Tiebreaker
In
games and
sports, a
tiebreaker (often called
overtime in
North America) 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 some situations, the tiebreaker may consist of another round of play. For example, if contestants are tied at the end of a
quiz game, they each might be asked one or more extra questions, and whoever correctly answers the most from that extra set is the winner. The extra round may also not follow the regular format, e.g. a tiebreak in
tennis or a
penalty shootout in
soccer.
In some sports and
tournaments, the tiebreaker is a statistic that is compared to separate contestants who have the same win-loss record, particularly for the purpose of awarding prizes to the top players. For example, after five rounds of play in a
Swiss system tournament, 4th through 7th places are often taken by players who all have a 3-2 record. Often-used tiebreakers are score averages in the individual games played so far in the tournament, opponents' winning percentages, the total number of points scored by the player in the tournament, the total number of points scored by all the player's opponents in the tournament, and so forth.
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Overtime (sport)
