The 2013 MLS Cup Playoffs was the eighteenth post-season tournament culminating the Major League Soccer regular season. The tournament began in late October and culminated on December 7, 2013 with MLS Cup 2013, the eighteenth league championship for MLS. This was the third year that the playoffs included ten teams, and the second playoff series since 2006 in which teams could not cross conference brackets. The top five teams in both the Eastern and Western conferences of the league earned berths, with the top three clubs in each conference earning direct byes to the . The fourth and fifth-place finishers of both conferences competed in a single-elimination play-in match.