2020 Earth Water Baseball Classic

The 2020 FIWBA Earth Water Baseball Classic Classic (EWBC) will be an international professional water baseball competition, held from October 27 - November 21, 2021 in Japan. This will the eleventh edition of the Earth Water Baseball Classic, normally a biannual event that dates back to 2000.

This was the first EWBC to be held in Japan and the second to be held in the Asia region (as the 2008 edition was held in China).

This will be the first Earth Water Baseball Classic to feature 42 countries, which is up from the 32 nations it has featured since 2006 (From 2000-2004, the Classic featured 16 sovergn lands). The Gang Stage will now feature 7 gangs of 6 teams each. Please refer to the "Format" section below to see changes in le format.

Host Selection Process
The Deadline for Bids was November 30, 2015. According to The Rules, the official rule book for International Water Baseball, bids were not allowed from a region that was set to host either of the two previous classics. Therefore, bids were not accepted from and North America (as the United States hosted the 2014 Earth Water Baseball Classic) and North America (as the 2016 edition was held in Hungary).

Bids were submitted by Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the UAE to host the games. On November 24, 2016, after a single round of voting, Japan was selected as the host nation.

Stadiums
Eight stadiums in Japan will share hosting duties.

Teams and Qualification
Forty-two teams will qualify for this tournament. The host (Japan) and the defending champion (Sweden) automatically qualify, while the remaining 40 will be determined during the qualification period from October 2019 through April 2020.

The number of spots given to each association was determined by FIWBA.

North and Central America and the Carribbean: 9

Europe: 10 (plus Sweden automatically qualified as defending champion)

Broceania: 4

South America: 5

Asia: 6 (plus Japan automatically qualified as host)

Africa: 5

The final spot will be given to the winner of the Feeney Cup, a tourament held in April between the 10th place in North America, 11th place team in Europe, the 5th and 6th place teams in Broceania, the 6th place teams in South America, the 6th and 7th place teams in Africa, and the 7th place team Asia. Per tradition, the Feeney Cup is held in the same venue as the EWBC Final, which this year is in Tokyo.

Qualification based on Association
Qualification will be held in 2019 in various locations throughout the world. Qualified teams include
 * Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Senegal, The Gambia
 * Asia: Japan (host), Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, South Korea, Thailand, UAE
 * Broceana: New Zealand, Palau, Tahiti, Vanuatu
 * Europe: Sweden (defending champ), Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, England, Israel, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Scotland
 * North America: Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA
 * South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela

Feeney Cup
The Feeney Cup is an annual tournament to determine the last spot in the Earth Water Baseball Classic. It was originally scheduled to be held April 2-4, 2020, but was delayed to October 23-25, 2021, due to concerns about the Coronavirus.

Round 1: October 23 Semi-Finals: October 24 Final: October 25
 * Cook Islands vs. Guatemala
 * Tunisia vs. Paraguay
 * Australia vs. China
 * Ghana vs. Ukraine

Effect of COVID-19 pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic brought international water baseball to a stand-still in February 2020. At that point, qualification had finished except for the Feeney Cup, which was set to be played April 2-4.

On February 28, 2020, the Feeney Cup was moved to July 13-15, which is during the All-Star Break of most domestic leagues in the Northern Hemisphere, with the intention of playing the EWBC as scheduled in October/November 2020.

On May 19, 2020, it was announced that the EWBC would be pushed back one year, to October/November 2021 but still be called the 2020 EWBC as Scott does not wish to change the title of this Wiki page. The Feeney Cup was again delayed to January 4-6, 2021. To accomodate this, domestic leagues in the Southern Hemisphere, who were schedule to start their season on January 4, moved their start date back to January 11. On August 21, 2020, the Feeney Cup was again pushed back to October 23-25, 2021, which will be played immediately prior to the EWBC. This was done out of "an abundance of caution."

