In many other languages the term for these eight matches translates to eighth-final (e.g., in these European languages: "huitième de finale" in French, "achtste finale" in Dutch, octavos de final in Spanish, Achtelfinale in German, åttondelsfinal in Swedish, ottavi di finale in Italian, oitavos-de-final in Portuguese, optimi de finală in Romanian, osmifinále in Czech, osemfinále in Slovak, and osmina finala in Serbo-Croatian), though this term is rare in English itself, with noticeable use in American debate tournaments.
The FIFA World Cup has long featured the third place match (since 1934), though the UEFA Euro has not held one since the 1980 edition.
In one scenario, two "consolation semifinal" matches may be conducted, with the winners of these then facing off to determine fifth and sixth places and the losers playing for seventh and eighth; those are used often in qualifying tournaments where only the top five teams advance to the next round; or some method of ranking the four quarterfinal losers might be employed, in which case only one round of additional matches would be held among them, the two highest-ranked therein then playing for fifth and sixth places and the two lowest for seventh and eighth.
Opponents may be allocated randomly (such as in the FA Cup); however, since the "luck of the draw" may result in the highest-rated competitors being scheduled to face each other early in the competition, seeding is often used to prevent this.
1 Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships,[8] in what was also a rematch of a quarter-final from the previous year.
In American team sports, for example, the NFL employs this tactic, but MLS, NHL and the NBA do not (and neither does the NCAA college basketball tournament).
Although MLB does have enough teams (12) in its playoff tournament where re-seeding would have made a large difference in the match-ups; only the WNBA's at the minimum, which is at least four from each conference for a total of 8.
This is due to the scheduling employed for the regular season, in which a team faces any given divisional opponent more often than any given non-divisional opponent – the tournament favors match-ups that took place fewer times in the regular season (or did not take place, in some cases).
In chess, each fixture in a single-elimination tournament must be played over multiple matches, because draws are common, and because white has an advantage over black.
In association football, games ending in a draw may be settled in extra time and eventually by a penalty shootout or by replaying the fixture.
Variations such as the double-elimination tournament allow competitors a single loss while remaining eligible for overall victory.
To fairly determine lower places requires some form of round-robin in which each player/team gets the opportunity to face every other player/team.