Sudden death
Encyclopedia
In a sport
or game
, sudden death (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
when a contest is tied at the end of the normal playing time or the completion of the normal playing task. An alternative tiebreaker method is to play a reduced version of the original; for example, in association football 30 minutes of extra time (overtime) after 90 minutes of normal time, or in golf
one playoff round (18 holes) after four standard rounds (72 holes). Sudden-death playoffs typically end more quickly than these reduced replays. 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 insufficiently related to the sport played during regulation time.
Sudden death provides a victor for the contest without a specific amount of time being required. It may be called "next score wins" or similar, although in some games, the winner may result from penalization of the other competitor for a mistake. Sudden death may instead be called sudden victory to avoid the mention of death
, particularly in sports with a high risk of physical injury. This variant became one of announcer Curt Gowdy
's idiosyncrasies in 1971 when the AFC divisional championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs
and Miami Dolphins
went into overtime.
North American professional sports using a sudden-death method of settling a tied game include the National Football League
, the National Hockey League
and, in a modified sense, the PGA Tour
(golf
). Baseball
uses a unique method of tie-breaking that incorporates elements of sudden death. In some goal
-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
. In baseball, a winning run scored by the home team in an extra inning is often referred to as a walk-off, as the players can immediately walk off the field.
throughout the league's history. The first NHL game with sudden-death overtime was game four of the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals
. Currently, the NHL, American Hockey League
, and ECHL
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
following by no later than 2010.
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 (AHL, ECHL, UHL, Central), 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 four players.
International hockey uses a penalty-shot shootout for knockout rounds if neither team scores after one 20-minute, sudden-death overtime period. The shootout is decided round by round (in other words, if one team scores in the first round and the other does not, the game is over, unlike most professional leagues), and players can shoot as many times as the team desires. (There is no overtime in round-robin games.)
uses a modified sudden-death system in the regular season. Prior to 1974, an NFL regular-season game tied at the end of regulation time ended as a tie. In a non-exhibition game, sudden-death overtime first occurred in the 1958 NFL championship
.
In 1974, however, the NFL adopted a 15-minute sudden-death overtime period. The game ends as a tie if neither team scores in overtime. When a team gets near the end zone
, it typically tries to kick a field goal
. An overtime game can also be won by scoring a touchdown
. This usually happens on a play that begins far enough away from the end zone to make a field goal difficult, but it can also result from a team exercising solid ball control and simply never getting to a fourth-down situation. (The touchdown ends the game and no extra point is attempted.) Only twice has an overtime game been won by a safety. In recent years, sportscasters have referred to such scoring plays as "walk-offs," as both teams can walk off the field after the play.
During championship playoffs, all games are played to a conclusion resulting in a victory for one team and a loss for the other. Any game tied after 60 minutes goes into an overtime period. Prior to the 2010 NFL season
, all overtime games played during playoffs used the same format as the regular season: sudden death overtime. Starting with the 2010 NFL playoffs, if the team that wins the coin toss only scores a field goal during its first possession, the opposing team will get a possession; if the coin toss winning team scores a touchdown, the game ends. If the game remains tied after the opposing team's possession, then the game will go into sudden death. Overtime periods will be played until the tie is broken.
For information on games that have taken a long time under sudden death, see Overtime.
, each team is allowed one overtime possession, after which the team with the most points is the winner. If the score is still tied, however, sudden death goes into effect. (A similar, sudden-death format, with a 10-minute limit, was used in the NFL Europa League.)
Prior to the 2006 season, if the score was tied at the end of regulation, the arena leagues used extra time; one additional 15-minute quarter of sudden death was played. If the score was still tied, the game would be declared a tie game. A game between the Dallas Desperados
and the Nashville Kats
ended in a 41-41 tie on April 8, 2005.
, 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
, 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
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 more than two players are tied, each player who scores higher on a hole than the other competitors is 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, and that player is declared the winner.