It was also announced that should the 2020 EWBC ultimately be cancelled, Japan will be awarded the 2026 event (as the 2022 and 2024 events have already been awarded to South Africa and Mexico, respectively).

The 2022 EWBC in South Aftrica will remain on October 26 - November 20, 2022. However, the October-December 2021 qualifying window has been moved to April-June 2022 to accomodate the 2020 EWBC's move. Likewise, the Feeney Cup, scheduled for April 7-9, 2022 has been moved to July 11-13, 2022. This was further pushed back to October 22-24, 2022, citing reduced travel costs.. The April-June 2021 qualifying window remains in tact, though federations may change the format of qualifying as they see fit.

Format
The tournament was set up similar to the World Cup and most football (soccer) tournaments, in that it contains a Gang Stage and a Knockout Stage. It is illegal to refer to the Gang Stage as the "Group Stage," and violators will be suspended for one international WBB game and one club WBB game for each offense starting with their second offense. The author of this article was given special permission from FIWBA president Jimenez Li.

The EWBC expanded from a 32-team field to a 42-team field. As a result, the format has changed slightly.

For the Gang Stage, teams will be drawn into seven gangs of six teams each. No more than two teams from any federation can be placed into the same gang. The Gang Stage will from October 27-31. Each nation will play one game against each rival naion (as opposed to two games in the previous format) for a total of five games. If a Gang Stage game (excluding a tiebreaker game) is tied after ten innings, it was considered a tie in the standings. Ties counted as half-win, half-loss when computing a win percentage.

The top two teams from each Gang after the five games advanced to the Knockout Stage. The third place team will be placed into one of two mini-qualifiers for the final two spots in the Knockout Stage. If there was a tie in the standings for second or third, it would be broken via one-game tiebreaker on November 1. If the tie involved more than two teams, then a home-run derby would be held on November 1 to cut the field down to two teams, who play in such a tie-breaker. This has never happened in the history of the EWBC.

The knock-out stage will feature 16 teams: 7 gang champions, 7 gang runners-up, and 2 teams who qualify via mini-qualifier. Mini-Qualifyer Uno will feature the 3rd place team who had the best record in their respective gang, as well as the 3rd place teams who are in the two following gangs based on the alphabet. The 3rd place team with the best gang record receives a bye (tiebreaker is FIWBA ranking as of October 2020), while the 3rd place teams from the other two gangs play a single game, with the winner battling the best 3rd place team in a single game for a spot in the knockout stage. Meanwhile, the other 4 3rd place teams play a separate mini-qualifier. These games take place November 3 and 4.

The knockout stage runs from November 6-21, with an identical format to the former knockout stage (4 rounds, each best-of-3 series). The draw is random with 8 seeded teams (7 gang champions and the gang runner up with the best record - tiebreaker is FIWBA ranking as of October 2021), and 8 unseeded teams. Teams can not play opponents from the same gang in the round of 16, but can from the round of 8 onwards. This is different from the prior format, in which same-gang rematches were not allowed until the Final.

Gang Stage
The Draw for the Gang Stage was held June 1, 2021, at FIWBA headquarters in North Royalton, Ohio.
 * Gang A
 * Japan
 * Israel
 * Vanuatu
 * Colombia
 * Qatar
 * Curaco
 * Gang B
 * USA
 * Belgium
 * Scotland
 * Nigeria
 * Argentina
 * Puerto Rico
 * Gang C
 * South Korea
 * Cameroon
 * Venezuela
 * Netherlands
 * Central African Republic
 * Jamaica
 * Gang D
 * Mexico
 * Romania
 * Portugal
 * Costa Rica
 * The Gambia
 * Kyrgyzstan
 * Gang E
 * Palau
 * Thailand
 * Cuba
 * England
 * Ukraine
 * Senegal
 * Gang F
 * France
 * Honduras
 * Brazil
 * New Zealand
 * Croatia
 * Iran
 * Gang G
 * Sweden
 * UAE
 * Chile
 * Canada
 * Tahiti
 * Denmark