10 things to know about the XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup

The XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup will take place from 31 August to 10 September. You may want to become familiar with these 10 things before the tournament opens in Taipei City.

1 - The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association will host the XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Taipei City and Taichung. The distance between the two cities is 164.9 kilometres or 103 miles.

2 - The fastest and most comfortable way to get to Taichung from Taipei is HSR – Taiwan's high-speed rail. There are dozens of trains daily, and the travel time is only about 45-65 minutes.

3 - Tianmu Stadium is located in Tianmu Sports Park in Shilin District, Taipei. It was built in 1999 and is within walking distance from Mingde Station of Taipei Metro. It can seat 10,500 people.

4 - Taichung will host the U-18 Baseball World Cup in two venues. The Intercontinental Stadium is located in Beitun District and has a capacity of 20,000. It opened for the Baseball Intercontinental Cup 2006 and has since hosted the WBSC Premier12 and the World Baseball Classic. The Baseball Field of Sport Administration opened in 1935. It is located in Northern District and has a capacity of 8,500.

5 - Taichung hosted the XXV U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2013. Taipei City hosted the XXI U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2004. The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association earned hosting rights for the U-18 Baseball World Cup also in 1999 (Kaohsiung).

6 - CTBA becomes the third most frequent U-18 Baseball World Cup host overall with four editions. Canada has hosted the event a record 13 times. USA (six times) Cuba (three), Korea (two), Australia, Japan and Mexico (one) have also hosted the tournament.

7 - Cuba has the most wins in the tournament (11) but failed to qualify for the XXXI edition. The defending U-18 World Champions United States follow with 10. Korea has five U-18 World Titles, Chinese Taipei three and Canada one.

8 - The WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup was born as the yearly Triple-A World Cup in 1981. It began a two-year cycle on odd years in 1987, then switched to even years in 2000.

9 - The tournament will follow the usual WBSC World Cup format. The 12 participants are split into two groups, with each group's top three finishers competing for the title in the Super Round. The first and second-place teams of the Super Round will play for the title. Including the medal games, the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup will consist of 50 games.

10 - Eight of the top 10 baseball programmes in the world will compete in the XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup: No. 1 Japan, No. 2 USA, No. 3 Mexico, No. 4 Korea, No. 5 Chinese Taipei, No. 6 Venezuela, No. 7 Netherlands, and No. 9 Australia.