A tiebreaker provides the additional criterion or set of criteria to distinguish between the tied participants and establish a clear ranking or winner.
In many sports, teams that are tied at the end of a match compete in an additional period of play called "overtime" or "extra time".
The extra round may also not follow the regular format, e.g. a tiebreak in tennis or a penalty shootout in association football.
In the Super Smash Bros. series of platform fighting games published by Nintendo, if at least two fighters have an equal amount of points or stocks when time runs out, then a tiebreaker will occur as "Sudden Death" with the tied players receiving 300% damage and whoever delivers the final hit is the winner of the match.
In some sports, tournaments, and playoffs, the tiebreaker is a statistic that is compared between different contestants who have the same win–loss record, or number of points scored etc.
The statistics that are compared may include total goals scored, the record between the two tied teams, and other factors.
In some sports leagues, a one-game playoff, or occasionally a "best-of" series format, may be played instead to break the tie.
Though comparing goals scores is a common method of tiebreak, other tiebreaks can entail drawing of lots (such as happened between Ireland and Netherlands in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, or a "Fair Play Table" where teams are ranked according to how many yellow and red cards each team accumulated.
If neither team scores before the end of the overtime period, or both teams score one field goal each, the game is considered a draw and ends, and counts as a "half-win" in the standings for purposes of winning percentage for both draft order and playoff positioning.
There is no tiebreak for regular season matches in Australian rules football, and both teams earn two points each.
If the match is still tied when extra time has expired, the procedure is repeated (but in true golden point) until a winner is determined.
[4] If at the end of a Formula 1 season several drivers have the same number of points, the individual placings are used as a tiebreaker.
The closest was the 1984 season, when Niki Lauda won the championship by half a point over Alain Prost.
[5] The IndyCar Series uses essentially the same procedure, but if the amount of different positions in all races are tied, a draw is made at the end instead of using qualifying.
In the first IRL season in 1996, both drivers (Scott Sharp and Buzz Calkins) were declared co-champions because there was no tiebreaker rule at that time.
In NASCAR, due to the current playoff system, a tie in points cannot occur at the end of the season.
The closest title race in the pre-Chase era was 1992, when Alan Kulwicki won the championship by ten points over Bill Elliott.
Field target — a precision air rifle shooting sport — uses either a sudden-death or shot count tiebreaker.
The sudden-death tiebreaker (usually used to determine a single place such as 3rd when 3 awards are to be given or between two shooters) consists of each tied shooter (order dictated or decided by coin-toss or other technique) shoots at a target (typically a difficult shot such as ½" at 35 yards).
If two or more wrestlers share are tied for the lead within a division, a series of additional playoff bouts will be held on the final day to determine the divisional champion.
Restrictions against bouts between close relatives, members of the same stable, and previously faced opponents are lifted during a playoff situation.