Of the four men's major championships
, only The Masters uses a sudden-death playoff format. The U.S. Open
still uses an 18-hole playoff at stroke play on the day after the main tournament, with sudden death if two (or more) contestants remain tied after 18 holes. The Open Championship
uses a four-hole total-stroke playoff, while the PGA Championship
uses a three-hole total-stroke playoff. In both cases, sudden death is used if a tie exists at the end of the scheduled playoff.
and softball
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 8 1/2 innings) cannot affect the outcome. In the final scheduled inning (typically, the ninth), if the visitors complete their turn at bat and still trail the hosts, the game ends. If the visitors lead or the game is tied, the hosts take their "last ups" at bat. If the hosts should exceed the visitors' score, the game ends at the conclusion of the play on which the hosts take this insurmountable lead. (If the final scheduled inning ends in a tie, one or more extra innings are played with the same implications as the final scheduled inning.)
The ability to bat last is an advantage 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 out that would let the game-ending run score after the out.
A scoring play that ends the game is called a walk-off, because after the runner scores the winning run everyone can walk off the field. A walk-off 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).
).
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
were held.
To try to decrease the chances of requiring kicks from the penalty mark, the IFAB
, the world law making body of the sport, experimented with new rules. The golden goal
rule transformed the overtime periods into sudden death until the periods were over, where shootouts would occur. As this became unpopular, the silver goal 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 Euro 2004 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.
Sudden death would have made many legendary matches of the past impossible. Many historical matches have been settled in flamboyant extra-time play, with multiple goals scored by each team, such as the unforgettable "Game of the Century
" between Italy and West Germany in Mexico 1970
, with Italy winning 4–3 after extra time. Following a 1–1 draw in regular time, the remaining five out of seven scores happened in the extra time. If sudden death had been in effect, the game would have ended on Gerd Müller
's goal at 95', giving West Germany the victory instead of Italy. The use of extra time was a factor in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final; had the golden goal been used, the United States
would have won, but because extra time was used, Japan
had an opportunity to tie the game in the remaining time and, eventually, win the game in a penalty shootout.
In NCAA
collegiate play in the United States, however, sudden death, adopted in 1999 for all championship play in addition to regular season play, remains. 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.
http://www.soccertimes.com/ncaa/2005/wgames/dec03a.htm Sudden death is also prevalent in youth play, for the safety of players.
If the teams are still tied after the initial allocated number in a penalty shootout
, 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.
and State of Origin
games are subject to sudden death extra time after 80 minutes of play, called the golden point
. 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 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.
, a match drawn after 80 minutes does not proceed immediately to sudden death conditions. 20 minutes of non-sudden death extra time are played first, if scores are level after 100 minutes then the rules call for 20 minutes of sudden-death extra time 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.
and volleyball
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
be won by two games sometimes resulted in five-set matches lasting six hours or longer, 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.
Tiebreakers are not used in major tournaments in the final set, except at the US Open
.
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.
area for Quake III Arena
, when neither team has gotten a score, or if no team leads, a sudden death match will decide who will be the victor. All the teams have to do is get the flag and deliver it to the base one time only in order to win automatically. In other games, players have some handicap in order to end the game faster; for example, in a Super Smash Bros. sudden death round, players fight beginning at 300% damage, which usually causes the game to end almost immediately after a blow is dealt. In games where the players normally would respawn, like Team fortress 2
, sudden death often means that respawning is disabled and the last team standing wins.
s such as chess
where there is a time limit
, "sudden death" refers to a requirement that all the remaining moves, rather than a fixed number of moves, be played within the remaining time allotted. This ensures an upper limit for how long games can last. Some games are played with an immediate sudden death time control, others have one or more regular time controls before the sudden death control.
In the game show BrainSurge
, the last two players standing will match pictures. When someone gets one wrong, host Jeff Sutphen
declares the game to be in "sudden death territory". At that point, the next person to make a valid match wins the game.
In The Weakest Link
, if the final round of questions ends in a tie (usually after three or five questions), the players will go into a sudden death round. If a player successfully answers a question and the opponent does not in the round, they win the game. If both miss or are successful in a round, they go to another question. Again, tie-breakers that do not produce a winner may be edited out of the final broadcast.
