The Rest of the World within sports and games played at the international competitive level, refers to a team of players from many countries of origin who compete against a single individual or a team from a single group, such as a club or country.

Overview

As a Rest of the World team usually has little experience in playing together or working as a team, their ability is not usually considered indicative of their actual abilities, either individually or as members of their usual teams, and as such, games played against the rest of the world are not normally considered to show the true talent either of the rest of the world or the team competing against them. As a consequence, Rest of the World matches are usually played as one-off events either as friendly games or for a non-competitive special purpose, such as international aid or commemoration.

However, some such games can produce spectacular and intense games, such as the chess game between Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 and the Rest of the World

Kasparov versus The World

Kasparov versus the World was a game of chess played in 1999 over the Internet. Conducting the white pieces, Garry Kasparov faced the rest of the world in consultation, with the World Team moves to be decided by plurality vote. Over 50,000 individuals from more than 75 countries participated in the...

 in 1999. The Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World

Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World

There have been two chess matches featuring USSR vs. Rest of the World and 1 match Russia vs. Rest of the World. The first two matches were between a team from the USSR and a team of players from the "rest of the world"...

 chess matches were also tightly contested.

Golf

Two events in golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, one currently active and the other defunct, involve teams officially labeled "International" that are effectively "rest of the world" teams. The Presidents Cup

Presidents Cup

The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world less Europe. Europe competes against the U.S. in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup. The Presidents Cup is held biennially...

 in men's golf, held in odd-numbered years, features competition between a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 team and an "International" team made up of non-European players (Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

ans compete against the USA in even-numbered years in the Ryder Cup

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...

). The now-defunct Lexus Cup

Lexus Cup

The Lexus Cup was an annual golf tournament played between 2005 and 2008 for professional women golfers contested by a team representing Asia and an international team representing the rest of the world. It was sanctioned by the LPGA Tour, but any winnings were unofficial and were not included in...

 in women's golf was an annual competition that matched an Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 team against an "International" team drawn from all other nationalities.

Non-sporting usage

Outside of sports and games, Rest of World (RoW) is also a term used to distinguish an unspecified but inclusive group of nations from one or more dominant players in the comparative analysis of markets, economies, military capabilities, and so forth. Especially in graphs or charts to show the numbers representing the other countries.

The Federation of American Scientists

Federation of American Scientists

The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...

, for instance, provides a list of RoW missile systems, meaning missile

Missile

Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...

 systems belonging to nations other than the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.