WBSC Premier12

From 1938 to 2011, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), then the governing body of baseball, considered the Baseball World Cup to be the sport's major world championship. Following the 2011 version of the event, the IBAF chose to discontinue the tournament in favor of the World Baseball Classic. In 2005, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that baseball and softball would be removed from the Summer Olympics permament program, beginning in 2012. Thereafter, the IOC also officially reclassified baseball and softball as two different disciplines of the same sport. In 2013, the IBAF merged with the International Softball Federation to create the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). In July 2014, the WBSC announced the creation of the Premier12 tournament, calling it the "new flagship men’s National Team baseball event," which would be held every four years. It was viewed as an event to fill in the calendar in place of the Baseball World Cup, since the World Baseball Classic took its place and an attempt to boost baseball's bid for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The WBSC proposed that, if baseball did return to the Olympics for 2020, the 2019 WBSC Premier12 be used as a qualifying tournament. On 11 September 2023, the WBSC officially announced the third staging of the tournament for 2024, to be hosted in Japan, Taiwan and a venue in the Americas,{{cite web|url=https://www.wbsc.org/en/news/iii-wbsc-premier12-presented-by-raxus-to-be-staged-from-10-to-24-november-2024-finals-at-tokyo-dome|title=III WBSC Premier12 presented by RAXUS to be staged from 10 to 24 November 2024, Finals at Tokyo Dome == Status and popularity ==

With the World Baseball Classic acting as the biggest international baseball competition, the Premier12 is often viewed as the second or third most important tournament of the sport, behind the WBC, and, sometimes, the Summer Olympics. In terms of viewership and popularity, the tournament tends to struggle especially in North and Central American countries. This is because a large portion of their talent pool is not permitted to play in the Premier12. As of 2024, all players active on a Major League Baseball roster are ineligible to participate in the Premier12. However, the tournament still garners attention and media spotlight in countries in East Asia with active domestic baseball leagues, such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, reflected by their large TV viewership. When the Chinese Taipei national baseball team won the tournament in 2024, street parades were held to celebrate the team’s victory, with the sitting Taiwan president Lai Ching-te greeting the winner team. ==Participants==

The field of the tournament consists of the 12 best national teams in the world according to the most recent WBSC World Rankings. Across three editions of the tournament, 14 teams have qualified for at least one edition, with 10 of those teams having qualified for all three events. Of all the qualified teams, the majority have been from the Americas and Asia and none have qualified from Africa. At least one team from Europe has qualified for every tournament, and Oceania has had one team (Australia) qualify for the last two tournaments. ==Results==

Performance of nations ;Legend • – Champions • – Runners-up • – Third place • – Fourth place • Q – Qualified • – Did not qualify • – Did not enter • R1 – Round 1 (2015–2024: pool stage; 2027: opening round) • QF – Quarterfinals (2015: playoff stage; 2019: super round; 2024: no quarterfinal; 2027: second round) ==Medal table==

Most Valuable Player == Theme music ==

• Heroic Charge (Bryce Jacobs) ==See also==