The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
- One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentrated into a relatively short time interval.
- A competition involving a number of matches, each involving a subset of the competitors, with the overall tournament winner determined based on the combined results of these individual matches. These are common in those sports and games where each match must involve a small number of competitors: often precisely two, as in most team sports, racket sports and combat sports, many card games and board games, and many forms of competitive debating. Such tournaments allow large numbers to compete against each other in spite of the restriction on numbers in a single match.
The NCAA Division I Football Championship is an annual post-season college football game, played since 2006, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). From 1978 to 2005, the game was known as the NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship.
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference Final. The MLS Cup winner is awarded the title of league champion.
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion. Each match-up may be a single match or several, for example two-legged ties in European sports or best-of series in North American pro sports. Defeated competitors may play no further part after losing, or may participate in "consolation" or "classification" matches against other losers to determine the lower final rankings; for example, a third place playoff between losing semi-finalists. In a shootout poker tournament, there are more than two players competing at each table, and sometimes more than one progresses to the next round. Some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a single-elimination final stage, often called playoffs.
The Rugby Europe International Championships is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations.
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the single elimination, the best-of- series, the total points series more commonly known as on aggregate, and the round-robin tournament.
A wild card is a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that fails to qualify in the normal way; for example, by having a high ranking or winning a qualifying stage. In some events, wildcards are chosen freely by the organizers. Other events have fixed rules. Some North American professional sports leagues compare the records of teams which did not qualify directly by winning a division or conference.
The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, and the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League cricket tournaments. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top four play a mix of a single-elimination and double-elimination tournament to determine the winner. It is identical to a four-team McIntyre system playoff, first used by the WANFL, SANFL and VFL in Australia in 1931, originally called the Page–McIntyre system, after the VFL delegate, the Richmond Football Club's Secretary, Percy "Pip" Page, who had advocated its use. A form has been adopted in the Canadian Premier League national soccer competition.
In sport, a bye is the preferential status of a player or team that is automatically advanced to the next round of a tournament, without having to play an opponent in an early round.
The Stanley Cup playoffs is the annual National Hockey League (NHL) elimination tournament to determine the league champion. The winner of the Stanley Cup is by default the NHL champion as well. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season points totals. The final round is commonly known as the Stanley Cup Finals, which matches the two conference champions.
The MLS Cup Playoffs is the annual postseason elimination tournament of Major League Soccer. The MLS Cup, the league's championship game, is the final match of the tournament. Under the current format adopted for the 2023 season, 18 teams qualify for the tournament based on regular-season point totals — the nine highest-placed teams from each the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Audi is the title sponsor of this tournament.
The 2010 Men's World Floorball Championships Qualifying rounds were the first such qualifiers for world championships in men's floorball. Four separate qualifying tournaments were played, with European qualifications between February 3 and February 6, 2010, in the cities of Babimost and Zbąszyń in Poland, as well as in the city of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spain.
The Can-Am United Floorball Club, known simply as Can-Am United FC, is a floorball club consisting of players from both Canada and the United States.
The Canada Cup Floorball Championship, more commonly referred to as The Canada Cup, is an international floorball club open competition held annually during the Victoria Day long weekend in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The 2010 Canada Cup Floorball Championship was the seventh such championship contested in the tournament's history. The tournament took place from May 21 to May 23, 2010 at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The 2001 Women's World Floorball Championships was the third world championship in women's floorball. The games were played in Riga, Latvia 20–27 May 2001. Finland ended up as champions, thus they became the first team to win their second title. In the final-game Finland defeated Sweden, 2-0.
The 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs was the 25th edition of the MLS Cup Playoffs, the post-season championship of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The tournament culminated the 2020 MLS regular season. The playoffs began on November 20 and concluded with MLS Cup 2020 on December 12.
The 2020 Men's World Floorball Championships was the 13th World Championships in men's floorball. The tournament took place in Helsinki, Finland, during 3–11 December 2021. The tournament was originally intended to be played between 4–12 December 2020, but on 7 December 2020, it was announced it would be rescheduled one year into the future because of to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The 2023 season is the 111th season of competitive soccer in the United States. The season will begin with Friendlies for the USMNT and USWNT in January.
Canada 
X-Stream IBK (1st title)
TJ Sokol Jaroměř 
M-Team 
Daniel Dalbjer 
