Tomorrow, the annual Spring Koshien tournament will be back again for this year! Fyi, Spring Koshien or commonly known as Senbatsu Tournament is an invitational tournament that is dedicated for all highschool baseball players around Japan, who want to get the chance playing in Koshien even though they hardly can qualified to participated in the Summer Koshien.
This tournament held annually like Summer Koshien, around March. Usually, the total of participants of this tournament is consisted around 32 schools from around Japan, but that's regarding to each year's regulation (in commemorative year, the participant usually increasing up to 36 schools). And for this year, it's 32 schools who will participated in the Senbatsu Tournament soon.
Let's jump into the important point first, here's a quick & full guide for this year's Senbatsu Tournament!
For a guide, all the participants on this Senbatsu are from 32 schools (36 in the commemorative year) selected by three main categories:
General Slots (一般選考枠, Ippan Senkō Waku)
Meiji Jingu Special Slot (明治神宮大会枠, Meiji Jingu Taikai Waku)
21st Century Slot (21世紀枠, Nijū-Isseiki Waku)
1. General Slots
General slots are the category which representative chosen from schools that selected based on their performance in the fall tournament, at least ranked better than best 16. Each region have different number of representatives.
Hokkaido → 1
Tohoku → 3
Kanto + Tokyo → 4 + 2 (+1 from Meiji Jingu Slot)
Tokai → 3
Hokushinetsu → 2
Kinki → 6
Chugoku → 2
Shikoku → 2
Kyushu → 4
Hokkaido Representative (1)
Tokaidai Sapporo - First time in 10 years, the 7th times in Senbatsu.
Tohoku Representatives (3)
Aomori Yamada (Aomori) - Two years in a row, the 4th times in Senbatsu.
Hanamaki Higashi (Iwate) - First time in 3 years, the 5th times in Senbatsu.
Seikou Gakuin (Fukushima) - First time in 3 years, the 7th times in Senbatsu.
Kanto-Tokyo Representatives (7)
Kendai Takasaki (Gunma) - Three years in a row, the 8th times in Senbatsu.
Urawa Jitsugyo (Saitama) - First time.
Chiba Reimei (Chiba) - First time.
Nisho Gakusha (Tōkyo) - First time in 2 years, the 8th times in Senbatsu.
Waseda Jitsugyo (Tōkyo) - First time in 8 years, the 22nd times in Senbatsu.
Yokohama (Kanagawa) - First time in 6 years, the 17th times in Senbatsu.
Yamanashi Gakuin (Yamanashi) - Four years in a row, the 8th times in Senbatsu.
Tokai Representatives (3)
Tokohadai Kikugawa (Shizuoka) - First time in 2 years, the 6th times in Senbatsu.
Shigakukan (Aichi) - First time in 8 years, the 2nd times in Senbatsu.
Ogaki Nichidai(Gifu) - First time in 2 years, the 6th times in Senbatsu.
Hokushin'etsu Representatives (2)
Japan Aviation Ishikawa (Ishikawa) - Two years in a row, the 4th times in Senbatsu.
Tsuruga Kehi (Fukui) - Five years in a row, the 12th times in Senbatsu.
Kinki Representatives (6)
Shiga Gakuen (Shiga) - First time in 8 years, the 3rd times in Senbatsu.
Shiga Tandai Fuzoku (Shiga) - First time.
Toyodai Himeji (Hyogo) - First time in 3 years, the 9th times in Senbatsu.
Tenri (Nara) - First time in 3 years, the 27th times in Senbatsu.
Ichi Wakayama (Wakayama) - First time in 3 years, the 9th times in Senbatsu.
Chiben Wakayama (Wakayama) - First time in 2 years, the 16th times in Senbatsu.
Note: There is no representative from Osaka in this Senbatsu Tournament. And this is the first time a Senbatsu Tournament didn't include any school from Osaka since 98 years ago (1927).
Chugoku Representatives (2)
Yonago Shoin (Tottori) - First time in 33 years, the 2nd times in Senbatsu.
Hiroshima Shogyo (Hiroshima) - First time in 3 years, the 23rd times in Senbatsu.
Shikoku Representatives (2)
Takamatsu Shogyo (Kagawa) - First time in 2 years, the 29th times in Senbatsu.
Meitoku Gijuku (Kochi) - First time in 4 years, the 21st times in Senbatsu.
Kyushu Representatives (4)
Nishi-Nippon Tandai Fuzoku (Fukuoka) - First time in 38 years, the 2nd times in Senbatsu.
Yanagigaura (Oita) - First time in 20 years, the 3rd times in Senbatsu.
Enagic Sports (Okinawa) - First time.
Okinawa Shogaku (Okinawa) - First time in 2 years, the 8th times in Senbatsu.
2. Meiji Jingu Slots
This category is dedicated for only one representative who came from the same region as the winner team of the Meiji Jingu Baseball Tournament. This slot also select specially based on the team's performance in the fall tournament by JHBF (Japan Highschool Baseball Federation).
As the winner from last year is Yokohama, each Kantō and Tōkyo region can submit one additional representative from their own region to participate in the Senbatsu Tournament this year. In this case, the chosen representatives are Yamanashi Gakuin (Kanto) and Waseda Jitsugyo (Tokyo).
3. 21st Century Slots
This category refers to a special category or "slot" reserved for teams that represent the ideals of the 21st century, such as sportsmanship, innovation, or overcoming challenges. Teams selected for this slot may not necessarily be the strongest but are chosen for their unique qualities or stories. Some potential names of school will be nominated first for then to be selected by JHBF later. This category offers a total of 2 slots.
There's 9 schools that nominated for this category:
Hokkaido - Kushiro Kōnan HS (Hokkaido)
Tohoku - Kuji HS (Iwate)
Kanto & Tokyo - Yokohama Seiryo (Kanagawa)
Tokai - Nagoya Tachibana HS (Aichi)
Hokushinetsu - Komatsu Kogyo (Ishikawa)
Kinki - Yamashiro HS (Kyoto)
Chugoku - Ohda HS (Shimane)
Shikoku - Takamatsu Higashi (Kagawa)
Kyushu - Iki HS (Nagasaki)
And in the meeting on 24 January, it is decided that two schools that will placed as the 21st Century Slot representatives are Yokohama Seiryo (Kanagawa) and Iki HS (Nagasaki).
Next. I'll write down all the match-up from day one until final. Along with a translated match-up diagram which originally owned by NHK. I only translated it so you can easily read and understood the contents, so feel free to save it and sharing the diagram anywhere.
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