The 2013 MLS Cup Playoffs was the eighteenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season.

For the second year in a row, each Conference Championship will also be a two-leg aggregate series, as opposed to the traditional single elimination match.

[2] The Conference winners meet in the MLS Cup, a single match hosted by the finalist with the better regular season record.

In a break from previous years, only Sporting Kansas City, the MLS Cup winner, directly entered the 2014–15 CONCACAF Champions League, earning a Pot A seed.

In 2012, the league's previous system of "wild card" qualification—which had the potential for "crossover" series in which one team could play in the other conference's bracket—was scrapped.