Press Release World Baseball Softball Confederation
PLANT CITY, FL (USA) — The WBSC today has announced that all 124 games for the 2016 WBSC Women’s Softball World Championship in Surrey, Canada, from 15-24 July will be web-streamed. This represents the most games ever streamed for a global softball event.
Beginning Thursday, 15 July, video coverage on the main diamond will feature play-by-play commentary plus video-on-demand playback and will utilise a multi-camera system while Field 2-4 will use one camera.
All games will be streamed live and available on a subscription basis for a one-time fee of $US 19.95 via worldsoftball.tv.
Live play-by-play will also be available online for the entirety of the tournament.
Tournament Format and Facts
The 31 nations have been divided into eight pools to compete in a preliminary round-robin. The teams will then be allocated to four sections of four in either a championship or placement round-robin based on their finish in the preliminary round-robin. The top two teams from each section will advance to the Championship Double Page system.
Teams finishing third and fourth in pool play will be placed in a placement pool to play in a Double Page systems to determine position 9-16. Remaining teams in each pool advance to Single Page placement pools for position 17 -31.
- Pool A: Japan, Venezuela, France;
- Pool B: USA, Brazil, Austria, Israel;
- Pool C: Australia, Mexico, Switzerland, Serbia;
- Pool D: Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Uganda;
- Pool E: Chinese Taipei, Puerto Rico, India, Ecuador;
- Pool F: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Philippines, Pakistan;
- Pool G: China, Cuba, Guatemala, Greece;
- Pool H: New Zealand, Italy, Kenya, Peru.
All 31 participating National Teams will compete on Opening Day, with action opening on Friday, 15 July at 08:30 local time.
(See Official Schedule)
Opening ceremonies will begin at 18:30 at the main competition field, which will be followed by Canada meeting Great Britain in front of the home crowd.
The gold medal game will take centre stage on 24 July at 18:00, and will be preceded by the bronze medal match at 13:00.
Stepping onto the women’s softball world stage for the first time are Brazil, Ecuador, India, Ireland, Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, Peru, Serbia, Switzerland, and Uganda.
The Women’s National Team of Japan will head to Surrey as the two-time defending world champions, capturing gold medals in Haarlem (NED) in 2014 and Whitehorse (CAN) in 2012.
The United States — the Eagles — have won nine total women’s world championships and took home the silver medal in 2012 and 2014.
Oceania’s Australia — the Aussie Spirit — claimed the bronze medal in Whitehorse and Haarlem.
Host Canada is expected to perform well after their gold-medal win at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.