In a group tournament, unlike a knockout tournament, there is no decisive final match. Instead, all the competitors are ranked by examining the results of all the matches played in the tournament. Points are awarded for each fixture, with competitors ranked based either on total number of points or average points per fixture. Usually each competitor plays an equal number of fixtures, in which case rankings by total points and by average points are equivalent.
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In 2-competitor games where ties are rare or impossible, competitors are typically ranked by number of wins, with ties counting half; each competitors' listings are usually ordered Wins-Losses(-Ties). In such games a games behind figure is sometimes included in listings for a tournament still in progress, to allow comparison of competitors who have not completed the same proportion of their allotted fixtures. Where draws are more common, this may be 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw, which is mathematically equivalent but avoids having too many half-points in the listings. These are usually ordered Wins-Draws-Losses. If there are more than 2 competitors per fixture, points may be ordinal—for example, 3 for first, 2 for second, 1 for third.
Some games may have more complex ranking criteria. In rugby union, bonus points may be awarded for scoring a certain number of tries, usually 4, or for losing by a relatively small margin, usually losing by 7 points (the value of a converted try) or less.
In association football, where draws are relatively common, many leagues give 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw to encourage attacking play. Besides the traditional 2-1-0 points and newer 3-1-0 points systems for win-draw-loss, various other systems have been used to try to encourage attractive play. Some examples:
Some leagues have used penalty shootouts after drawn games, in which case points will vary for regulation win — penalties win — penalties loss — regulation loss:
In FIBA (basketball)-sanctioned tournaments, where ties are impossible (a game goes into as many extra periods — or overtimes — as possible to determine a winner), the following method is used:
For an example, see 2006 FIBA World Championship.
In the National Hockey League (and various other minor hockey leagues), where regular season games tied after three periods go into a five-minute sudden-death overtime period and then a shootout if needed, the following method is used:
Most European ice hockey leagues including KHL use an improvement to the NHL method that does not encourage regulation draws by awarding more combined points than regulation decisions. This system was also used at the 2010 Winter Olympics in the preliminary round-robin games:[15]
When competitors are level on points, there is usually some tiebreaker criterion.
Sometimes, however, ranking ties may stand: prior to 1994, the Five Nations Championship in rugby union could result in joint champions; likewise for the British Home Championship in association football until 1978. In college football in the United States, many conferences will use tiebreaks to determine conference champions to determine (for Football Bowl Subdivision schools) conference champions for bowl selection or (for Football Championship Subdivision, Division II, and III) which team will qualify for the conference's automatic bid for the NCAA tournament, tiebreak criteria will be used for this. Where a conference is split into two divisions whose winners qualify for a conference title game, tiebreaks are similarly required for the divisional champions.
A tiebreaker may be a play-off, with extra matches between the tied competitors. If there are more than two tied competitors in a 2-competitor game, the play-off may be a round-robin or knockout tournament. Instead of a playoff, the original fixtures may provide the tie-breaker criteria:
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Xanthi | 30 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 36 |
| 12 | Iraklis | 30 | 10 | 5 | 15 | 35 |
| Apollon Kalamarias | 30 | 9 | 8 | 13 | 35 | |
| Kerkira | 30 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 35 | |
| 15 | Aigaleo | 30 | 7 | 7 | 16 | 28 |
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Apollon Kalamarias | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| 13 | Iraklis | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Kerkira | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Ties remaining on one of these criteria may be resolved by resorting in turn to others of them. Where a group is the qualifying phase of a larger tournament, it may be necessary as a last resort to use drawing of lots as a tiebreaker. This was used in Group F of the 1990 FIFA World Cup to separate second and third place.
Swiss system tournaments use a variety of criteria not found in other types of tournament which exploit features specific to the Swiss system: see tie-breaking in Swiss system tournaments.