sport
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
or game, sudden death (also sudden-death, sudden-death overtime, or a sudden-death round) is a form of competition where play ends as soon as one competitor is ahead of the others, with that competitor becoming the winner. Sudden death is typically used as a
tiebreaker
In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests.
General operation
In matches
In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...
when a contest is tied at the end of regulation (normal) playing time or the completion of the normal playing task.
An alternative tiebreaker method to sudden death is to play an extra, shortened segment of the game. In
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
30 minutes of extra time (overtime) after 90 minutes of normal time, or in
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
one playoff round (18 holes) after four standard rounds (72 holes) are two alternatives. Sudden death playoffs typically end more quickly than the shortened play alternative. Reducing the variability of the event's duration assists those scheduling television time and team travel. Fans may see sudden death as exciting and suspenseful, or they may view the format as compromising the sport, compared to play during regulation time. For example, prior to 2012, the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
) used a sudden-death rule that encouraged the team possessing the ball to just kick a field goal to end the game rather than striving to score a touchdown.
Sudden death yields a victor for the contest without requiring a specific period of time. It may be called "next score wins" or similar, although in some games, the winner may result from penalizing the other competitor for a mistake. Sudden death has been called sudden victory to avoid the mention of death and serious disease, particularly in sports with a high risk of physical injury. This euphemism became one of announcer
Curt Gowdy
Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC S ...
's idiosyncrasies in 1971 when the AFC divisional championship game between the
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division.
The ...
and
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...
went into overtime.
North American professional sports using a sudden death method of settling a tied game include the modified version now employed by the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
, the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
and, also in a modified sense, the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...
(
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
).
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
and
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
use a unique method of tie-breaking that incorporates elements of sudden death. In baseball, a winning run scored by the home team in an
extra inning
Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to break a tie.
Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven innings; in Little Lea ...
is often referred to as a walk-off, as the players can immediately walk off the field; the equivalent in cricket's Super Over tiebreaker is referred to as the winning team having successfully completed their ''
run chase
This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in c ...
''.
In some
goal
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.
A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ...
-scoring games sudden death extra time may be given in which the first goal scored wins. In association football it is called the ''
golden goal
The golden goal or golden point is a rule used in association football, lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the end of normal time. It is a type of sud ...
Sudden death has been perceived as a poor fit for gridiron football because the process gives an inherent advantage to the team who starts with possession of the ball: they can end the game immediately by driving a relatively short distance into
field goal range Field goal range is the part of the field in American football where there is a good chance that a field goal attempt will be successful.
A field goal is normally 17 yards (7 yards in Canadian football) longer than the distance of the line of scrim ...
and then kicking a field goal, but defensive scores such as the pick-six or the
safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are two slightly dif ...
are much more rare.
All organized forms of American football abolished pure sudden death for overtime as of the 2011 season.
High school football
High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...
and college football, never used it, instead either allowing ties to stand or using alternatives like the
Kansas Playoff
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...
.
National Football League
Until 1940, all
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
games tied at the end of regulation time ended as a tie. Late in the 1940 season, NFL President
Carl Storck
Carl H. Storck (born November 14, 1892 – March 13, 1950) was a co-founder of the National Football League, as well as the founding owner of the Dayton Triangles. He was also the Triangles coach from 1922 until 1926. Storck served as the NFL's ...
announced that sudden death periods would be authorized for any playoff game needed to decide either division title. This did not apply to the league championship game, which would crown co-champions in the event of a tie. Commissioner
Elmer Layden
Elmer Francis Layden (May 4, 1903 – June 30, 1973) was an American football player, coach, college athletics administrator, and professional sports executive. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame where he starred at full ...
approved a similar arrangement for the 1941 season, with the same limitation.
Sudden death overtime was approved for the NFL championship game in 1946 and remains in effect. The first playoff game requiring overtime was the
1958 NFL Championship Game
The 1958 NFL Championship Game was the 26th NFL championship game, played on December 28 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first NFL playoff game to be decided in sudden death overtime. The final score was Baltimore Colts 23, New ...
.
In 1974, the NFL adopted a 15-minute sudden-death overtime period for regular-season games; in it was cut to 10 minutes. The game ended as a tie if neither team scores in overtime. When a team gets near the
end zone
The end zone is the scoring area on the field, according to gridiron-based codes of football. It is the area between the end line and goal line bounded by the sidelines. There are two end zones, each being on an opposite side of the field. ...
