Beside forfeiture, technical score could be applied for disciplinary sanctions on various of administrative matter such as violence on the field, use of ineligible players, or other reasons.
In rare cases, baseball games are forfeited, usually in the event when a team is no longer able to play.
A no-contest was declared in a game during the Round of 64 of the 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament after the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams had several players placed in COVID-19 quarantine, allowing their opponents, the Oregon Ducks, to advance via walkover.
[4] On December 5, 2021, the Washington Huskies canceled and forfeited their game against the UCLA Bruins due to COVID-19 issues.
Also, in the NBA, defaulting is virtually impossible unless injuries or ejections (not being disqualified for having six fouls) bring a team to fewer than five players.
[6] Under National Hockey League rules, a team forfeits a game when they fail to comply with the rules to an extent that the Referee or the Commissioner of the league (or his designee) refuses to allow the game to continue because of that team's actions.
Probably the best known example of an incomplete IIHF-sanctioned game was the Punch-up in Piestany, an infamous bench-clearing brawl between Canada and the Soviet Union at the 1987 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
The IIHF also ejected both teams from the competition, denying Canada a medal which it had seemingly earned regardless of the result of the game.
Bobby Fischer, due to disputes over the organisation of the match, refused to show, and the game was recorded as a win for his opponent Boris Spassky.
[7] Anatoly Karpov won the 1975 World Championship on forfeit after Bobby Fischer refused to play.
Louth were awarded the championship as Kerry refused to travel to Dublin for the final because the Great Southern and Western Railway would not grant fans, players and officials discounted fares for the trip.
It can also occur when the number of able players drops to below seven at any point during the game, as a result of an unfair act, or punitive retroactive sanctions against a team from a governing body such as the NCAA.
In the case of high school and the NCAA, the forfeit is one of only two ways for a team to finish with a score of only one point (the other theoretical possibility is if a team's only score comes from a defensive safety, i.e. a botched conversion attempt that results in its opponent getting backed all the way back into its own end zone).
NFL policy states that the winning team is not paid its weekly salary if its opponent forfeits the game.
Sometimes, a team would refuse to travel to play a game because its cut of the gate (the primary source of revenue in those days) would not cover the expenses of the journey.
Finally, as the Eastern and Western Conferences gradually turned fully professional teams sometimes forfeited games after fielding ineligible players.
The "ineligible" players were typically Americans playing in violation of strict rules limiting their use in Canadian football.