knockout rounds
Win or leave
Knockout rounds are the elimination stage of a tournament where losing means going home.
Unlike group stages or round-robin formats where teams can survive a loss, knockout rounds are single-elimination: They breezed through the group stage but lost in the knockout rounds.
The term appears most often in soccer and similar competitions.
- quarterfinalsPenultimate four matches
- bracketSupport or category
- semifinalsPenultimate tournament round
- eliminationAct of removing entirely
- underdogPresumed loser beforehand
single elimination · golden goal · upset · seeding · pressure · cup tie · two-legged · soccer · crowd · do-or-die · tournament · sudden death · penalty shootout · strategy · aggregate · away goals · bye · qualifiers
- sporting eventsrace, game, match, games, final
- competitionscontests, tournaments, match, matches, game
- International SoccerFIFA World Cup, World Cup, UEFA Euro, Copa America, Champions League
- playoffsbracket, brackets, elimination, playoff bracket, playoff game
- tournamentstournament, tournaments, bracket, brackets, tournament brackets
- bridgecontract bridge, duplicate bridge, rubber bridge, bridge table, trump
tournament format/structure
knockout roundsgroup stage
Tournament's initial round-robin
round-robin · pool play · regular season · preliminary rounds · league play