The Canada Cup was devised as a tournament for the six top hockey countries in the world to compete in with the best players they could assemble. All the matches would be played in Canada (since none of the over 40 World Championships had ever been held in Canada before), and eventually the field would be narrowed down to the two best teams on earth. They would then compete head to head, sometimes in a best-of-three series, sometimes in a one game final, for the Canada Cup (now World Cup) trophy and the title of top hockey nation. The tournament proved so successful in fact that in 1998 the Olympics finally conceaded and raised its own hockey tournament to Top Level status.
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