On Wheel of Fortune
, in the relatively rare event of a tie, the tied contestants square off in a Toss-Up round to determine which player goes on to the bonus round. Previously, in the event of a tie, initially the game was declared a draw and the bonus round was not played with the two players returning for a second episode. In later years before the Toss-Up was installed, a second speed-up round between the two players was played.
On Jeopardy!
, games are allowed to end in ties, except in tournament play. In the event of a tie in a tournament round, a sudden-death "ring-in" clue is given.
Many other game shows feature a sudden-death playoff; usually, the next player to answer a question correctly wins. Often, the rules of sudden death provide that in the event a wrong answer is given, the opposing team wins, even though wrong answers may otherwise not be penalized. Occasionally, the format is a numeric question, with the player making the closer guess winning.
, 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
when the match between Shawn Michaels
and Bret Hart
ended 0-0 after the 60 minute limit)
An example that invoked sudden death occurred in the 2005 Royal Rumble
. John Cena
and Batista 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.
Or until both superstars are unable to compete. In that case then they will have to wrestle on the next live program.
, the match proceeds to Golden Score, another form of Sudden Death. Sudden Death in competition Judo consists of a 5 minute 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.
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 rounds. 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
show The Ultimate Fighter
when the competition has consisted of two rounds.
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
or game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
, sudden death (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
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.-In matches:In some situations, the tiebreaker may consist of another round of play...
when a contest is tied at the end of the normal playing time or the completion of the normal playing task. An alternative tiebreaker method is to play a reduced version of the original; for example, in association football 30 minutes of extra time (overtime) after 90 minutes of normal time, or in golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
one playoff round (18 holes) after four standard rounds (72 holes). Sudden-death playoffs typically end more quickly than these reduced replays. 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 insufficiently related to the sport played during regulation time.
Sudden death provides a victor for the contest without a specific amount of time being required. It may be called "next score wins" or similar, although in some games, the winner may result from penalization of the other competitor for a mistake. Sudden death may instead be called sudden victory to avoid the mention of death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
, particularly in sports with a high risk of physical injury. This variant became one of announcer Curt Gowdy
Curt Gowdy
Curtis Edward "Curt" Gowdy was an American sportscaster, well known as the longtime "voice" of the Boston Red Sox and for his coverage of many nationally-televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports in the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:The son of a manager for the Union Pacific railroad,...
's idiosyncrasies in 1971 when the AFC divisional championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs
Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are a member of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Originally named the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a...
and Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
went into overtime.
North American professional sports using a sudden-death method of settling a tied game include the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
and, in a modified sense, the PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
(golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
). Baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
uses a unique method of tie-breaking that incorporates elements of sudden death. In some goal
Goal (sport)
Goal refers to a method of scoring in many sports. It can also refer to the physical structure or area of the playing surface where scoring occurs....
-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
Golden goal
The golden goal is a method used in association football, field hockey, ice hockey and korfball to decide the winner of games in elimination matches which end in a draw after the end of regulation time. It is a type of sudden death. Golden goal rules allow the team that scores the first goal during...
. In baseball, a winning run scored by the home team in an extra inning is often referred to as a walk-off, as the players can immediately walk off the field.
Ice hockey
Sudden-death overtime has traditionally been used in playoff and championship games in hockey. It has been used in the National Hockey LeagueNational Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
throughout the league's history. The first NHL game with sudden-death overtime was game four of the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals
1919 Stanley Cup Finals
Seattle dominated Montreal under PCHA rules, scoring two in the first, three in the second and a further two in the third. Corbeau of Montreal was injured but finished the game and continued to play in the series as a substitute.-Game two:...
. Currently, the NHL, American Hockey League
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...
, and ECHL
ECHL
The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...
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
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
following by no later than 2010.
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 (AHL, ECHL, UHL, Central), 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 four players.
International hockey uses a penalty-shot shootout for knockout rounds if neither team scores after one 20-minute, sudden-death overtime period. The shootout is decided round by round (in other words, if one team scores in the first round and the other does not, the game is over, unlike most professional leagues), and players can shoot as many times as the team desires. (There is no overtime in round-robin games.)
