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. 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.
A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost two games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimination tournament, in which only one defeat results in elimination.
The McIntyre System, or systems as there have been five of them, is a playoff system that gives an advantage to teams or competitors qualifying higher. The systems were developed by Ken McIntyre, an Australian lawyer, historian and English lecturer, for the Victorian Football League in 1931.
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.
The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, 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.
The 2007 Euro Beach Soccer League, was the tenth edition of the Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL), the premier beach soccer competition contested between European men's national teams, occurring annually since its establishment in 1998. The league was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW) between June 29 and August 26, 2007 in six different nations across Europe.
The 2013 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship was held in Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico, from 27 June to 7 July 2013. This was the first edition of the tournament that features 20 teams.
The 2013 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship was held in Turkey for ten days, from 22 August to 1 September 2013. This was the first edition of the tournament that features 20 teams.
The 2017 Women's European Volleyball Championship was the 30th edition of the European Volleyball Championship, organised by Europe's governing volleyball body, the Confédération Européenne de Volleyball. The tournament was co-hosted by Azerbaijan and Georgia, and was held between 22 September and 1 October 2017.
ESL One Cologne 2016 was an Electronic Sports League Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. It was the ninth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and was held at the Lanxess Arena In Cologne, Germany from July 8–10. It featured 16 teams from throughout the world competing. Cologne 2016 had the second consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
The 2016–17 EHF Champions League was the 57th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 24th edition under the current EHF Champions League format. Vardar were crowned champions for the first time, defeating Paris Saint-Germain Handball
Baseball was featured at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, for the first time since the 2008 Summer Olympics. Six national teams competed in the tournament: Israel, Japan (host), Mexico, South Korea, the United States, and the Dominican Republic.
PGL Major: Kraków 2017, also known as PGL Major 2017 or Kraków 2017, was the eleventh Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It was organized by PGL and held in Kraków, Poland from July 16 to 23, 2017. It featured sixteen professional CS:GO teams from around the world. Eight teams qualified directly based on their top eight placement in the previous Major, ELEAGUE Major 2017, while another eight teams qualified through the Offline Major Qualifier. The PGL Major was the fourth consecutive major with a prize pool of US$1,000,000.
The 2017–18 EHF Champions League was the 58th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 25th edition under the current EHF Champions League format.
The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2018 or Boston 2018, was the twelfth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the second organized by ELEAGUE. The group stage was held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 12 to January 22, 2018, and the playoff stage took place at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from January 26 to January 28, 2018. It featured 24 professional teams from around the world, as ELEAGUE and Valve agreed to expand the Major from the usual 16. All 16 teams from the previous major, PGL Major: Kraków 2017, directly qualified for the Major, while another eight teams qualified through their respective regional qualifiers. Boston 2018 was the fifth consecutive Major with a prize pool of $1,000,000. This was also the first CS:GO Major to take place in two cities.
The 2018 Women's Softball World Championship was an international softball competition held in Chiba, Japan, from 2 August to 12 August. It was the 16th edition of the tournament, and the third edition to be sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Previous editions were sanctioned by the International Softball Federation, which governed the sport until its 2013 merger with the International Baseball Federation to create the WBSC. As the winners, the United States earned the right to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics. It was the last world title awarded under the championship format before the WBSC implemented the new world cup 4 year cycle.
The 2019–20 EHF Champions League was the 60th edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 27th edition under the current EHF Champions League format.
The 2021–22 EHF Champions League is the 62nd edition of Europe's premier club handball tournament and the 29th edition under the current EHF Champions League format, running from 15 September 2021 to 19 June 2022.
United States 
Japan 
Puerto Rico 
