WBSC Premier12™ Championship schedule to be announced 22-June in Taipei

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The WBSC will hold a press conference in Taipei City, Taiwan on the 22nd of June to announce the full competition schedule of the 2015 WBSC Premier12 of Baseball, which will be staged from 8-21 November in Japan and Taiwan, and will showcase the elite Men’s National Teams from the Top 12 countries in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings.

The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) — Taiwan’s top sports league — will discuss its support for and role in the WBSC Premier12, as well the collaboration with the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA). The new team manager to lead the Chinese Taipei National Team in the WBSC Premier12 will be named, and he will outline Chinese Taipei’s roadmap to the November global showdown. Both CTBA and CPBL are WBSC Members.

A joint announcement will be made by WBSC and Taiwan’s Videoland network regarding the broadcast rights of the 2015 WBSC Premier12 within the Taiwan territory.

The Official Look of the 2015 WBSC Premier12 will also be unveiled in further detail.

Monday’s press conference will begin at 15:30 local time (UTC+08:00).  Updates and real-time coverage will be made via twitter.com/wbsc and facebook.com/wbsc — Official hashtag: #Premier12.

WBSC Premier12 Overview

The 2015 WBSC Premier12 groups, opening contests and Official Teaser Video were revealed at a May 20th press conference in Seoul, S. Korea. (See Groups)

Commenting last month on World No. 1 Japan’s placement into Group B, Samurai Japan National Team manager Hiroki Kokubo said: “Just seeing the names of these countries conjures the image of a group of very strong teams — all the teams in Group B are powerful.”

But the Samurai leader said he will put together a Japanese “dream team” to keep both the Premier12 championship trophy and the World No. 1 Ranking in Japan. The 2015 Premier12 will award a large-scale sum of world ranking points, in addition to US$ millions in prize money.

Kicking off the competition in Group A, it will be No. 4 Chinese Taipei vs. Netherlands, the 2011 Baseball World Cup champions, at Taichung’s Intercontinental Stadium on 9 November.

The Premier12 will open on November 8th at the 40,000-seat Sapporo Dome and will feature the rivalry match-up of Japan vs. No. 8 South Korea for historic Game 1.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League, S. Korea’s top sports league, recently announced its full support of the S. Korean National Team at the new Premier12 championship.

Said In Sik Kim, KBO official and former manager of the South Korean National Team:

“KBO is committed to doing its part to help grow our great sport around the world. Korea’s National Baseball Team is a source of pride for our entire country, and we take it very seriously. KBO also takes great pride in having players from our league featured on the Korean National Team. We are committed to supporting the Korean National Team at Premier12 in November. We expect and encourage other Premier12 nations and leagues to support their National Teams.”

Tournament Format

Four nations will be eliminated after the first round (group stage), while the eight surviving nations will advance to the heated knockout round.  After the quarterfinal-KOs, the WBSC Premier12 will shift from Taiwan to Japan’s iconic Tokyo Dome for semifinals and finals.

Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) — the second highest-attended sports league in the world in 2014 (surpassing 23 million in attendance) and world-class organisers Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) are co-hosts of the inaugural WBSC Premier12.