What is a Consolation Tournament
Although a Consolation Tournament may appear to be similar to a double elimination tournament, they are different in many ways. A Consolation Tournament initially starts with all of the participants in the main bracket. After the first round is played the losers will move to the consolation bracket and the winners will move to the winner's bracket. A Consolation Tournament is set up so that every team is guaranteed at least two games. Once you are in one of those brackets, that's where you will stay for the remainder of the tournament. If you are playing in the consolation bracket, you are simply trying to be the Consolation Champion, you have no chance at being the champion of the tournament, this only comes from winning the Winner's bracket. Any loss after the first round will automatically eliminate you from the tournament(there is an exception to this as most of these tournaments will have "consolation games" after you are eliminated from the tournament to determine the places that certain teams will finish).

Here is an 8 Team Consolation Tournament Bracket I designed that should help explain the tournament process a little better.

Advantages of a Consolation Tournament

A consolation tournament has a couple advantages over some of the other formats. One being that you are guaranteeing the teams to play at least two games, as opposed to running a single elimination tournament. Another advantage is the consolation games that will determine the exact finishing places of all the teams in the tournament.

Disadvantages of a Consolation Tournament

One disadvantage to running a Consolation Tournament is that if you were to lose the first game you have no chance of winning the tournament. If this were double elimination, you would have a chance to fight your way through the loser's bracket for a shot at playing in the championship.