, it typically tried to kick a field goal. An overtime game can also be won by scoring a
touchdown
A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Amer ...
(in such an event, the
extra point
The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...
is not attempted). This usually happened on a play that began with field position far enough away from the end zone to make a field goal difficult if not impossible, but it can also result from a team choosing not to attempt a field goal until reaching fourth down, even if the team enters an easy field goal range; this strategy only works if the team can maintain possession of the ball and does not fumble the ball away, throw an interception or lose enough yardage to back out of field goal range. Only thrice has an overtime game been won by a
safety
Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.
Meanings
There are two slightly dif ...
. In recent years, sportscasters have referred to such scoring plays as "walk-offs," as both teams can walk off the field after the play.
Since the 2010–11 playoffs, in the post-season, each team was allowed at least one possession to score in overtime, unless the team receiving the kickoff scored a touchdown or if the defensive team scored a touchdown or safety on the same possession. True sudden death rules applied if both teams have had their initial possession and the game remains tied. This rule did not actually come into use during the 2010 playoffs, with the first overtime game under the new rules not occurring until 2011, with the
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...
scoring a long touchdown on their first play from scrimmage against the Pittsburgh Steelers. A rule change gives both teams one possession to start first overtime in playoffs, whether or not a touchdown is scored first.
This rule was adopted for the start of the 2012 regular season. It was adopted to counter the criticism that the outcome of overtime games was very frequently decided by the coin toss, as the team which won it usually attempted only enough offensive action to maneuver into field goal range and seldom made a real effort to score a touchdown. In the regular season, games still tied after one full overtime period will continue to be allowed to end in a tie.
No overtime is used in preseason up to and since .
A tied game in regulation did not occur in the Super Bowl until
Super Bowl LI
Super Bowl LI was an American football game played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on February 5, 2017, to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2016 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New ...
(51).
For information on games that have taken a long time under sudden death, see
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:
*by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
.
Arena football
In
arena football
Indoor American football, or arena football, is a variation of gridiron football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varying in details from league to league, the rules of indoor football are designed to allow for play in a smaller ...
from to , each team was allowed one possession in the first overtime, after which the leading team wins unless the score is still tied, then sudden death rules applied thereafter (a similar, modified sudden death format, with a 10-minute limit, was used in the NFL Europa League). Prior to 2007 the league used extra time, a 7.5-minute extra period; if the game was still tied at this point, it was recorded as a tied game. The modified sudden death rules resulted in a definite conclusion after one overtime period (only one tied game was recorded under each of the two prior overtime rules). From 2007 to 2019, all Arena football games, both regular season and playoff, ended with a winner. Any succeeding overtime periods were true sudden death periods. This included both games of all semifinal series.
Association football
Sudden death has a controversial history in
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
. Important matches were traditionally resolved by replaying the entire match, however, in the era of television and tight travel schedules, this is often impracticable. Replays were still used in some major competitions (like the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
until 2020).
In many matches, if the score is tied after the full 90 minutes, a draw results; however, if one team must be eliminated, some form of tie-breaking must occur. Originally, two 15-minute halves of extra time were held, and if the teams remained equal at the end of the halves,
kicks from the penalty mark
A penalty shoot-out (officially kicks from the penalty mark) is a tie-breaking method in association football to determine which team is awarded victory in a match that cannot end in a draw, when the score is tied after the normal time as well ...
are held.
To try to decrease the chances of requiring kicks from the penalty mark, the
IFAB
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) is the body that determines the Laws of the Game of association football. IFAB was founded in 1886 to agree standardised Laws for international competition, and has since acted as the "guardia ...
, the world law-making body of the sport, experimented with new rules. The
golden goal
The golden goal or golden point is a rule used in association football, lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the end of normal time. It is a type of sud ...
rule transformed the overtime periods into sudden death until the periods were over, where shootouts would occur. As this became unpopular, the
silver goal
The golden goal or golden point is a rule used in association football, lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the end of normal time. It is a type of sud ...
rule was instituted, causing the game to end if the scores were not equal after the first 15-minute period as well as the second. The silver goal has also fallen into disrepute, so
UEFA Euro 2004
The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...
was the last event to use it; after which the original tie-breaking methods were restored.
