90th Summer Koushien Brackets and Team Review

Based off of the above work done by Dizon-san, I've created an English version of the 2008 Summer Koshien tournament chart below.

I would love to get a copy of your English version of the Koushien sumnmer bracket. Please tell me how I can get it.

I don't understand the request. It should be visible above.

If you like, you can download it to OpenOffice (KOffice, NeoOffice, or other Open Document Format (ODF) supporting spreadsheet software) by clicking here. All such office suites are Free Software (in both price and freedom).

Note: If you're still trapped in a Microsoft Office world, I've heard that they have a plugin to support ODF for Excel, but I have no first hand knowledge of such a thing. Google around.

Hi,

How do they determine which teams get the bye in that first round there?

It's all random. While there are seeds in the prefectural tournaments, the brackets are all determined by lots. Teams draw their lots once their prefecutral tournament ends.

That's why you can have "Brackets of Death" like there were in 2006.

I believe that it is a drawing that puts the teams into their respective positions on the chart. That's why you can end up with a Block of Death where many strong teams are gathered together in the early rounds. I'm not sure when the drawing took place, though, as teams were being put into the chart as the prefectural tournaments were decided. I suspect that the Japan High School Baseball Federation (JHBF) draws lots to fill in the chart by prefecture before the regional championships, then fills in the winner as things go along.

Does anyone have a different explanation of how it all works?

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm looking forward to the games starting tomorrow.

I can't answer the question at hand, but the bracket was certainly structured well before the finalists were known. As Westbay-san stated, apparently they drew lots by prefectural tournament (1 through 55) and then slotted the winners in, a departure from years past.

Anyway, changing the topic slightly, does anyone have a team they're pulling for, and why? I presume your "home team" is Yokohama Koko, Westbay-san? They're usually a good bet to go deep into the tournament.

As for me, I'm not going to make my choice(s) public this year, because for the last 2 summers my squads have been obliterated early.

So what I'm really saying is I need a team to get behind this year and break the jinx. Suggest away!

Pulling for North Kanagawa here - that would be Keio this year. It's a hometown team + had connections with the uni.

Personally, I generally root for the underdog. I know it's hard to be a team from say Tottori or Akita, or Oita and progress in the tournament as opposed to say a team from Tokyo or Kyoto.

That being said, I do have a couple of teams that I would like to see advance in the tournament. Yes, I said advance. Realistically, they probably don't have much of a chance to win, but I'd like to see them stick around.

For personal purposes, I'm only going to list the prefecture. You can look up the team.

Akita
Aomori
Nishi Chiba
Yamanashi
Nagasaki

nice work with the brackets! i'll be rooting for tochigi due to my time spent living in ashikaga. suprisingly, they were able to get past the teams from utsunomiya

Yes, I'll be pulling for the local Yokohama Ko kids. I'd have been just as happy had Yokohama Sogakukan won the South Kanagawa championship as well. Sogakukan is just a 10 minute walk from home, Yokohama Ko is two train stops away.

I'm probably pulling for whoever wins the Yokohama HS vs. Urawa Gakuin match on Thursday, to be honest. I live pretty close to Urawa Gakuin, and have a bunch of friends that went there (and even one who played at Koshien with the team), and we always cheer for Urawa Gakuin alumni that are pro players, so... yeah.

I have to admit though, if it's anything like last year, I will probably randomly see some school in the first round and decide that I like them for some reason, and cheer for them the whole way, like what happened with Saga Kita.

What are the 3-4 strongest teams in the tournament this year? I don't know which teams/prefecturs are usually the strongest...

I think that Urasoe from Okinawa is going to be a team to watch. I'm really kind of surprised at how they've been ignored by many baseball analysts. Yes I'm biased having grown up on Okinawa but I've been checking out some of the Koko Yakyu mags and have found out that Urasoe has beaten Okisho (2008 Senbatsu champs) quite a few times in recent years. As for the boys from the mainland, Yokohama is always a team to watch and so is Osaka Touin. Saibi and Kouryou are also strong teams. I think Seiko Gakuin is the "sleeper" team to keep an eye on.

Please note, the chart has been updated to reflect the schedule changes following Day 5 rain.

Bump chart up to still be visible.

Bump with Best 8 chart update.