Sudden death (sport)

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

An alternative tiebreaker method is to play a reduced version of the original; for example, 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). Sudden-death playoffs typically end more quickly than these reduced replays. 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 insufficiently related to the sport played during regulation time; for example, prior to 2012, the National Football League (American football) rules, used to have a sudden-death rule for overtime play. In those situations, a team possessing the ball need only kick a field goal to end the game in their favor, negating the additional benefit that typically comes with scoring a touchdown.

Sudden death provides a victor for the contest without a specific amount of time being required. It may be called "next score wins" or similar, although in some games, the winner may result from penalization of the other competitor for a mistake. Sudden death may instead be called sudden victory to avoid the mention of death, particularly in sports with a high risk of physical injury. This variant 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.

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 uses a unique method of tie-breaking that incorporates elements of sudden death. 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. 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.

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