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.
The UEFA Europa League is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the second-tier competition of European club football, ranking below the UEFA Champions League and above the UEFA Europa Conference League.
A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor does not play all the other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round.
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion.
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.
Wesley Barbossa So is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and three-time U.S. Chess Champion. He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ranked number two in the world and had an Elo rating of 2822, making him the fifth-highest-rated player in history.
The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil. The remaining 31 places were determined by a qualification process, in which the other 207 teams, from the six FIFA confederations, competed. Most of the successful teams were determined within these confederations, with a limited number of inter-confederation play-offs occurring at the end of the process.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body.
Capcom Cup is an annual fighting game tournament specifically focused on the Street Fighter series. The event's first incarnation was in 2013 which featured Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition version 2012, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Street Fighter X Tekken version 2013 as the three main games each with 8 qualifiers. In 2014, Capcom Cup was an Ultra Street Fighter IV exclusive tournament with 16 qualifiers. The 2015 Capcom Cup was doubled to a 32-man format and was later increased to a 48-man format beginning with Capcom Cup IX in 2022–23. The series of qualifying events for the tournament are known as the Capcom Pro Tour and include many of the largest, most prestigious pre-existing fighting game tournaments such as Evolution Championship Series and DreamHack.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will decide the teams that will join hosts Canada, Mexico and the United States at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The 2017 season was the 105th season of competitive soccer in the United States.
The 2018 season was the 106th season of competitive soccer in the United States.
The Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) was the professional league used in Dota 2, a competitive five-on-five video game. Active between 2017 and 2023, the DPC was organized by the game's developer, Valve and consisted of seasonal "Major" tournaments and Regional Leagues from North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. Points were earned by the top six teams playing in the upper division of a Regional League as well as those finishing in the top eight of a Major. The top 12 teams with the most points at the season's conclusion earned invites to The International, the premier tournament for Dota 2. The DPC was introduced in 2017 as a replacement for the Dota Major Championship series (2015–2016), which was criticized due to Valve's non-transparent process for sending out International invites. The DPC ended following the 2023 season.
Twelve teams qualified for the women's field hockey at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Each of the Continental Champions from five confederations received an automatic berth. Japan as the host nation qualified automatically. In addition, the remaining six nations will be determined by an Olympic qualification event. As hosts Japan also won the Asian Games title, a seventh quota place was added to the Olympic qualification event.
The UEFA Europa Conference League, which will be renamed the UEFA Conference League prior to the 2024–25 season, is an annual football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the third tier of continental club football in Europe, behind the second-tier Europa League, and the first-tier Champions League.
The 2020–2021 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess double-round-robin tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2021, played in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Ian Nepomniachtchi won the tournament with a round to spare and earned the right to challenge the defending world champion, Magnus Carlsen.
The 2018 PRO Chess League Season was the second season of the PRO Chess League. It began on January 17 and ended on April 8 with the Armenia Eagles defeating the Chengdu Pandas to claim their first title. This season introduced new qualifications to join the league and an all-star game.
The FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2022 (WFRCC) was the second official world championship in Fischer Random Chess. The competition followed a similar format to the first championship in 2019, with qualifying stages open to all interested participants taking place online on chess.com and Lichess, and four qualified players joined four invited players in the over-the-board final, which took place at the Berjaya Reykjavik Natura Hotel in Reykjavík, Iceland from 25 to 30 October 2022.