The main criticism of golden goal is the quickness of ending the game, and the pressure on coaches and players. Once a goal is scored, the game is over and the opponent cannot attempt to answer the goal within the remaining time. Therefore, teams would place more emphasis on not conceding a goal rather than scoring a goal, and many golden goal extra time periods remained scoreless.
In
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
collegiate play in the United States, however, sudden death, adopted in 1997 for all championship play in addition to regular season play, used to remain through 2021. In 2005, the Division II Women's Championship game ended in sudden death as a goal was scored three minutes into the overtime to end the championship match. Sudden death is still prevalent in youth play, for the safety of players.
If the teams are still tied after the initial allocated number in the penalty shoot-out, the game goes to sudden-death penalties, where each team takes a further one penalty each, repeated until only one team scores, resulting in the winning of the game. The first sudden death in a
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
after the
penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
draw
Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn may refer to:
Common uses
* Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them
* Drawing (manufacturing), a process where metal, glass, or plastic or anything ...
option is allowed by the contest regulations, an extra round is appointed; whoever wins that round, scores the plus to one's score, and wins the match by a slight margin.
Badminton
In
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...
, if a set is tied at 29–all, golden point is played; whoever scores this point wins it.
Baseball and softball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
and
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
are not true sudden-death sports, but they have one comparable situation.
Baseball and softball games cannot end until both teams have had an equal number of turns at bat, unless further play (by the home team if they lead after innings) cannot affect the outcome. In the final scheduled inning (typically, in professional and advanced amateur leagues the ninth inning, but usually the seventh for youth leagues and softball, and the sixth for leagues for subteens such as
Little League
Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizationadvantage of being the home team. It is said that "visitors must play to win; hosts need only play to tie" because tying forces an extra inning.
A tied game in the bottom of the final scheduled inning puts pressure on the visitors. For example, with a runner on third base and fewer than two outs, the visitors cannot afford even to get certain types of outs that would let the game-ending run score after the out.
A scoring play that ends the game is called a " walk-off", a term originally coined by
Hall of Famer
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...
Dennis Eckersley
Dennis Lee Eckersley (born October 3, 1954), nicknamed "Eck", is an American professional baseball pitcher and former color commentator. Between 1975 and 1998, he pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, ...
in about 1988, who referred to game-ending home runs as "walk-off pieces", as all that is left for the visiting team to do was to walk off the field. It was popularized by a sports broadcaster after 2000, and is sometimes mistakenly thought to have been so named because "everyone walks off the field" after the winning run scores.
A game-ending home run is an exception to the rule stated above; the game does not end when the winning run scores, but continues until the batter and all runners score (provided they run the bases correctly), although prior to 1920, a batter hitting a ball outside of the park to end a game was only given credit for as many bases as required to score the winning run; if the winning run was on third when the ball was hit, the batter got credit for only a single.
Basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
does not traditionally employ sudden death to decide games; it instead uses multiple five-minute
overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:
*by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...
periods to determine the result of games tied after regulation play. The entire overtime is played; if the game remains tied, this procedure is repeated.
The NBA Summer League, a developmental summer league, employs sudden death basketball after the first overtime. The rules state ''Double overtime & thereafter is sudden death (first team to score a point wins).'' In the first sudden death professional basketball game, Devin Ebanks hit a game winner with 45 seconds elapsed for the D-League Select team, beating the summer league
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...
.
Another form of basketball does employ a sudden-death overtime. 3x3, a formalized version of the half-court three-on-three game, uses an untimed overtime period that ends by rule once either team has scored 2 points. In this form of the sport, shots taken from behind the "three-point" arc are worth 2 points and all other shots are worth 1 point.
Cricket
During a
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
match, if one team has completed all of their innings (turns to bat and try to score runs), this allows the other team to immediately win the game by taking the lead while they are batting. The winning team is said to have " chased down" the target score set by the first team (the "target score" being the number of runs scored by the first team plus one.) If the winning runs are scored by a
boundary
Boundary or Boundaries may refer to:
* Border, in political geography
Entertainment
* ''Boundaries'' (2016 film), a 2016 Canadian film
* ''Boundaries'' (2018 film), a 2018 American-Canadian road trip film
*Boundary (cricket), the edge of the pla ...
