name, the display name you use on Steam, becomes your name across Braket. Every bracket slot, match card, chat message, and profile shows it. If you rename yourself on Steam, your Braket name follows.

Your avatar, the picture on your Steam profile, becomes your avatar here too. It shows up next to your name in chat, on your profile header, and everywhere you appear in a tournament.

You do not set either of these on Braket. They are your Steam identity, reflected. If Steam ever cannot be reached at the moment you sign in, Braket falls back to a placeholder name and picture rather than blocking you, and the real ones fill in later.

Your Steam friends come too

Because you signed in through Steam, Braket can see your public Steam friends list. This quietly powers some of the nicest touches on the site. When you register for a tournament, Braket can show you which of your Steam friends are not yet signed up so you can invite them in one click. On any player's profile, Braket can tell whether they are already your Steam friend or offer you an "Add on Steam" link. And later, when you want to add an opponent you just fought, it is a single tap because the Steam social graph is right there.

If your friends list is private on Steam, that is completely fine. Braket simply offers the plain "add on Steam" link instead of knowing your friend status in advance. Nothing breaks.

Who gets admin powers

Most people sign in as players, and this documentation is written for you. A small number of accounts belong to the studio running an arena; they are marked as admins by the studio and see extra tools for creating and managing tournaments. You do not need to do anything to be a player: everyone who signs in is one by default. If a studio grants you a community manager role, you get a limited set of moderation and fan-bracket tools on top of your normal player experience, but that is something a studio hands out deliberately, not something you toggle.

Signing in during a demo or preview

Some Braket arenas run in a preview mode without live Steam keys wired up. There, instead of the real Steam login, you will see a small picker of demo personas to step into. It is the same experience from that point on: you pick a persona, you are signed in, and you can explore every feature. If you see a real Steam button, use your real account; if you see a persona picker, you are in a preview environment.

That is the whole story. One trusted handoff, your name and face along for the ride, your friends list quietly making everything friendlier. Now let us find you a tournament.