COMPETITION STRUCTURE
The FIBA 3x3 competition network is organized in a pyramidal system split into:
- National team competitions are played by national federations
- Pro Circuit is played by teams representing cities for the men and countries for the women
- Grassroots events
All those competitions are captured by play.fiba3x3 (FIBA’s digital repository for 3x3 events worldwide) and are taken into account for ranking calculation purposes. Competitions are either standalone or series of tournaments.
NATIONAL TEAM
All National Team competitions are played yearly and in the following age categories:
- World Cup – Open, U23 and U18
- Zone Cup – Open and U17
- Nations League - U23
World Cups have a dual qualification system: via federation ranking and Zone Cups (of previous year). Zone Cups and Nations League are open to all federations.
- Nations League are played in conferences, with the top teams of each conference qualifying to the Final.
- Zone Cups may have qualifiers if needed, depending on the number of registered federations.
- World Cup may have a qualifier, too, in case of interest to host.
PRO CIRCUIT (MEN)
Simplifying, the professional circuit for men is composed of the World Tour and the Challengers.
The World Tour includes a regular season with a certain number of Masters and one Final, to which teams qualify based on regular season standings. The Challengers qualify to the World Tour Masters.
Both, the World Tour and the Challengers are FIBA 3x3 Official Competitions and are fed by qualifiers and the (team) ranking.
There are 3 kinds of Qualifiers: Lite Quest: qualifies one team to a Challenger Quest: usually qualifies to the qualification draw of a World Tour Super Quest: qualifies to the main draw of a World Tour
The destination of the various Qualifiers is also standardized:
PRO CIRCUIT (WOMEN)
Simplifying, the professional circuit for women - known as the FIBA 3x3 Women’s Series - is composed of a regular season with a series of stops and a Final, to which teams qualify based on regular season standings.
Each National Federation is allowed to register 1 federation team, while patrons (such as brands, cities, etc) are allowed to register a so-called “commercial team”.