Плей-офф жүйесі: Page жүйесінің сипаттамасы

Playoff format
The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, and 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. A form has been adopted in the Canadian Premier League national soccer competition.

The Page playoff system was used at the Australian Rugby League Championship 1954–1972. In Australia, its most notable use today is in netball, having been adopted by Suncorp Super Netball when it began play in 2017. The system has been used since 1990 by the International Softball Federation and its successor, the World Baseball Softball Confederation, for the Women's Softball World Championship and from 1996 to 2008 at the Olympic Games. Its first use in curling was by the Canadian Curling Association in the 1995 Labatt Brier, the men's championship, and was adopted the next year at the 1996 Scott Tournament of Hearts, the women's championship. It gained acceptance and in 2005 the World Curling Championships started using it until 2018 when the playoff format was switched to re seeding 6 team single elimination. It has not yet been adopted in curling at the Olympic Games. The format is used in the Indian Premier League cricket tournament since 2011. The format has also been used in some much lower key, internet gaming events, such as chess and backgammon. Beginning with the 2020 season, the League of Legends Championship Series uses a double elimination format with a Page playoff system being employed for the final rounds of the playoff tournament. A similar format would also be adopted for the League of Legends European Championship that same year. The 2021 playoffs saw the National Basketball Association use the system for its Play In Tournament. It featured teams ranked 7th–10th in their respective conferences during the regular season. The winner of the 7–8 game advanced to the playoffs as the seventh seed, while the loser played in the preliminary final game against the winner of the 9–10 game for the eighth seed. This meant the 7th and 8th place teams have two chances to win once, while the 9th and 10th place teams needed to win back to back games. The League of Legends Pro League also uses the same system to determine its final two World Championship berths since 2020, followed by League of Legends Champions Korea since 2022.

The system requires teams to be ranked in some way, as the top two teams have an advantage over the bottom two. This is usually accomplished through a round robin tournament, which eliminates all but the top four teams.

A standard round robin tournament is used, in which all teams play each other once. Because the number of total games increases quadratically with respect to the number of teams, scheduling too many teams will result in an unwieldy number of games, particularly when there are a limited number of playing surfaces (championship curling arenas usually only have four or five sheets). Therefore, the number of teams is usually capped at around a dozen; if this is not possible or desirable, teams may be separated into groups playing separate round robins and either having the top teams combining for the Page playoff or playing separate ones in each group and having the winners play each other after.

In Australia, Games 1 and 2 are known as Semi Finals; Game 3 is called the Preliminary Final, and the final is known as the Grand Final. To distinguish between the two Semi Finals, which are different in nature, the match between 3rd and 4th is known either as the First semi final or the Minor Semi Final; and the match between 1st and 2nd is known either as the Second semi final or the Major Semi Final. In Curling, Games 1 and 2 are usually known as the 3 4 game and 1 2 game, respectively (and Game 2 is usually played first, to give the higher ranked team more rest before Game 3); Game 3 is called the Semi Final, and the final is known by that name. In Pakistan and India, Game 1 is known as the Eliminator, Games 2 and 3 are called Qualifiers 1 and 2 respectively, and the final is known by that name. In China's LPL, Game 2 is known as the Winner's Bracket, while Game 1 and Game 3 are respectively called Loser's Bracket first round and Loser's Bracket final. There is no real final, the winner of Game 2 would be the 3rd seed of LPL in the Worlds, while the winner of Game 3 is seeded as 4th and have to enter the play in round.

Players and fans alike have had a mixed reaction to the system. Broadcasters enjoy it as it produces one more game than the single elimination format.