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.
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(s). 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.
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 PBA Commissioner's Cup is a tournament of the Philippine Basketball Association. Along with the PBA Governors' Cup, the tournament is one of the two competitions in a PBA season that allows teams to hire a single foreign player, also known as an "import". The tournament was first held in 1993 as the PBA season's second competition.
The PBA Governors' Cup is a tournament of the Philippine Basketball Association. Along with the PBA Commissioner's Cup, the tournament is one of the two conferences that allows teams to hire a single foreign player, also known as an "import". The tournament was first held in 1993 as the third conference of the PBA season.
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 Eastern Conference is one of two conferences that make up the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the other being the Western Conference. Both conferences consist of 6 teams.
The Western Conference is one of two conferences that make up the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the other being the Eastern Conference. Both conferences consist of 6 teams.
The 2012 ICC World Twenty20 was the fourth edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place in Sri Lanka from 18 September to 7 October 2012 which was won by the West Indies. This was the first World Twenty20 tournament held in an Asian country, the last three having been held in South Africa, England and the West Indies. Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga had been chosen as the event ambassador of the tournament by ICC. The format had four groups of three teams in a preliminary round.
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 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.
Marielle Thompson is a Canadian freestyle skier specializing in ski cross. She is the 2014 Winter Olympic and 2019 World champion in women's ski cross, as well as a three-time FIS World Cup Crystal Globe winner as the top-ranked athlete in that discipline and the 2013 Junior World champion.
The FIM Snowcross World Championship is a racing series held annually by the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) since 2004. It replaced the Snowcross World Cup, which was held in 2002 and 2003. Finnish rider Janne Tapio won both of these Cups.
The women's snowboard cross competition of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was held at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park on 16 February 2014.
This article contains a chronological summary of major events from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Sandra Catrin Näslund is a Swedish freestyle skier, specializing in ski cross and alpine skiing. She is the 2022 ski cross Olympic champion, the 2017, 2021 and 2023 ski cross World Champion, winner of the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023 ski cross World Cups, and the overall winner of the 2018 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup.
The men's snowboard cross competition of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 15 February 2018 Bogwang Phoenix Park in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The women's snowboard cross competition of the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 16 February 2018 Bogwang Phoenix Park in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The event was won by Michela Moioli. Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau became second, and Eva Samková, the defending champion, third.
