WBSC reveals Groups, Branding for U-12 Baseball World Cup 2017 in Tainan, Taiwan

WBSC reveals Groups, Branding for U-12 Baseball World Cup 2017 in Tainan, Taiwan
03/03/2017

The World Baseball Softball Confederation today revealed the groups and Official Look of the IV WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup® 2017, which will be staged from 28 July to 6 August in Tainan, Taiwan.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The World Baseball Softball Confederation today revealed the groups and Official Look of the IV WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup® 2017, which will be staged from 28 July to 6 August in Tainan, Taiwan.

The biennial WBSC U-12 youth world championship is baseball’s highest level of competition for the world’s top 11- and 12-year-old players and is the only international baseball competition in this youth age category to feature National Teams, which are exclusive to WBSC-sanctioned competitions.

“The U-12 Baseball World Cup 2017 — an Under-12 world championship — is unique in the world of sport,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “This global youth platform, together with our newly launched Youth Commission, reflects how determined WBSC is to grow baseball/softball into one of the world’s biggest sports in the youth space.”

The 12 nations emerging from continental qualifiers have been drawn into two groups of six and will begin the tournament For the Title of World Champion with a round-robin:

Tourney Bracket - WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup 2017

Host and U-12 World Cup 2015 silver medallists/No. 4 Chinese Taipei, current world No. 1 Japan, No. 6 Mexico, No. 14 Czech Republic, No. 17 Brazil and No. 28 South Africa have been drawn in to Group A.

In Group B, two-time defending U-12 world champions/No. 2 United States, No. 3 Korea, No. 10 Australia, No. 15 Panama, U-12 World Cup 2015 bronze medallists/No. 16 Nicaragua, and European champions/No. 20 Germany have been pitted together.

The top three finishers from each group will continue in the Super Round group stage. The two nations with the best overall record at the end of the Super Round will play in the world championship game at Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on 6 August.

The Final of the III U-12 Baseball World Cup in 2015 sold out the 11,000-seat Tainan Municipal Stadium — home of the club Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).

The youth National Teams not advancing to the Super Round Robin will be grouped together to battle for 7th – 12th place in the Consolation Round.

As an official National Team world championship, the winning country of the U-12 Baseball World Cup will be awarded 345 points in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings.

OFFICIAL LOOK REVEALED

The newly unveiled Official Look and core visual elements of the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup build upon the recently designed Official Emblem and completes the suite of Baseball World Cup logos and looks (U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23, Women’s and PREMIER12®) developed in partnership with mega-events branding firm, Leeds, UK-based WORKS.

The youthful, high-energy colour palate and green highlighted ‘U-12’ wordmark were selected to reflect the bright future, evolution and excitement the next generation of baseball players will bring to the global sport.

The official game-schedule, global broadcast partners and live-streaming details of the U-12 Baseball World Cup 2017 will be revealed in future announcements.