<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> A single - elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match - up is immediately eliminated from the tournament . Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match - up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion . Each match - up may be a single match or several, for example two - legged ties in European football or best - of series in American pro sports . Defeated competitors may play no further part after losing, or may participate in "consolation" or "classification" matches against other losers to determine the lower final rankings; for example, a third place playoff between losing semi-finalists . In a shootout poker tournament, there are more than two players competing at each table, and sometimes more than one progressing to the next round . Some competitions are held with a pure single - elimination tournament system . Others have many phases, with the last being a single - elimination final stage, often called playoffs . </P> <P> In English, the round in which only eight competitors remain is generally called (with or without hyphenation) the quarter - final round; this is followed by the semi-final round, in which only four are left, the two winners of which then meet in the final or championship round . </P>

What do you mean by knock out tournament