Traditionally, a tournament is a competitive event where many players compete against each other in a limited number of matches. The format of these events can vary, depending on the sport. They may be single-elimination, double-elimination or even “Swiss” style. The winner of the tournament is determined by the combined result of the individual matches played in the tournament.
The term tournament was derived from the French word tornoier, meaning to compete, to fight or to battle. It can be used in the literal sense, or in a more general sense, as a temporal demarcation. A tournament is usually held for a sport or other activity that has a small number of games, such as golf, football or tennis.
The term can also be used to refer to a series of matches that are played in a specific order, such as the NBA playoffs, or to a contract bridge tournament. A number of international team events use a round-robin tournament. The top teams from each division are promoted to a higher division. The bottom teams are relegated to a lower division.
In eSports, a tournament is not a traditional physical sports competition, but rather an electronic one. Some events are hosted physically in stadiums or team houses, while others are hosted online. The tournament is often organized by an eSports organization or a video game company. This form of competition is often hosted by a league, which will limit the number of teams in the tournament. The minimum number of members required to participate in a team may vary, and a maximum number of teams may be set by the league.
In many international team events, there are both group and knockout stages. In the group stage, the competitors are ranked based on their average points. In the knockout stage, the competition is usually a single-elimination tournament. The finalists are determined by the winner of each match, and the best record is a contestant who wins through the whole final round. The rankings are not taken into account in the early knockout stages. This leads to a non-transparent final ranking, because results from earlier rounds are not included in the ranking.
Tournaments are also common in sports that feature small matches, such as cricket and two-knight armoured combat. A medieval martial sport, jousts involved mounted combatants and blunted lances. The aim of jousts was to defeat the opponent by removing them from their horse.
In modern day tournaments, professional teams compete for fame and monetary prizes. The most famous tournaments include the IPL, the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic games, and the cricket world cup. These tournaments can be large or small, and are often held on a local, state, or national level. They may involve the entire league, or just some of the team members. Some eSports are organized in parallel, such as the OVC tournament.
The most commonly used type of tournament is a “Pair event”. This is a tournament where each player plays with another player, and the pair that performs the best is awarded a prize. This type of tournament is very popular in horse and horse racing competitions, but is also used in some sports that don’t require horses, such as basketball and volleyball.