American football
The National Football LeagueNational Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
uses a modified sudden-death system in the regular season. Prior to 1974, an NFL regular-season game tied at the end of regulation time ended as a tie. In a non-exhibition game, sudden-death overtime first occurred in the 1958 NFL championship
NFL Championship Game, 1958
The 1958 National Football League Championship Game was played on December 28, 1958 at Yankee Stadium in New York City. It was the first ever National Football League playoff game to go into sudden death overtime. The final score was Baltimore Colts 23, New York Giants 17. The game has since...
.
In 1974, however, the NFL adopted a 15-minute sudden-death overtime period. The game ends as a tie if neither team scores in overtime. When a team gets near the end zone
End zone
In gridiron-based codes of football, the end zone refers to the scoring area on the field. 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 tries to kick a field goal
Field goal (football)
A field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...
. An overtime game can also be won by scoring a touchdown
Touchdown
A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian 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.-Description:...
. This usually happens on a play that begins far enough away from the end zone to make a field goal difficult, but it can also result from a team exercising solid ball control and simply never getting to a fourth-down situation. (The touchdown ends the game and no extra point is attempted.) Only twice has an overtime game been won by a safety. In recent years, sportscasters have referred to such scoring plays as "walk-offs," as both teams can walk off the field after the play.
During championship playoffs, all games are played to a conclusion resulting in a victory for one team and a loss for the other. Any game tied after 60 minutes goes into an overtime period. Prior to the 2010 NFL season
2010 NFL season
The 2010 NFL season was the 91st regular season of the National Football League.The regular season began with the NFL Kickoff game on NBC on Thursday, September 9, at the Louisiana Superdome as the New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV champions, defeated the Minnesota Vikings 14–9.Tom Brady,...
, all overtime games played during playoffs used the same format as the regular season: sudden death overtime. Starting with the 2010 NFL playoffs, if the team that wins the coin toss only scores a field goal during its first possession, the opposing team will get a possession; if the coin toss winning team scores a touchdown, the game ends. If the game remains tied after the opposing team's possession, then the game will go into sudden death. Overtime periods will be played until the tie is broken.
For information on games that have taken a long time under sudden death, see Overtime.
Arena football
In arena footballArena football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
, each team is allowed one overtime possession, after which the team with the most points is the winner. If the score is still tied, however, sudden death goes into effect. (A similar, sudden-death format, with a 10-minute limit, was used in the NFL Europa League.)
Prior to the 2006 season, if the score was tied at the end of regulation, the arena leagues used extra time; one additional 15-minute quarter of sudden death was played. If the score was still tied, the game would be declared a tie game. A game between the Dallas Desperados
Dallas Desperados
The Dallas Desperados were a professional Arena Football team. The Desperados played in the Southern Division of the now-defunct Arena Football League from 2002 to 2008....
and the Nashville Kats
Nashville Kats
The Nashville Kats were an Arena Football League team, located in Nashville, Tennessee. They were last coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached the team's original incarnation to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to the original franchise's move to Atlanta in 2002...
ended in a 41-41 tie on April 8, 2005.
Golf
In individual match playMatch 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; this is as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes...
, 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
Ryder Cup
The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...
, for example. In the Presidents Cup
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 less Europe. Europe competes against the U.S. in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup. The Presidents Cup is held biennially...
, 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
2003 Presidents Cup
United States 17 - International 17The 5th Presidents Cup Matches were held in 2003 between November 20 and November 23. They were played at the Links Course at Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate in George, Western Cape, South Africa. The United States and International team tied the...
, 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
Stroke play
Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf. It involves counting the total number of strokes taken on each hole during a given round, or series of rounds...
golf tournaments ending in a tie were played off the next day with an eighteen-hole match. Modern considerations such as television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
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 more than two players are tied, each player who scores higher on a hole than the other competitors is 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, and that player is declared the winner.
Of the four men's major championships
Men's major golf championships
The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the Major Championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf...
, only The Masters uses a sudden-death playoff format. The U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
still uses an 18-hole playoff at stroke play on the day after the main tournament, with sudden death if two (or more) contestants remain tied after 18 holes. The Open Championship
The Open Championship
The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
uses a four-hole total-stroke playoff, while the PGA Championship
PGA Championship
The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
uses a three-hole total-stroke playoff. In both cases, sudden death is used if a tie exists at the end of the scheduled playoff.
