Wild card (sports)
Wild cards are used at sporting events to allow athletes or teams who do not meet the qualification rules to participate.
Wildcards are common in tennis, basketball, bodybuilding, golf, snooker, darts, handball, wrestling, motorcycling, biathlon, cycling and, more recently, hockey (Champions Trophy), snowboarding, surfing and chess.
With the help of a wildcard, for example, domestic young players can take part in an international tournament. There are other reasons for granting a wildcard; especially for young athletes a wildcard is a kind of award.
In biathlon, good individual athletes whose national federation does not have a starting quota can participate in World Cup races with a wildcard. A prominent example of this is Olympic champion Michael Rösch, who was no longer nominated for the biathlon team by the German Ski Association, now started for Belgium and took part in both the World Cup races and the 2015 World Championships in Kontiolahti, Finland, in the 2014/15 season with a wildcard.
In American team sports such as baseball, American football, and ice hockey, there is a wild card rule that involves teams that have not won their division, but have the best record of non-division winners, being eligible to participate in playoff games. Although the name suggests it, however, this is not an example of a wild card in the original sense, as this rule is simply part of the official qualifying arrangements. The teams in question therefore meet the official qualification rules, whereas wildcards are by definition intended for participants who do not meet such a qualification.
In e-sports, use is also made of this possibility. For example, teams or players who originally failed to qualify, whether through lack of players or failure to achieve a prescribed place in preliminary or elimination tournaments, can also participate in international competitions if, for example, they nevertheless achieved better overall results despite losing their qualifying matches.
See also
- Free ticket
- Wildcards in the German Basketball Leagues
