Format
The format for the Serie A national championship consistently changes from season to season. The most common historic format is a two-stage tournament, to which teams qualify to a mini-league (Spanish: Liguilla) to determine the champion. The current format is new for the 2010 season and consists of three stages. The First and Second Stages each follow the double round-robin format. The winners of each stage play against each other in the Third Stage for the championship. A third-place match also takes place in the Third Stage between the next two-best teams in the aggregate table. If the same team wins both the First and Second Stage, they are automatically the champion. In this case, the second and third best teams in the aggregate table play against each other for runner-up.
Relegation is done after the Second Stage and determined through an aggregate table of the first two stages. Teams throughout the season compete to play in following season's Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.
Read more about this topic: Ecuadorian Serie A