determined by best-of-five Stanley Cup Qualifiers. Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League, based in Russia and including teams from several nearby countries, operates a playoff system similar to that of the NHL, also consisting of four rounds of single-elimination best-of-seven series. The first three rounds determine which team from each conference will advance to the final round, dubbed the Gagarin Cup Finals. The winner of that series becomes the KHL and Gagarin Cup champion. Like the NHL, the Conference Quarterfinals consists of four match-ups in each conference. The winner of each division receives one of the top two seeds in its conference; the others are based on regular-season record. Unlike the NHL, divisional alignment plays no added role in playoff seeding—all teams are seeded solely within their conference. Playoff pairings are based on seeding number within the conference (No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6, and No. 4 vs. No. 5). The division winner with the best record in the conference plays the lowest wild-card seed, while the other division winner plays the next-lowest seed (wild-card teams, who are de facto 4th seeds, may cross over to another division within the conference). The playoff pairings are reseeded after the first round (a feature that was once used in the NHL, but now abandoned). Therefore, the Conference Semifinals feature the top remaining seed in the conference playing the lowest remaining seed, and the two other first-round survivors playing one another. In the third round, the Conference Finals, the two surviving teams play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Gagarin Cup Finals. For the first two rounds, the higher-seeded team has home-ice advantage (regardless of point record). Thereafter, it goes to the team with the better regular season record. In all rounds the team with home-ice advantage hosts Games 1, 2, 5 and 7, while the opponent hosts Games 3, 4 and 6 (Games 5–7 are played "if necessary"). Elite Ice Hockey League In the United Kingdom, the Elite Ice Hockey League playoffs are an elimination tournament where the draw is based on the finishing position of teams in the league. Of the 10 teams which compete, the top 8 qualify for the playoffs. The first round (the quarter-finals) are played over two legs (home and away) where the team who finished in 1st place in the regular season plays