The National Lacrosse League (NLL), the largest men’s professional indoor lacrosse league in North America, today announced a new playoff format and rule changes for the upcoming 2017-18 NLL season.

One of the most noticeable changes this season will be amendments to the league’s playoff format. The new and improved format will now feature sudden death games throughout both the divisional semifinals and finals.

The Champion's Cup will remain a best-of-three series between the East and West Division champions. Each year the Board of Governors strives to elevate the value of the NLL and the new format is sure to create a new level of excitement surrounding our playoffs. The 2017-18 playoff format is below:

• Division Semifinal – 1 game, single game elimination

• Division Final – 1 game, single game elimination

• Champion's Cup – best of three series

“The Competition Committee meets every off-season to review rules from the previous season and scrutinize any game situations in order to improve the safety and game flow for our players,” said NLL VP of Lacrosse Operations Brian Lemon. “It is our job as a league to continuously provide the highest level of entertainment value for our fans and we believe that is achieved through our new playoff format.”

Also new for 2017-18 are a variety of rules changes and clarifications. The entire 2017-18 NLL Rulebook can be found here.