USA Sevens
Current season, competition or edition: 2016 USA Sevens
|
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| Sport | Rugby sevens |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| CEO | Jon Prusmack |
| Country | 16 |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Fiji
|
| Most titles |
Fiji (3 titles) |
| TV partner(s) | NBC and NBC Sports |
| Official website | usasevens.com |
The USA Sevens (also sometimes referred to as the Las Vegas Sevens) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually during the second weekend of February in Las Vegas in the United States. The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America, drawing over 60,000 fans, and is broadcast live in the United States by NBC and NBC Sports. The USA Sevens was introduced in 2004, and has been held at its current home, Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas every February since 2010. The USA Sevens tournament features 16 teams representing countries from every continent, including the host, the U.S. national team.
The USA Sevens is the fifth of ten tournaments on the Sevens World Series. The Sevens World Series is played throughout the world at nine other venues: Australia, Dubai, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, France, and London.
The tournament consists of 16 countries participating in 45 matches over a three-day weekend. The 16 teams are divided into four pools of four teams, with seeding determined by finishes in the previous competition in the Sevens World Series. Wins are worth three points, draws two, and losses one. The top two teams from each group progress to the quarterfinals to compete for the Cup (places 1-4) and Plate (places 5-8). The bottom two teams from each group participate in the Bowl (places 9-12) and Shield (places 13-16) competitions.
Through the 2011–12 edition, the sixteen participating teams were the 12 "core" members of the Sevens World Series circuit, along with 4 additional qualifying teams—other teams that qualified multiple times during the 2009–2012 span included Japan, Canada, Uruguay and Guyana. Starting with the 2012–13 season, the number of core teams increased from 12 to 15, with Canada, Spain and Portugal earning the three new slots.
The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America. The tournament has grown in popularity since the tournament began in 2004. In recent years, a number of events have accelerated the surge in popularity, including the announcement in 2009 that rugby would return to the Summer Olympics, the general growth of rugby in the United States, the improved performance of the U.S. national rugby team including their success in reaching the semi-finals of the 2009 USA Sevens, and NBC's decision to begin televising the tournament beginning in 2011.
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