Baseball and softball
BaseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
and softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
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 8 1/2 innings) cannot affect the outcome. In the final scheduled inning (typically, the ninth), if the visitors complete their turn at bat and still trail the hosts, the game ends. If the visitors lead or the game is tied, the hosts take their "last ups" at bat. If the hosts should exceed the visitors' score, the game ends at the conclusion of the play on which the hosts take this insurmountable lead. (If the final scheduled inning ends in a tie, one or more extra innings are played with the same implications as the final scheduled inning.)
The ability to bat last is an advantage 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 out that would let the game-ending run score after the out.
A scoring play that ends the game is called a walk-off, because after the runner scores the winning run everyone can walk off the field. A walk-off home run
Walk-off home run
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. It must be a home run that gives the home team the lead in the bottom of the final inning of the game—either the ninth inning, or any extra inning, or any other regularly scheduled final inning...
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).
Association football
Sudden death has a controversial history in soccer (association football). 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 are still used in some major competitions (like the FA CupFA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
).
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
Penalty shootout (football)
A penalty shoot-out, referred to as kicks from the penalty mark in the Laws of the Game, is the FIFA official term for a method used in association football to decide which team progresses to the next stage of a tournament following a tied game...
were held.
To try to decrease the chances of requiring kicks from the penalty mark, the IFAB
International Football Association Board
The International Football Association Board is the body that determines the Laws of the Game of association football.-Operations:...
, the world law making body of the sport, experimented with new rules. The golden goal
Golden goal
The golden goal is a method used in association football, field hockey, ice hockey and korfball to decide the winner of games in elimination matches which end in a draw after the end of regulation time. It is a type of sudden death. Golden goal rules allow the team that scores the first goal during...
rule transformed the overtime periods into sudden death until the periods were over, where shootouts would occur. As this became unpopular, the silver goal 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 Euro 2004 was the last event to use it; after which the original tie-breaking methods were restored.
The main criticism of golden goal
Golden goal
The golden goal is a method used in association football, field hockey, ice hockey and korfball to decide the winner of games in elimination matches which end in a draw after the end of regulation time. It is a type of sudden death. Golden goal rules allow the team that scores the first goal during...
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.
Sudden death would have made many legendary matches of the past impossible. Many historical matches have been settled in flamboyant extra-time play, with multiple goals scored by each team, such as the unforgettable "Game of the Century
Game of the Century (football)
The semi-final of the 1970 FIFA World Cup between Italy and West Germany is known as the "Game of the Century" . It was played on 17 June 1970 at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City...
" between Italy and West Germany in Mexico 1970
1970 FIFA World Cup
The 1970 FIFA World Cup, the ninth staging of the World Cup, was held in Mexico, from 31 May to 21 June. The 1970 tournament was the first World Cup hosted in North America, and the first held outside South America and Europe. In a match-up of two-time World Cup champions, the final was won by...
, with Italy winning 4–3 after extra time. Following a 1–1 draw in regular time, the remaining five out of seven scores happened in the extra time. If sudden death had been in effect, the game would have ended on Gerd Müller
Gerd Müller
Gerhard "Gerd" Müller is a former German football player and one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time.With national records of 68 goals in 62 international appearances, 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games and the international record of 66 goals in 74 European Club games, he was one of the...
's goal at 95', giving West Germany the victory instead of Italy. The use of extra time was a factor in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup final; had the golden goal been used, the United States
United States women's national soccer team
The United States women's national soccer team represents the United States in international soccer competition and is controlled by U.S. Soccer. The U.S. team won the first ever Women's World Cup in 1991, and has since been a superpower in women's soccer. It is currently ranked first in the world...
would have won, but because extra time was used, Japan
Japan women's national football team
The Japan women's national football team, or Nadeshiko Japan , is a selection of the best female players in Japan and is run by the Japan Football Association . Japan defeated the U.S...
had an opportunity to tie the game in the remaining time and, eventually, win the game in a penalty shootout.
In NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
collegiate play in the United States, however, sudden death, adopted in 1999 for all championship play in addition to regular season play, remains. 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.
http://www.soccertimes.com/ncaa/2005/wgames/dec03a.htm Sudden death is also prevalent in youth play, for the safety of players.
If the teams are still tied after the initial allocated number in a penalty shootout
Penalty shootout (football)
A penalty shoot-out, referred to as kicks from the penalty mark in the Laws of the Game, is the FIFA official term for a method used in association football to decide which team progresses to the next stage of a tournament following a tied game...
, 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.
Rugby league
Drawn National Rugby LeagueNational Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
and State of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
games are subject to sudden death extra time after 80 minutes of play, called the golden point
Golden point
The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn rugby league football matches. The term is borrowed from soccer's now defunct golden goal.-Australasia:...
. 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 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 CupRugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....
, a match drawn after 80 minutes does not proceed immediately to sudden death conditions. 20 minutes of non-sudden death extra time are played first, if scores are level after 100 minutes then the rules call for 20 minutes of sudden-death extra time 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.
Tennis and volleyball
In contrast with the usual sudden-death procedure of awarding the victory to the next side to score, tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
and volleyball
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.The complete rules are extensive...
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
Tennis score
A tennis match is composed of points, games, and sets. A match is won when a player or a doubles team wins the majority of prescribed sets. Traditionally, matches are either a best of three sets or best of five sets format...
be won by two games sometimes resulted in five-set matches lasting six hours or longer, 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.
Tiebreakers are not used in major tournaments in the final set, except at the US Open
U.S. Open (tennis)
The US Open, formally the United States Open Tennis Championships, is a hardcourt tennis tournament which is the modern iteration of one of the oldest tennis championships in the world, the U.S. National Championship, which for men's singles was first contested in 1881...
.
Fencing
An individual fencing bout lasts for five touches in a poule match, or 15 touches in a direct elimination (DE) match. In épée and foil, 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.
Computer gaming
Sudden death also occurs in computer gaming when both teams have the same score and a method of breaking a tie is needed. For example, in a Capture the FlagCapture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
area for Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
, when neither team has gotten a score, or if no team leads, a sudden death match will decide who will be the victor. All the teams have to do is get the flag and deliver it to the base one time only in order to win automatically. In other games, players have some handicap in order to end the game faster; for example, in a Super Smash Bros. sudden death round, players fight beginning at 300% damage, which usually causes the game to end almost immediately after a blow is dealt. In games where the players normally would respawn, like Team fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
, sudden death often means that respawning is disabled and the last team standing wins.
Board games
In board gameBoard game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
s such as chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
where there is a time limit
Time control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock...
, "sudden death" refers to a requirement that all the remaining moves, rather than a fixed number of moves, be played within the remaining time allotted. This ensures an upper limit for how long games can last. Some games are played with an immediate sudden death time control, others have one or more regular time controls before the sudden death control.
Game shows
In most international versions of the game show Duel, if two contestants do not cover the correct answer to a regular question when the duel is in process, the duel goes to a sudden death question called a "Shootout". For this sudden death question, the contestants who are participating get 4 new chips each, and there are no accelerators or presses available. If only one contestant answers correctly, the contestant who has the answer wins. If both contestants get the answer correct, the contestant who covered fewer choices wins, but if both contestants do not cover the correct answer to the shootout question, they are both eliminated (that happens automatically if both contestants are wrong during the duel in international versions that do not have sudden death). In a situation in which both contestants covered the same amount of choices during sudden death, both contestants win the duel, and one of the contestants, picked at random, must leave the show. In some instances, if a winner cannot be determined on the question, multiple Shootouts may occur until a winner is determined. In that case, the tie-breakers that do not determine a winner may be edited out of the final broadcast.In the game show BrainSurge
BrainSurge
BrainSurge is an American children's game show aired on Nickelodeon hosted by Jeff Sutphen. The show taped its first season in February 2009, and debuted on September 28, 2009...
