The Las Vegas World Cup field has been filled out with twenty-seven (27) USBA players. For the second year in a row, Pedro Piedrabuena, the current US National Champion, and Hugo Patiño, a prior champion, have been selected by Predator as the Organizer’s Wild Cards for the Las Vegas World Cup. These two players will be placed in the final 32 players (the Rank 16 groups).
Last year, Piedrabuena finished first in the A group. In the Rank 8 round, he defeated Torbjorn Blomdahl of Sweden, 50 to 38 in 30 innings, then fell in the quarter finals to the eventual runner-up, Sameh Sidhom of Egypt, 50 to 43 in 27 innings. Patiño placed third in Group C and did not advance to the Rank 8 round.
Eight (8) other US players qualified for the World Cup based on their finishes in the 2022 US National Championship:
In last year’s tournament, Frank Torres made a mad dash through the preliminaries, advancing from the PPPQ to the PPQ to the PQ before falling short of the main tournament in the Q round.
In the February 23 USBA qualifying tournament, the following players punched their tickets to the World Cup:
On February 24, nine (9) players qualified to the big dance via the USBA qualifier:
The World Cup will begin on February 26.