(a ball that leaves the field), all of the runs scored by the boundary are credited to the winning team's score; otherwise, the game ends once the winners have a lead of one run. These rules also apply in the case of a Super Over tiebreaker, wherein one or more extra innings may be played by each team.
The
bowl-out
A bowl-out (sometimes termed a bowl-off) was used as a tiebreaker in various forms of limited overs cricket to decide a match that would otherwise end in a tie. Five bowlers from each side deliver one or two balls each at an unguarded wicket (t ...
was formerly used as a tiebreaker in
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
. Similar to penalty shootouts in other sports, it involved both teams' players getting 5 attempts to hit the
wicket
In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings:
* It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...
at one end of the pitch by throwing the ball from the other end; if both teams tied on number of hits after the 5 attempts, the bowl-out moved to sudden death, with both teams getting one additional attempt at a time, and with the team that got more hits after both teams had had an equal number of attempts winning.
Fencing
An individual
fencing
Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...
bout lasts for five touches in a poule match, or 15 touches in a direct elimination (DE) match in all three weapons (épée, foil, and sabre. Although sabre bouts rarely go to full-time, the same time frames apply. Matches are also timed (three minutes for a poule match, and three periods of three minutes for a DE). If neither fencer has reached five or 15 points within the time limit, the leading fencer is deemed the winner. However, if the fencers are tied after the allotted time, one minute of extra time is added.
Before resuming the bout, one fencer is randomly awarded "priority". The first fencer to score a valid hit within extra time wins the match; if no valid hits are scored within the time, that fencer with priority is declared the victor.
In the normal course of a match, there is a de facto sudden death situation if both fencers are tied at four (or 14) touches each. The final hit is called "la belle". The fencers may salute each other before playing for the final point.
ladies' Gaelic football
Ladies' Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach na mBan) is a women's team sport. It is the women's equivalent of Gaelic football. Ladies' football is organised by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association. Two teams of 15 players kick or hand-pass a ...
, camogie and hurling have occasionally used sudden death (called a "
golden score
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
penalty shoot-out
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
s and free-taking competitions are usually used, but the golden score has been tried out in a few competitions, such as the 2006 Ireland West Connacht Hurling League, and the 2022 FBD Insurance League. With golden score, extra time is played after a drawn game, and if the game is still tied, the next score wins — whether it be a goal or a point, from play or a placed ball. Some commenters have said that golden score is more suitable than a penalty shoot-out, as the latter is a skill more suitable to soccer, and places undue emphasis on the player(s) who miss. It is widely used in underage and schools competitions, such as Cumann na mBunscol and
Féile na nGael
Féile na nGael (; Irish for "Festival of the Gaels") is an annual tournament comprising the sports of hurling, camogie and handball organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. Its stated aim is to bond communities, forge friendships, provi ...
.
Golf
In individual
match play
Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...
, players level after the regulation 18 or 36 holes will play extra holes in sudden death. In team tournaments, players may gain half a point each for a tie rather than play sudden death; this is the case in the Ryder Cup, for example. In the
Presidents Cup
The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably ...
, there was provision for a single-player sudden death shootout if the entire competition ended in a tie. When this came to pass in 2003, the tiebreak was unfinished at dusk. There was no provision for an extra day's play, and both team captains agreed to declare the match tied and share the trophy.
Traditionally, professional stroke play golf tournaments ending in a tie were played off the next day with an eighteen-hole match. Modern considerations such as
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
coverage and the tight travel schedule of most leading golfers have led to this practice being almost entirely abandoned, and in all but the most important tournaments, the champion is determined by sudden death. All players tied after the completion of regulation play are taken to a predetermined hole, and then play it and others in order as needed. If at least two players are tied, player(s) who score higher on a hole than the other competitors is/are immediately eliminated, and those still tied continue play until one remaining player has a lower score for a hole than any of the others remaining, who is declared the winner.
Of the four men's major championships, only
The Masters
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...
uses a sudden-death playoff format, first used in
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
. Through
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
(and last used in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
), the had an 18-hole playoff at stroke play on the day after the main tournament, with sudden-death if needed after 18 holes. A two-hole aggregate playoff is used since
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
, followed by sudden-death if needed.
