From August 30 to September 8, 2012 the 25th edition of the IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship will be played in Seoul, South Korea. Starting from 2013 the Junior Worlds will be known as World Baseball Classic 18U and will be played every two years. The International Baseball Federation announced the 12 teams for the 2012 event.
In Group A host South Korea, Team USA, Venezuela, Australia, Colombia and the Netherlands are battling for the standings. In Group B Japan, Canada, Taiwan, Panama, Italy and the Czech Republic are trying to advance. After the preliminary round robin the top three teams from each pool advance to the next phase, which will be played again in a round-robin format. The best two teams will play in the championship game.
In 2010 in Thunder Bay, Canada, Taiwan celebrated the title, defeating Australia in the finals. South Korea had won in 2008 and 2006 with Team USA reaching the finals. Record champion Cuba is surprisingly not on the list of this year’s IBAF 18U BWC. South Korea is hosting the tournament for the first time in history.