Manalan Ice Hockey Championship

Manalan Ice Hockey Championship

Most recent season or competition: 2023 Manalan Ice Hockey Championship
Manalan Championship Cup
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	19XX (19XX Summer Olympics) 1930 (First individual event)
No. of teams	24
Country	MIHF member countries
Continent	Worldwide
Most recent champion(s)	TBD (TBDth title)
Most titles	TBD (TBD titles)
Official website	http://www.mihf.com/manalan-championship

The Manalan Ice Hockey Championships is a biannual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the Manalan Ice Hockey Federation (MIHF). The MIHF was created in 1921 in the aftermath of the First Great War, and is related to the defunct Abosian Ice Hockey Federation and Stratean Federation of Ice Hockey. The tournament held at the 19XX Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey Championship. From 19XX to 1960, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the Manalan Championship for that year.

The first Manalan Championship that was held as an individual event was in 1930 in which twelve nations participated. In 1931, ten teams played a series of round-robin format qualifying rounds to determine which nations participated in the medal round. Medals were awarded based on the final standings of the teams in the medal round. In 1961, fourteen nations took part in the newly-created Manalan Ice Hockey Championship (the inaugural edition of the event) and were split into two groups. The top seven teams (Pool A) played for the World Championship. The other seven (Pool B) played for ranking purposes. This basic format would be used until 1969 (although small variations were made). During a congress in 1990, the MIHF introduced a playoff system.

The modern Ice Hockey Championship starts with the qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, 24 teams compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over the course of about a month. The host nation(s) automatically qualify for the group stage of the tournament. In the group stage, teams compete within six groups of four teams each. The top half of each group advances to the knockout stage of the Championship (involving twelve total teams). The top four teams are awarded bye from the first round of knockout competition.