Sudden death (sport)

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In a sport or game, sudden death (also sudden-death, sudden-death overtime, 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 regulation (normal) playing time or the completion of the normal playing task.

An alternative tiebreaker method to sudden death is to play an extra, shortened segment of the game. 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) are two alternatives. Sudden death playoffs typically end more quickly than the shortened play alternative. 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 compromising the sport, compared to play during regulation time. For example, prior to 2012, the National Football League (American football) used a sudden-death rule that encouraged the team possessing the ball to just kick a field goal to end the game rather than striving to score a touchdown.

Sudden death yields a victor for the contest without requiring a specific period of time. It may be called "next score wins" or similar, although in some games, the winner may result from penalizing the other competitor for a mistake. Sudden death has been called sudden victory to avoid the mention of death and serious disease, particularly in sports with a high risk of physical injury. This euphemism 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.^[1]

North American professional sports using a sudden death method of settling a tied game include the modified version now employed by the National Football League, the National Hockey League and, also in a modified sense, the PGA Tour (golf). Baseball and cricket use a unique method of tie-breaking that incorporates elements of sudden death. 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; the equivalent in cricket's Super Over tiebreaker is referred to as the winning team having successfully completed their run chase/chased down the target.

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, although it was abolished from the Laws of the Game in 2004 by FIFA.