What is Play-In and why is it increasingly common in sports leagues?
The world of sports is in constant transformation, competition formats change from one season to another, in most cases seeking to generate greater resources or other innovative competition systems.
In recent years, the Play-In modality has become fashionable, which is a pre-phase of the playoffs in which teams that did not manage to enter directly have the possibility of fighting for a place in the finals or playoffs.
Play-In has been played in Mexico for a long time, except that no one will recognize it by that name, since it was baptized as repechage or reclassification.
In this instance, teams entered that did not manage to get among the 6 or 8 best in the tournament and that had to fight for the last two places against those that ended up located in the lower part of the direct places to the league.
But not only Mexican soccer has had this modality, in the United States, particularly in the NFL, it has been played for a long time, although there it is known as Wild Card or Wild Card. The format is practically the same, the leaders of each division advanced directly to the second round, while the second places or even third places can, based on their record, be eliminated with those qualified with the poorest record.
In the NFL the format is known as wildcard.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the NBA also adopted the system and now permanently remained in the league’s competition system.
For many years the MLB rejected any type of modification to its qualification system, but this changed recently, because in addition to other leagues already doing so, it allowed only 4 teams to qualify, which advanced as long as they were champions of their division. .
Thus now the Major Leagues also have their Play-In, in the form of a Wild Card, in which the teams face each other in a single game to determine who advances and who is left out.
These pre-elimination formats, or pre-finals, are highly questioned by sports experts, as they ensure and encourage mediocrity and the team that throughout the season fought to be the best one can be eliminated by another who was in the middle of the classification, but reached a place in the finals.
As if that were not enough, a new stream of critics questions the system, as they establish that the teams with the best records are forced to rest for a week, during which the Play-In is played, and there are many cases of early elimination, because this time makes them lose pace, while those who arrived by reclassification, Play-In or wild card do not stop their march and arrive in full shape for the next match.
Despite everything, this format seems to gain more strength and stay forever, since it opens the range to the teams that can reach the direct knockout round and also increases business, since they are tickets in the Play-In matches, which otherwise the leagues and teams would not have it.
