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. The Page playoff system was invented in Australia in the early 1930s and adopted soon after by the Victorian Football League (now known as the Australian Football League). The top four teams advance to the playoffs, which are played over three rounds with one team being eliminated in each round. The format progresses as follows: • In Game 1, the third- and fourth-placed teams play against each other. The loser is eliminated. • In Game 2, the first- and second-placed teams play against each other. The winner qualifies directly for the final. • In Game 3, the winner of Game 1 plays against the loser of Game 2. The loser is eliminated. • Game 4 (the final) is then played between the winners of Games 2 and 3. This system gives the top two teams a double chance, in that they can lose their first game and still go on to win the title, producing a similar though not identical effect to a
double-elimination tournament. This gives the top two teams a significant advantage over the next two, since winning the title from third or fourth place requires winning one more game than winning from first or second, and also requires defeating every other team in the playoffs. Additionally, the higher-ranked team in any pairing (which, in the final, is automatically the team that won Game 2) will play as the
home team to provide an additional advantage; in the case of curling teams, where teams rarely play national or international tournaments at their home rink, the advantage is that the first-placed team is given the
hammer (last rock) in the first end, which is a reasonable advantage between comparably skilled teams. In the 2008 World Women's Curling Championship, a fifth match was added to the format: a bronze medal playoff match, which was played between the two teams which did not qualify for the final (the losers of Games 1 and 3). This game is normally scheduled between Games 3 and 4. Previously, the bronze would have automatically been awarded to the team which lost Game 3, so this game provides a chance for the loser of Game 1 to still receive a medal. This was also introduced at the national level at the
2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts and the
2011 Tim Hortons Brier. The bronze medal game was heavily criticized for being "meaningless" in part because simply winning a "medal" does not carry the same sort of prestige it does in the Olympic Games. The bronze medal game was eliminated prior to the 2018 Canadian championship curling season.
Names of matches 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 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. In
India Game 1 is known as the
Eliminator, Games 2 and 3 are called
Qualifiers 1 and 2 respectively but in TV screen logo called As
PLAYOFF and the final is known as
FINAL name like recently
2025 IPL Season as seen here
Examples 1931 Victorian Football League playoffs The first-ever use of the system was in Australia in 1931 after the Victorian Football League adopted it. The regular season ended with Geelong winning the minor premiership, followed by Richmond, Carlton and Collingwood. The
finals proceeded as follows: Page playoff, including a bronze medal match, from the
2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. ==See also==