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 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 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 progressing 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.
Spain was the host nation for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The Games were quite exceptional for Spain because their athletes were competing not only in their home country, but also in the home city of IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. 422 competitors, 297 men and 125 women, took part in 195 events in 29 sports.
The 2002 EHF European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark from 6–15 December. It was won by Denmark after beating Norway 25–22 in the final match.
Květoslava Peschke is a Czech retired professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles.
The 2006 EHF European Women's Handball Championship was held in Sweden from 7 to 17 December. It was won by Norway after beating Russia 27–24 in the final match.
The UEFA U-19 Championship 2007 Final Tournament was held in Austria with matches played from 16–27 July 2007. Players born after 1 January 1988 were eligible to participate in this competition.
Kristína Kučová is a Slovak tennis player. On 12 September 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 71. On 5 October 2009, she peaked at No. 168 in the WTA doubles rankings. She has won one singles title on the WTA Challenger Tour with eleven singles titles and five doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
FC Juniors OÖ is an Austrian association football club, from Pasching, Upper Austria. It was newly founded after the move of ASKÖ Pasching, who last appeared as FC Superfund, to Carinthia and the associated renaming in SK Austria Kärnten in 2007 as FC Superfund Pasching. The greatest success of the club is winning the ÖFB-Cup as the first third division in the history of the competition in the 2012–13 season and the associated qualification for the play-offs of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, in which the club was however defeated by Estoril Praia.
Italy competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China. The country sent a delegation of 344 athletes to compete.
The Canada men's national volleyball team represents Canada in international volleyball competitions. They are overseen by Volleyball Canada, the governing body for volleyball in Canada. The team placed fourth place at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and three bronze medals at the Pan American Games in 1979, 1999 and 2015. They have participated in four Olympic Games, including most recently a fifth-place finish at Rio 2016, after returning to the Games following a quarter-century absence. Canada hosted the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto where they beat Puerto Rico for the bronze medal. Canada competed at the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup in 2015 for the first time in 12 years, finishing seventh. They last appeared in 2003, also finishing seventh. They finished joint-seventh at the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship.
The Russian Federation competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, held in Beijing, China, represented by the Russian Olympic Committee. Russia competed in all sports except baseball, field hockey, football, softball, and taekwondo. They ranked third in the medal table by golds (24) and overall (60). Russia also had 14 medals stripped for doping violations, the most of any nation at the 2008 Olympics.
The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the tournament previously known as the FIBA World Championship. Hosted by Spain, it was the last tournament to be held on the then-current four-year cycle. The next FIBA World Cup was held five years later, in 2019, to reset the four-year-cycle on a different year than the FIFA World Cup.
The women's beach volleyball tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from August 9 to August 21, at the Beach Volleyball Ground at Chaoyang Park.
AfroBasket 2009 was the 25th FIBA Africa Championship, played under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, the basketball sport governing body, and the African zone thereof. At stake were the three berths allocated to Africa in the 2010 FIBA World Championship. The tournament was hosted by Libya after Nigeria, the original host, withdrew from hosting after not conforming to FIBA Africa guidelines.
The Inline Hockey World Championship is an annual inline hockey tournament organized by World Skate. Prior to the creation of World Skate in September 2017, the championship was administrated by the Comité International Roller In-Line Hockey (CIRILH), an organization and discipline of Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS). It is the sport's highest-profile annual international tournament.
The men's qualification for the 2000 Olympic men's basketball tournament occurred from 1998–2000; all five FIBA zones sent in teams.
The men's qualification for the 2004 Olympic men's basketball tournament occurred from 2002–2003; all five FIBA zones sent in teams.
The 2012–13 Austrian Cup was the 79th season of Austria's nationwide football cup competition. It commenced with the matches of the First Round on 12 July 2012 and concluded with the Final on 30 May 2013. This year the tournament took place with only 64 participants, which abolishes the preliminary rounds. This year reserve teams were not allowed to participate in the competition.
Germany 
Austria 
Brazil 
Argentina 
