Playoff format
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.
Single elimination
A single-elimination playoff pits the participants in one-game matches, with the loser being dropped from the competition. Single-elimination tournaments are often used in individual sports like tennis. In most tennis tournaments, the players are seeded against each other, and the winner of each match continues to the next round, all the way to the final.When a playoff of this type involves the top four teams, it is sometimes known as the Shaughnessy playoff system, after Frank Shaughnessy, who first developed it for the International League of minor league baseball. Variations of the Shaughnessy system also exist, such as in the promotion playoffs held by League 1 of the British rugby league. The League 1 playoff does not involve the top four teams; the team that tops the table after the Super 8s phase, which follows a single round-robin phase involving all league teams, is crowned champion and receives automatic promotion to the second-tier championship, while the next four teams contest a knockout playoff for the second promotion place. A nearly identical format, with the only difference being that the knockout stage followed a full home-and-away league season, was used by the second level of France's rugby union system, Pro D2, through the 2016–17 season. Since then, Pro D2 uses a six-team playoff with the winner earning automatic promotion to the Top 14 and the runner-up entering a playoff with the 13th-place team in Top 14 for the final place in the next season's Top 14.
Some knockout tournaments include a third place playoff, a single match to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing in third and fourth place. The teams that compete in such third place games are usually the two losing semifinalists in a particular tournament. Although these semifinalists are still in effect "eliminated" from contending for the championship, they may be competing for a bronze medal, like some tournaments in the Olympic Games.
In major sports leagues
Of the big four North American sports leagues, only the National Football League uses a single-elimination system for all rounds of its postseason. Since the season, seven teams are seeded from each conference, with only the top team from each conference getting a first-round "bye". The remaining six teams in each conference play against each other in the wild-card round. The lowest-seeded winner plays the lone "bye" team, and the other two winners play against each other in the divisional round; the winners of those games facing each other in the conference championships. In all cases, the higher-seeded team plays at home. The winners of the conference championships then face each other in the Super Bowl for the league championship.Like the NFL, the Canadian Football League also uses one-game single-elimination playoffs, and has used them almost exclusively since the 1973 season. In the CFL, six teams qualify for the playoffs, divided into two divisional brackets of three teams each. The second-place teams in each division host the division semi-final, while the division winners each receive a bye to the division final. The division final winners play in the Grey Cup. The only exception to a strict single-elimination format since the early 1970s was in 1986, when the league amended its playoff format to allow a fourth-place team in one division to qualify in place of a third-place team with a worse record. That year, when only two East Division teams qualified—compared to four West Division teamsthe rules mandated the two Eastern teams play a two-game total-points series over two weekends, while the four Western teams played a single-elimination playoff over the same timeframe. The CFL eventually amended this format into the present "crossover rule" in 1997 so as to allow a qualifying fourth-place team to compete as the third-place team in the other divisional bracket, thereby preserving the first-place byes.
In both the men's and women's NCAA college basketball tournaments, there are 68 teams seeded into four brackets of 16 teams each. Prior to the first round, eight teams play a play-in game to gain entry into the "main" bracket. In the first round, the No. 1 team plays the No. 16, the No. 2 plays the No. 15, and so on. Theoretically, if a higher-ranked team always beats a lower-ranked team, the second game will be arranged No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, etc.; the third will be arranged No. 1 vs. No. 4, No. 2 vs. No. 3; the fourth will be arranged No. 1 vs. No. 2. The brackets are fixed, meaning teams are not re-seeded between rounds.
In association football, the World Cup uses single-elimination knockout rounds after a round-robin group stage. The Champions League and Europa League do the same, except each single-elimination round consists of a two-legged tie, with the winner determined by aggregate score. Most European domestic cups use hybrid systems with various round-robin and single-elimination stages. Major League Soccer uses a single-elimination format for their playoffs; since 2023, all rounds are conducted as single games, except the conference quarterfinals, which is best-of-three series. Liga MX in Mexico, which splits its season into two phases, uses playoffs known as the Liguilla to determine the champions of each phase. Unlike the MLS system, all Liguilla matches are two-legged ties. Australia's A-League introduced a six-team knockout playoff, known locally as a "finals series", in the 2012–13 season. Unlike the MLS playoffs or Liga MX Liguilla, the A-League finals series uses one-off matches throughout, culminating in the A-League Grand Final. This format is a departure from norms in football codes in Australia; previously, the A-League used a [|hybrid elimination system] that allowed top teams in the regular season to lose one finals match but still win the tournament. The Philippines Football League's inaugural 2017 season also featured a playoff finals known as the final series.