The Open Championship
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later t ...
first used a four-hole total stroke playoff in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
, which was reduced to three holes for
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
. The
PGA Championship
The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...
uses a three-hole total-stroke playoff, first used in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
, it introduced the sudden-death playoff to the majors in
1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...
, and used it seven times through 1996. Sudden death is used if a tie exists at the end of the scheduled playoff.
Ice hockey
Sudden-death overtime has traditionally been used in playoff and championship games in hockey. It has been used in the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
throughout the league's history. The first NHL game with sudden-death overtime was game four of the
1919 Stanley Cup Finals
The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals was the ice hockey playoff series to determine the 1919 Stanley Cup champions. The series was cancelled due to an outbreak of Spanish flu after five games had been played, and no champion was declared. It was the only ...
. Currently, the NHL,
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...
, and
ECHL
The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL).
The ...
also use the sudden-death system in their regular seasons, playing a five-minute overtime period when the score is tied at the end of regulation time.
In 2000, the AHL reduced the teams to four players each during the five-minute overtime (but any two-man advantage is administered with five-on-three play rather than four-on-two). The ECHL and NHL both changed to the four-on-four overtime format in 2001, with the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
following by no later than 2010. By 2015 the NHL went to the three-on-three format. In the SPHL, a class A minor league, the overtime is three-on-three, with the team that would be on the power play given a fourth, and a fifth attacker respectively instead, and any penalty in the final two minutes results in a
penalty shot
A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...
instead of a power play.
If neither team scores during this period, the teams use a penalty-shot shootout, consisting of three players in the NHL or five players in the minor leagues, to determine the winner. In the NHL, if no team wins this shootout, a 1-by-1, sudden-death shootout ensues. No player may shoot twice until every non-goaltender on the bench has taken a shot.
During championship playoffs, however, all games are played to a conclusion resulting in a victory for one team and a loss for the other. These are true sudden-death games, which have gone on into as many as six additional full 20-minute periods with five players, instead of the five-minute period with at least three players.
IIHF hockey, since 2019, repeats the overtime procedure for gold medal games if neither team scores after one 20-minute, sudden-death overtime period; shootouts will occur otherwise. The shootout is decided in best-of-5 rounds, then round by round (in other words, if one team scores in the 6th round or beyond and the other fails, the game ends, unlike most professional leagues), and players can shoot as many times as the team desires (first 5 rounds are done in order, then reversely thereafter; may use new or same players). There is a 5-minute overtime in round-robin games 0 minutes in elimination/bronze medal games plus the best-of-5-round shootout procedure.
Judo
In the case of a tie in competition
judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
, the match proceeds to Golden Score, another form of Sudden Death. Sudden Death in competition Judo consists of a 5 minutes long match, during which the first competitor to achieve a score is awarded the match. Penalties in Judo award points to the other competitor, making fair-play of absolute importance. If no victor is decided in Golden Score, the match is decided based on a Referee's Decision. A Referee's Decision is a vote amongst the Referee and both Judges of the match.
Kho-kho
Kho-kho
Kho kho or kho-kho is a traditional Indian sport that dates back to ancient India. It is the second most popular traditional tag game in the Indian subcontinent after kabaddi. Kho kho is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connec ...
incorporates a unique tiebreaker (known as "Minimum Chase") related to sudden death: each team gets an additional turn to score, and the team that scores its first point faster wins. (For example, if one team scores its first point in 34 seconds during its Minimum Chase additional turn, and then the other team scores its first point in 35 seconds during its additional turn, then the first team wins.)
Mixed martial arts
In
mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...
competitions that consist of an even number of rounds, a type of sudden death is sometimes used in the event that each competitor wins an equal number of points. This is not a true sudden death that ends on the first point scored, since MMA competitions do not generally score individual points. Rather, it is a final round of combat, the winner of which is declared the winner of the match. This particular rule, known as "Sudden Victory", has been commonly seen in previous seasons of the
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...
show ''
The Ultimate Fighter
''The Ultimate Fighter'' is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Pilgrim Media Group currently airing on ESPN+. It previously aired for fourteen s ...
'' when the competition has consisted of two rounds. A sudden victory round rule was also implemented in the tournament to decide
Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...
's first Flyweight Champion.
Professional wrestling
Sudden death in wrestling is most commonly seen in
Real Canadian Wrestling
This is a list of independent wrestling promotions in Canada, sorted by regional area, and lists both active and defunct "independent wrestling, indy promotions."
