Introducing the Asia Cup.
The Asia Cup officially launches on January 1, 2013. This tournament serves as the primary gateway to the international stage, determining which programs move on to the AAEC and which single nation secures an automatic bid to the World Baseball Classic.
The Asia Cup is a test of endurance, featuring a 64-team field split into two divisions of 32 teams. Each nation plays a 31-game round-robin within their pool (one game against every opponent) over a compact 33-day window. The top 16 teams from each pool advance to a 32-team single-elimination bracket. Ties will be decided with a tiebreaker game. While the standard for the tournament going forward will be full Best-of-7 (Bo7), the 2013 and 2016 editions will utilize Best-of-3 (Bo3) series for all rounds following the initial opening round to facilitate the league's transition. All nations reaching the Sweet 16 of the knockout bracket qualify for the Africa-Asia-Europe Conference (AAEC).
This tournament serves as the primary gateway to the international stage, determining which programs move on to the AAEC and which single nation secures an automatic bid to the World Baseball Classic.
The 64 teams that will play in the Asia Cup will be:
- India
- China
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Afghanistan
- American Samoa
- Australia
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Chinese Taipei
- Cook Islands
- East Timor
- Fiji
- Guam
- Hong Kong
- Iran
- Iraq
- Israel
- Jordan
- Kiribati
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Macua
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Marshall Islands
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Caledonia
- New Zealand
- Niue
- North Korea
- Northern Marianas
- Oman
- Palau
- Palestine
- Papua New Guinea
- Qatar
- Samoa
- Saudi Arabia
- Singapore
- Solomon Islands
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Tokelau
- Tuvalu
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
- Wallis & Futuna
- Yemen