The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament by Little League Baseball for children (primarily boys) aged 10 to 12 years old, held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the World Series in Major League Baseball. The Series was first held in 1947 and is held every August in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania; while the postal address of the organization is in Williamsport, the Series itself is played at Howard J. Lamade Stadium and Volunteer Stadium at the Little League headquarters complex in South Williamsport.
Initially, only teams from the United States competed in the Series, but it has since become a worldwide tournament. The tournament has gained popular renown, especially in the United States, where games from the Series and even from regional tournaments are broadcast on ESPN. Teams from the United States have won a plurality of the series, although from 1969 to 1991 teams from Taiwan dominated the series, winning in 15 out of those 23 years. From 2010 through 2017, teams from Japan similarly dominated the series, winning five of those matchups.
While the Little League Baseball World Series is frequently referred to as just the Little League World Series, it is actually one of seven World Series tournaments sponsored by Little League International, in different locations. Each of them brings community teams from different Little League International regions around the world together in baseball (four age divisions) and girls' softball (three age divisions). The tournament structure described here is that used for the Little League Baseball World Series. The structure used for the other World Series is similar, but with different regions.
Qualifying tournaments
In the summer months leading up to the Little League World Series, held each year in August, Little Leagues around the world select All-Star teams made up of players from each league. It is these All-Star teams that compete in district,For an overview of Little League's tournament process, go to Japanese Regional Little League Tournament Historical Results and click on "LL Tournament Process Overview" (at the bottom of the left-hand margin), for "The Little League Baseball International Tournament." Unpage Publications. March 27, 2008. Retrieved on 2016-12-30. sectional and/or divisional, and regional tournaments, hoping to advance to Williamsport for the Little League World Series. How many games a team has to play varies from region to region. In the United States, the tournaments at the lowest (district) level lack nationwide standardization. Some use pool play or double elimination, while others use single elimination.
In the United States, the fate of district winners varies widely from state to state. In some larger states such as Pennsylvania, New York, and California, the district winners advance to one of many sectional tournaments. The winners of each sectional tournament then advance to a state or divisional tournament, the latter only being held in Texas and California and are similar to the state tournaments held in less populous states. Most smaller states lack competition at the sectional level and go straight from district to state tournaments. A handful of states are composed of only one district, and the district champion is the automatic state champion.
With two exceptions, every state as well as the District of Columbia crowns a state champion, and sends that team to represent it to one of ten regional tournaments. The exceptions involve California and Texas. Because of their large geographic and population sizes, California and Texas send two representatives to their regional tournament; Northern California and Southern California in the West region tournament and Texas East and Texas West (whose areas encompass more than the geographical areas of East Texas and West Texas, splitting roughly along the I-35/I-37 corridor) compete in the Southwest region tournament. Up through 2018, the Dakotas had one district spanning the two states, and its winner became the joint champion when advancing to the Midwest region tournament. However, beginning in 2019, North Dakota and South Dakota are represented by individual teams in the regional tournament — creating an odd number of teams first in the Midwest Regional and then (beginning in 2022) in the Great Lakes Regional.
The state champions (as well as the Northern California, Southern California, Texas East, Texas West, and District of Columbia teams) compete in one of ten different regional tournaments (increasing from 8 in 2022). Each regional tournament winner then advances to the Little League World Series. A comprehensive breakdown of current and historical US regional tournament locations, participants and results is available online. Since the geographical boundaries of the District of Columbia are exactly the same as the capital city of Washington, this District is usually identified specifically as "Washington, DC."
Other countries and regions pick their own way of crowning a champion. Little League Canada holds tournaments at the provincial and divisional level to field six champions (four provincial and two divisional) at the national tournament: Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, the Prairie Provinces (Saskatchewan and Manitoba), and the Atlantic Provinces (New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island). The host site of the national tournament varies from year to year, and the host team gets an automatic berth as the seventh team. The tournament is played as a round robin and uses the Page playoff format. The winner of the national tournament earns the right to represent Canada at the Little League World Series.
Regions
Beginning with the 2022 tournament, 10 regional tournament winners compete in the United States bracket of the Little League World Series. The states those regional champions could possibly hail from are as listed below using U.S. state abbreviations. There are 53 total U.S. entrants that compete in the 10 regional tournaments: two from Texas, two from California, one each from the remaining 48 U.S. states, and one from the District of Columbia.
