$10,000 in prize money to be awarded to winner of WBSC Virtual Cup as tournament regulations unveiled

PULLY, Switzerland — The winning team of the inaugural WBSC Virtual Cup will be awarded US$ 10,000 in prize money, the World Baseball Softball Confederation today announced.

 

The announcement comes together with the publication of the WBSC Virtual Cup tournament regulations. The WBSC Virtual Cup will be hosted through Newdin’s Strikezon state-of-art technology as the virtual field-of-play.

 

The inaugural WBSC Virtual Cup eSport competition, which will happen across selected cities in Japan, Mexico, Korea and USA starting on Thursday, 1 September.

 

Participants can form a team of two members and play the screen baseball games at the Strikezon venues in Korea, Japan, Mexico and the United States.

 

Depending on the number of overall entries, either 8 or 16 teams will advance to the Super Round from each of the 13 divisions.

 

The Super Round, which will take place on the weekend of 23 October, will be a single-elimination tournament at a designated location for each division, with the top team from each division, plus three wild cards, advancing to the 16-team World Finals.

 

The World Finals are scheduled for the end of November in Korea. Teams will be divided into four groups and compete in a round-robin. The winner of each group advances to the final round.

 

The Virtual World Cup is intended for participants without experience as professional baseball or softball players. There is no age or gender limit for participation.

 

In December 2020, the WBSC approved the inclusion of eSport with all virtual/electronic versions of baseball and softball among its official disciplines. Subsequently, early in 2021, the WBSC presented its strategic approach to eSport, which is composed of three pillars (Mobile, Pro, Virtual).

 

The Virtual Cup marks the WBSC’s first own eSport competition withing the virtual pillar of the mentioned strategy.

Newdin is a company that develops technology that creates digital, virtual and augmented reality sports simulation experiences, namely baseball, as leisure products for the entertainment business.