The Pro Kabaddi League and Indian Super League also uses a type of single elimination where the top two teams get byes into the semifinals while the other four teams play in two eliminators like this:
- Eliminator 1: Rank 3 vs Rank 6
- Eliminator 2: Rank 4 vs Rank 5
- Semifinal 1: Rank 2 vs Winner of Eliminator 1
- Semifinal 2: Rank 1 vs Winner of Eliminator 2
- Final: Winner of Semifinal 1 vs Winner of Semifinal 2
Example
The UEFA Euro 1996 knockout stage:Stepladder
The "stepladder", named because the bracket resembles a step ladder, is a variation of the single-elimination tournament; instead of the No. 1 seed facing the No. 16 seed in the first round, the bracket is constructed to give the higher seeded teams byes, where the No. 1 seed has bye up to the third round, playing the winner of game between the No. 8 seed and the No. 9-versus-No. 16 winner. This setup is seldom used in a best-of-x series, as it may yield long waits for the teams winning the bye, while the teams that played in the earlier rounds would be spent when they reach the later rounds.In sports leagues
The Big East men's basketball tournament used this format in a 16-team, five-round format. The PBA Tour uses a four-player, three-round format. College leagues in the Philippines use this format only if there is an undefeated team, and if there are seven teams or more participating. Otherwise for tournaments of seven or more teams where no team won all games, it uses a single-elimination two-round, four teams format.While Nippon Professional Baseball's Climax Series has been called a "stepladder" playoff with only three participating teams, it functions mostly as a single-elimination tournament with three teams, and is structurally the same as a six-team, three-round playoff. The KBO League's Korean Series, on the other hand, is considered a stepladder system: the teams that finish fourth and fifth place play a best-of-three series, meaning that the fourth-place team need to win only one game to advance while the fifth place have to win two. The winner of that round faces the team that finished in third place. The winner then plays the second-place team in a best-of-five series, whose winner in turn plays the first-place team in a best-of-seven series for the title.
The WNBA, from 2019 to 2021, used to have their playoffs done this way: the No. 5 seed plays No. 8, and No. 6 plays No. 7 in the first round. The top two seeds got double byes, and the next two seeds first-round byes. The first two rounds are single-elimination; all others are best-of-five.
The video game League of Legends has a competition that often uses the stepladder system. The League of Legends Pro League uses a double stepladder for its playoffs, giving the top two teams a bye to the semifinals, the third and fourth-place teams a bye to the quarterfinals, and the fifth and sixth-placed teams a bye to the second round. The League of Legends Champions Korea also used a stepladder bracket for the playoffs, while the League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends Master Series used it to determine the LCS and LMS third representatives at the League of Legends World Championship, which in this case was referred to as "The Gauntlet". The LCS scrapped the Gauntlet in 2020, while the LMS became the Pacific Championship Series that year following a merger with Southeast Asia's scene. The LCK moved towards a more traditional playoff system in 2021.
The video game Rocket League had a competition that used the stepladder system. The Rocket League Championship Series Winter Split in the 2022–23 season used a Round Robin group stage where places 2 and 3 would go to round 1 of the playoffs, while first place would go to the quarterfinals. The RLCS Season 8 World Championship also used a stepladder bracket. There were 2 groups of 6, and they were double elimination. The groups were also stepladders. 4 teams started in the Winner's Quarterfinal, while 2 teams started in the winner's semifinal. If a team won the winner's final, they went to the semifinal of the playoffs. If they got second, or won the loser's final, they would go to the quarterfinal.