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 bracket or tournament bracket is a tree diagram that represents the series of games played during a knockout tournament. Different knockout tournament formats have different brackets; the simplest and most common is that of the single-elimination tournament. The name "bracket" is American English, derived from the resemblance of the links in the tree diagram to the bracket punctuation symbol ] or [. The closest British term is draw, although this implies an element of chance, whereas some brackets are determined entirely by seeding.
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.
Repechage is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. A well-known example is the wild card system.
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 a team or individual that does not directly qualify. 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 Tonga national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series. Tonga has participated in all but one of the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournaments.
The Ireland national rugby sevens team competes in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team is governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU).
The 2010 Adelaide Sevens, promoted as the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide 2010, was a rugby sevens tournament that was part of the IRB Sevens World Series in the 2009–10 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held between 19 and 21 March at the Adelaide Oval in South Australia.
COBRA 10s is the world's premier rugby tens tournament which is organized annually by the COBRA Rugby Club of Malaysia. The tournament is held each November at the MBPJ Stadium in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
The Premiership Rugby Sevens Series is a friendly Rugby Sevens competition for the twelve Premiership Rugby clubs that will play the following season. It was started in 2010, as an off-season competition, held during the months of July and August. Between 2014 and 2016 the competition included the four Welsh regions which compete in the Pro14.
The Gold Cup is the premier rugby union club competition in South Africa for non-university teams.
The MCKK Premier 7's 2013 was the third edition of the annual, invitational Malay College Rugby Premier Sevens, which involved teams from Malaysia premier schools, states champions and international schools. Brunei International School and Hong Kong Sports School joined in the fray as international participant, other than Vajiravudh College of Thailand.Singapore withdrew their participation this year and is replaced by Maktab Rendah Sains Mara Kuala Terengganu It was held from 22 till 24 February 2013. The defending champions, Sekolah Sukan Tengku Mahkota Ismail were shocked by their first defeat in the tournament after two undefeated editions which led to its failure of retaining the NJ Ryan Cup. However, it wrapped up this edition as Bowl champion. After two editions, the host, Malay College Kuala Kangsar, finally were crowned as the new champions, defeating Sekolah Menengah Sains Hulu Selangor in Cup final with score 19–7.
The 2014 Premiership Rugby Sevens Series was the fifth Rugby Union 7-a-side competition for the twelve 2014–15 Aviva Premiership Clubs, and the first to include the four Welsh Regions that compete in the Pro12.
The 2015 Wellington Sevens is the 16th edition of the tournament as part of the 2014–15 Sevens World Series. It is hosted in Wellington, New Zealand, at the Westpac Stadium.
The final 2016 men's Olympic qualification tournament for rugby sevens at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held on 18 and 19 June 2016 at Stade Louis II in Fontvieille, Monaco. The tournament used a round-robin format.
The 2017 Premiership Rugby Sevens Series was the eighth rugby union 7-a-side competition for the twelve 2017–18 Aviva Premiership clubs, and the first to exclude the four Welsh Regions which compete in the Pro14, since 2013. It was also the first to feature a new format with all twelve teams together in one venue over two days.
The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League was the second season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA.
The 2022 RAN Sevens Qualifiers are a North American rugby sevens tournament that took place at the Thomas Robinson Stadium, Nassau on 23 and 24 April 2022; they were held in The Bahamas for the third time. The defending champions from the 2021 event are Jamaica.
The 2022 Africa Women's Sevens are an annual African rugby sevens tournament that took place at the Stade Municipal de Jemmal in Jemmal on 29 and 30 April 2022; they were held in Tunisia for the fourth time.
South Africa