2013–14 Top League  The 2013–14 Top League was the 11th season of Japan's domestic rugby union competition, the Top League. It kicked off on 30 August 2013. The final was held on 9 February 2014 and won by Panasonic Wild Knights. The Top League expanded from 14 to 16 teams for the 2013–14 season. The Sanix Blues team was relegated, and Coca-Cola West Red Sparks, Kubota Spears, Toyota Industries were promoted to the Top League for 2013–14. For the Pool stage, the 16 teams were placed into 2 pools of 8 teams each and a round-robin tournament was played within each of the pools. Then, for the Group stage, the top 4 teams from each pool went through to Group 1, and the bottom 4 teams from each pool went through to Group 2. The teams were given starting points based on where they finished in their pool. - i.e. starting points of 4, 3, 2, and 1, for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively; and starting points of 4, 3, 2, and 1, for 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively. Another round-robin was played for each of the groups. The Top League teams in Group 1 ranked 1st to 4th qualified for the title play-offs to fight for the Microsoft Cup and the Top League title. The top 4 also qualified directly into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship. The teams in Group 1 ranked 5th to 8th, and teams in Group 2 ranked 1st to 4th went through to the wildcard play-offs for qualification into the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship. The teams in Group 2 ranked 5th to 7th went through to the promotion and relegation play-offs against regional challengers to fight to remain in the Top League. The team in Group 2 ranked 8th was automatically relegated to the regional leagues for 2014–15. Top 4 sides of the regular season competed in the Microsoft Cup (2014) knock out tournament to fight for the Top League title. The top 4 teams of 2013–14 were Panasonic Wild Knights, Suntory Sungoliath, Kobelco Steelers, and Toshiba Brave Lupus. The Top League Group 1 teams ranked 5–8 and Group 2 teams ranked 1–4 played off over two rounds, with the second round winners qualifying for the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship. So Yamaha and Toyota advanced to the All-Japan Rugby Football Championship. Fukuoka Sanix Blues won promotion to the 2014–15 Top League via the 2013–14 Top League Challenge Series, while Honda Heat, Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars and Yokogawa Musashino Atlastars progressed to the promotion play-offs.