2 tickets left, 8 candidates: who will make it to the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Utsunomiya Final?

MIES (SWITZERLAND) – Before the last Masters of the season in Jeddah, 10 teams have already stamped their ticket to the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final. The last 2 tickets could go in 8 different directions, depending on what happens in Saudi Arabia on October 18-19, 2019.

This season, for the first time-ever, the 12 FIBA 3x3 World Tour finalists qualify exclusively on the basis of the season standings. Liman (SRB), Novi Sad (SRB), Riga Ghetto (LAT), NY Harlem (USA), Princeton (USA), Piran (SLO), Edmonton (CAN), Amsterdam (NED), Sakiai Gulbele (LTU) and Zemun (SRB) have done so well this season that they are guaranteed to finish in the Top 12.

Lausanne (SUI) rank 11th with 125 tour points and Vrbas (SRB) are 12th with 120 tour points. None of them will play at the Jeddah Masters this week.

But we know 6 teams who will and can potentially score enough tour points to move past them and qualify for the World Tour Final.

Before we list these teams, a reminder:

A total of 16 teams will participate in the Jeddah Masters. Here is the breakdown of the number of tour points depending on final standings:

Position	Points
1	100
2	80
3	70
4	60
5	50
6	45
7	40
8	35
9	20
10	18
11	16
12	14
13	12
14	11
15	10
16	9

The 6 teams who can still make a comeback and qualify to Utsunomiya:

1. Jeddah (KSA)

Rank: 13th
Points: 100

Need to: Make it to the quarter-finals to move past Lausanne and Vrbas (if they go 1-1 in the pools and finish 9th overall, they would still move past to Vrbas on winning percentage)

Seeded in: Pool C with #3 seed Piran (SLO) and the Qualifying Draw A winners (could be Tokyo Dime (JPN), see below)

What they did this summer: 4th in Debrecen (beat Liman, Princeton and Lausanne) and 7th in LA

 

2. Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy (MGL)

Rank: 17th
Points: 74

Need to: Make it to the semi-finals to move past Lausanne and Vrbas (5th would be enough to move past Vrbas but not enough to beat Lausanne… or Jeddah if they make it to the quarter-finals)

Seeded in: Pool D with #4 seed Sakiai Gulbele (LTU) and the Qualifying Draw B winners

What they did this summer: 12th in Lausanne and 4th in LA (beat Lausanne and Piran)

 

3. Utsunomiya (JPN)

Rank: 20th
Points: 51

Need to: Make it to the final to move past Lausanne and Vrbas

Seeded in: Pool B with #2 seed Liman (SRB) and Cheon An Musso (KOR)

What they did this summer: 11th in Lausanne and 8th in Nanjing

4. Balanga Chooks (PHI)

Rank: 23rd
Points: 45

Need to: Make it to the final to move past Lausanne and Vrbas

Seeded in: Pool A with #1 seed Riga Ghetto (LAT) and Lyon (FRA)

What they did this summer: 6th in Doha 

 

4. Tokyo Dime (JPN)

Rank: 29th
Points: 35

Need to: Win the event to move past Lausanne and Vrbas

Seeded in: Qualifying Draw A with Shanghai SSLC (CHN) and North Jakarta Pertamina (INA). Would be seeded in Pool C with Piran and Jeddah if they win.

What they did this summer: 8th in Doha

Lyon (FRA)

Rank: 33rd
Points: 20

Need to: Win the event to move past Vrbas (cannot move past Lausanne anymore)

Seeded in: Pool A with #1 seed Riga Ghetto (LAT) and Balanga Chooks (PHI) 

 
To be clear, moving past Lausanne and Vrbas does not automatically mean qualify for the final. For instance, if Jeddah make it to the quarter-finals but Utsunomiya win and Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy finish 2nd, Ulaanbaatar MMC Energy would rank 11th (qualified), Utsunomiya 12th (qualified) and Jeddah 13th (not qualified).

In case of ties (in number of tour points), the winning percentage and then the points scored on average are the tie-breakers.