Olympics, Men:

Olympic men’s ice hockey tournament in Sochi 2014

Participants: Nations ranked 1-9 according to the 2012 IIHF Men’s World Ranking plus three qualifiers.

Seeding:
Group A: 1, 6, 7, 12
Group B: 2, 5, 8, 11
Group C: 3, 4, 9, 10

The eight teams with the best records (the best two teams of each group and the two teams ranked third with the best record) advance to the quarter-finals.

Final Olympic Qualification (3 tournaments, 7-10 February 2013)

Nations ranked 10-18 plus the three winners from the Olympic Pre-Qualification.

Olympic Pre-Qualification (3 tournaments, 8-11 November 2012)

Nations ranked 19-27 plus qualifiers from any preliminary qualification required or ranked nations 28 and higher.