West Coast
British Columbia
Canadian Prairies
Alberta
Saskatchewan
Manito ...
tournament matches, in which a victor must be decided. This happens in the case of a double knockout or double countout. In the United States, Sudden Death rules occurs mainly in an Iron Man match when there is a tie after the time limit have expired (most notably at
Wrestlemania XII
WrestleMania XII was the 12th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on March 31, 1996, at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim in Anaheim, California ...
Bret Hart
Bret Hart (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE under a legend's contract. A member of the Hart wrestling family and a second-generation wrestler, he has an amateur wrestling back ...
ended 0-0 after the 60 minute limit).
An example that invoked sudden death occurred in the 2005 Royal Rumble.
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena ( ; born April 23, 1977) is an American part-time professional wrestler, actor, and former rapper. He is currently signed to WWE. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he is tied ...
and
Batista
Batista is a Spanish or Portuguese surname. Notable persons with the name include:
* Batista (footballer, born 1955), Brazilian football player
* Dave Bautista, American actor and professional wrestler, also known as Batista
* Edina Alves Batis ...
were left, and both men's feet touched the ground at the same time. A comparable draw leading to sudden death might happen if the shoulders of a wrestler applying a submission move are on the mat.
Rugby league
Drawn
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...
premiership and
State of Origin series
The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons.
Referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, the ...
games are subject to sudden death extra time after 80 minutes of play, called the
golden point
The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn football matches. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal.
Rugby league Australia
The golden point is used to determine a winner (where applicable, see ...
. Golden point consists of two five-minute halves, with the teams swapping ends at the end of the first half.
Any score (try, penalty goal, or field goal) in golden point wins the game for the scoring team - no
conversion
Conversion or convert may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman''
* "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series
* "The Conversion" ...
is attempted if a try is the winning score.
In the NRL, the victor in golden point receives two competition points, the loser none. In the event that no further scoring occurs, the game is drawn, and each team receives one point each.
Rugby union
In the knockout stages of rugby competitions, most notably the
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
, a match drawn after 80 minutes does not proceed immediately to sudden death conditions. Two 10-minute extra time periods are played first, if scores are level after 100 minutes then the rules call for a single sudden-death period of 10 minutes to be played. If the sudden-death extra time period results in no scoring a kicking competition is used to determine the winner.
However, no match in the history of the Rugby World Cup has ever gone past 100 minutes into a sudden-death extra time period.
Rugby sevens
In the
World Rugby Sevens Series
The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...
, a match that ends in draw proceeds to multiple sudden death periods of 5 minutes.
Tennis and volleyball
In contrast with the usual sudden-death procedure of awarding the victory to the next side to score,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
and
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...
require that the margin of victory be two. A volleyball game tied at the target score continues until one team's score exceeds the other's by two points.
The traditional requirement that a tennis
set
Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics
*Set (mathematics), a collection of elements
*Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively
Electro ...
be won by two games sometimes resulted in men's five-set matches lasting over six hours (including an 8-hour 11-minute set at Wimbledon) or, in women's/doubles' three-set matches, lasting over three hours, which is a major disruption to a television schedule. To shorten matches, sets tied at six games each can now be broken by a single tiebreaker game. This is awarded to the first player to score seven points. The winner must lead the loser by two points, so tiebreaker games can become lengthy in their own right.
In March 2022, the ATP, WTA and ITF announced that final-set tiebreaks in all Grand Slams will have a 10-point tie break ("18-point tiebreaker", first to 10, 2-point minimum lead) when the set reaches six games all (6-6). This includes the French Open & Olympics.
References
Bibliography
*Gifford, Frank and Richmond, Peter, The Glory Game:How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever Harper Collins e-books
See also
*
Tiebreaker
In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests.
General operation
In matches
In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...
**
Overtime (sports)
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...
**
Penalty shootout
The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...
*
Single elimination tournament
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 matc ...
, where losing a match means exiting the tournament
* Variations of
Cassino (card game)
Cassino, sometimes spelt Casino, is a fishing card game for two to four players (best for two) using a standard, 52-card, French-suited pack.Parlett (2008), p. 401. It is the only fishing game to have penetrated the English-speaking world. It is ...