Press release World Baseball Softball Confederation
PULLY, Switzerland; 2 November 2020 — The World Baseball Softball Confederation today is launching the WBSC “Premier12 Replay Series”, marking the one-year anniversary since the opening of the II WBSC Premier12, which started in the Mexican city of Guadalajara on 2 November and concluded at Japan’s iconic Tokyo Dome on 17 November.
The series will premiere on the WBSC YouTube Channel and Facebook* following the original schedule of the 2019 WBSC Premier12, featuring one restreamed game per day through the Opening Round and Super Round. The WBSC will schedule a double feature to conclude the series, showing the bronze medal/Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification game and the championship game on 17 November.
The WBSC’s GameTime.Sport OTT platform will also publish additional content such as Behind the Scenes material and fan-focused content.
“This Premier12 Replay Series will allow fans to relive the excitement of this professional national team competition and watch some of the best baseball players in the world playing for the pride and honour of their countries,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “This series is also a tribute to the spirit of next year’s Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.”
The flagship WBSC Premier12, launched in 2015, features the top 12 nations in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings.
The II WBSC Premier12 featured 2019’s No. 2 USA No. 5 Mexico, No. 7 Netherlands and No. 10 Dominican Republic, who battled in Group A in Guadalajara from 2-5 November.
Group B was contested from 5 to 7 November and featured No. 1 Japan, No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 9 Venezuela and No. 11 Puerto Rico in Taichung, Taiwan.
Group C featured No. 3 Korea, No. 6 Australia, No. 8 Cuba and No. 12 Canada, with games played 6-8 November in Seoul, Korea.
The top two finishers from each group met in the Tokyo Super Round from 11 to 16 November. The top two National Teams from the Super Round played for the title. The number three and four finishers competed for the bronze medal.
The top team from the Americas and top team from Asia/Oceania (excluding automatic entrant Japan) qualified into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
This is the full list of games* of the Premier12 Replay series:
2 November: Netherlands-USA
3 November: Mexico-USA
4 November: Dominican Republic-USA
5 November: Venezuela-Japan
6 November: Canada-Cuba
7 November: Cuba-Australia
8 November: Australia-Canada
11 November: Japan-Australia
12 November: USA-Japan
13 November: Australia-USA
15 November: Mexico-Korea
16 November: Japan-Korea
17 November: USA-Mexico
17 November: Japan-Korea
* Games will be streamed on the WBSC YouTube Channel at 09:00 (EST) and on Facebook at 21:00 (EST)