, the last two players standing will match pictures. When someone gets one wrong, host Jeff Sutphen
Jeff Sutphen
Jeffrey "Jeff" Sutphen is an American actor, producer, and game show host who works with Nickelodeon. After graduating from Marist College, Sutphen began his career in entertainment working for MTV....
declares the game to be in "sudden death territory". At that point, the next person to make a valid match wins the game.
In The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and will end its run in 2012 when its host Anne Robinson ends her contract. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment...
, if the final round of questions ends in a tie (usually after three or five questions), the players will go into a sudden death round. If a player successfully answers a question and the opponent does not in the round, they win the game. If both miss or are successful in a round, they go to another question. Again, tie-breakers that do not produce a winner may be edited out of the final broadcast.
On Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
, in the relatively rare event of a tie, the tied contestants square off in a Toss-Up round to determine which player goes on to the bonus round. Previously, in the event of a tie, initially the game was declared a draw and the bonus round was not played with the two players returning for a second episode. In later years before the Toss-Up was installed, a second speed-up round between the two players was played.
On Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, games are allowed to end in ties, except in tournament play. In the event of a tie in a tournament round, a sudden-death "ring-in" clue is given.
Many other game shows feature a sudden-death playoff; usually, the next player to answer a question correctly wins. Often, the rules of sudden death provide that in the event a wrong answer is given, the opposing team wins, even though wrong answers may otherwise not be penalized. Occasionally, the format is a numeric question, with the player making the closer guess winning.
Professional wrestling
Sudden death in wrestling is most commonly seen in Real Canadian Wrestling tournament matches, in which a victor must be decided. This happens in the case of a double knockout or double countout. In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Sudden Death rules occurs mainly in an Iron Man match
Iron Man match
An Iron Man match is a professional wrestling match type that is set to go a specific amount of time, usually 30 or 60 minutes, with the competitor with the most falls at the end of that time named the victor...
when there is a tie after the time limit have expired. (Most notably at Wrestlemania XII
WrestleMania XII
-Other on-screen talent:-External links:**...
when the match between Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels
Michael Shawn Hickenbottom , better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American television host and retired professional wrestler. He presents the Outdoor Channel show MacMillan River Adventures, and is currently signed to WWE, where he has served in an ambassadorial role since December...
and Bret Hart
Bret Hart
Bret Hart is a Canadian on-screen personality, writer, actor and Semi-retired professional wrestler. Like others in the Hart wrestling family, Hart has an amateur wrestling background, including wrestling at Ernest Manning High School and Mount Royal College...
ended 0-0 after the 60 minute limit)
An example that invoked sudden death occurred in the 2005 Royal Rumble
Royal Rumble (2005)
Royal Rumble was the eighteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment . It took place on January 30, 2005 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California and featured talent from both the Raw and SmackDown! brands...
. John Cena
John Cena
John Felix Anthony Cena is an American professional wrestler, actor, rapper, and television personality. He is currently signed to WWE as a member of its WWE Raw brand....
and Batista 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.
Or until both superstars are unable to compete. In that case then they will have to wrestle on the next live program.
Judo
In the case of a tie in competition judoJudo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
, the match proceeds to Golden Score, another form of Sudden Death. Sudden Death in competition Judo consists of a 5 minute 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.
Mixed martial arts
In mixed martial artsMixed martial arts
Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be...
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 rounds. 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
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
show The Ultimate Fighter
The Ultimate Fighter
The Ultimate Fighter is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts competition produced by Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship , and soon to be shown on FX. The show features unknown, professional MMA fighters living together in Las Vegas, Nevada, and follows them as...
when the competition has consisted of two rounds.
See also
- TiebreakerTiebreakerIn 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.-In matches:In some situations, the tiebreaker may consist of another round of play...
- Overtime (sports)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. In most sports, this extra period is only played if the game is required to have a clear winner, as in single-elimination...
and extra time - Penalty shootoutPenalty shootoutThe 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 penalty shots in that a single player takes one shot on goal...
- Overtime (sports)
- Single elimination tournament, where losing a match means exiting the tournament
- Variations of Cassino (card game) that provide that points are scored immediately and can end a tie game in the middle of a round