Great Lakes (IL, IN, KY, MI, OH) Metro (CT, NJ, NY, RI) Mid-Atlantic (DE, DC, MD, PA) Midwest (IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, ND, SD, WI) Mountain (CO, MT, NV, UT, WY) New England (ME, MA, NH, VT) Northwest (AK, ID, OR, WA) Southeast (AL, FL, GA, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) Southwest (AR, LA, MS, NM, OK, TX East, TX West) West (AZ, Northern CA, Southern CA, HI)
There are eight international divisions, which provide 10 teams to the international bracket of the tournament. This is due to Cuba, Curaçao, Panama, and Puerto Rico receiving automatic bids to the LLWS on a rotating basis—annually, two teams receive a bid while the others play through their regional tournament (Cuba, Curaçao, or Puerto Rico through the Caribbean region; Panama through Latin America region).
Asia-Pacific and Middle East Australia Canada Caribbean Europe and Africa Japan Latin America Mexico
The above regions reflect various historical realignments, including those implemented in 2013 and 2022. Historical detail is provided in articles about the individual regions.
Divisions which compete in the United States bracket represent 96% of worldwide players in Little League with over 2.2 million participants, while the divisions in the International bracket represent the remaining 4% (less than 130,000 participants).
World Series tournament format
Currently, the Little League World Series consists of 20 teams: 10 from the United States, and 10 from other countries. The U.S. and international teams play in separate brackets, in a double-elimination format. After two teams reach the U.S. championship (semifinal) and the international championship (semifinal), the tournament becomes single elimination; that is, a team losing one of the semifinal games, even if that team has lost only one game, cannot win the championship, but plays in a consolation game for third place. The winners of each bracket play each other for the LLWS championship game.
From the inaugural 1947 tournament through 1956, there were predominantly U.S.-based teams, usually eight, competing in a single-elimination format. One Canadian team played in 1952, and one in 1953. Regions were introduced in 1957, and that tournament included the first non-U.S. champion, Monterrey, Mexico, although they represented the U.S. South region. International regions were added in 1958. From 1962 through 2000, the eight teams in the tournament came from four U.S. and four international regions: United States: Central, East, South, West International: Canada, Europe, Far East, Latin America
Through 1975, all teams competed in one bracket. That year, the tournament was held with only the teams from the U.S. regions.See: . The international teams returned in 1976, when two brackets were established, one with U.S. teams, and the other with international teams. The U.S. bracket winner and the international bracket winner would then meet in the championship game, an arrangement that has continued to the present, independent of subsequent changes made to early rounds of the tournament.
In 2001, the number of regions was doubled to 16. The tournament started with eight U.S. teams, randomly assigned into two four-team pools; and eight international teams, also randomly assigned into two four-team pools. Teams competed round-robin within their own pool, with the top two teams of each pool advancing to single-elimination play for a spot in the U.S. final or international final, followed by the U.S. champion and international champion meeting in the World Championship game.
In 2010, round-robin play was replaced by a double-elimination bracket in each four-team pool. The winners of each pool advanced to a single-elimination U.S. championship or international championship game, with those winners advancing to the World Championship game. Additionally, each team in the tournament played a minimum of three games, as any team that lost its first two games would play in a consolation U.S. vs. international game.
In 2011, pools were eliminated, with the eight U.S. teams continuing to compete in one bracket and the eight international teams in another bracket. The tournament is double-elimination until the U.S. championship and international championship games, which remain single-elimination, with those winners advancing to the World Championship game. Each team in the tournament still played a minimum of three games, via consolation games as noted above.
In August 2019, organizers announced that the tournament would expand to 20 teams in 2021, by adding two U.S. participants and two international participants. However, the expansion was delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence of this expansion, crossover consolations games that had previously been played between 0–2 teams have been eliminated.
Tournament Year Number of teams Notes 1947–1948 By invitation 1949–2000 8 2001–2021 16 2022–present 20
Venues
Two venues host World Series games: Howard J. Lamade Stadium and Little League Volunteer Stadium. Lamade Stadium has hosted games since 1959 and added lights in 1992. Volunteer Stadium opened in 2001 when the field expanded to 16 teams. Prior to 1959, the Little League World Series was held at Original Little League on West Fourth Street in Williamsport.
Both fields have symmetrical fences, with a distance of 68.6 m (225 feet) from home plate to each of the outfield positions. That distance had been 62.5 m (205 feet) before 2006.