World Baseball Classic qualification

World Baseball Classic qualification is the process that determines which nations will compete at the World Baseball Classic. Qualification takes place the year prior to the tournament, which itself is played every four years.

Currently, sixteen nations compete at the World Baseball Classic proper. The twelve nations that win at least one game at the tournament qualify for the next edition; the remaining four slots are filled by the winners of four four-team qualifying tournaments. Therefore, twenty-eight nations enter the tournament at any point. To date, twenty-nine nations have entered either qualifying or the main tournament.

Unlike other international tournaments such as the Rugby World Cup, FIFA World Cup, and FIBA Basketball World Cup, the qualifying tournaments are not arranged on a regional or geographic basis.

The 2006 and 2009 tournaments each had the same 16–team field, chosen by invitation. Starting with the 2013 tournament, the top 12 teams from the previous tournament qualified automatically and a qualifying round has been used to determine the remaining 4 teams.

For the 2013 tournament, qualifying tournaments were held in late 2012. The four nations – (Canada, Chinese Taipei, Panama, and South Africa) – that had failed to win games in the 2009 tournament were joined by twelve new invited nations.

The qualifiers were organized as four independent modified double-elimination tournaments featuring four teams each. The final game was winner-take-all, even if won by the team emerging from the loser's bracket. That is, the team emerging from the winner's bracket might be eliminated despite losing only one game.

Canada and Chinese Taipei won their qualifying tournaments to return to the main tournament, while Spain and Brazil qualified to make their World Baseball Classic debuts.

...
Wikipedia