2017 World Baseball Classic (USA is WBC Champion, 2021 Bracket on bottom of Page 9)

[RoughRiders99]

In not the too distant future (okay, okay, it’s only two years, but whatever), the World Baseball Classic has expanded from 28 teams to 40 teams. For the 2013 WBC, they had a Qualifying Round. But…for the 2017 WBC, they will still have a Qualifying Round AND also Sub-Qualifiers.

Whoever finished 0-2 in the 2013 Qualifying Round will get the right to host a Sub-Qualifier in their home country. There will be four pools hosted by France, Thailand, Nicaragua and Czech Republic. Although Czech Republic is the host country, they’ll be holding the games in the United States because there’s lack of suitable facilities.

The Sub-Qualifiers, which will take place in November 2015, will be a round-robin style with a final game between the top two teams. The winner of the final game will advance to the Qualifying Round in November 2016, where the countries that were relegated in the 2013 WBC would be the hosts.

There are four pools for the Sub-Qualifiers, A, B, C and D.

The pools compositions are the following:

Pool A
France (host)
Sweden
Belgium
Ireland

Pool B
Thailand (host)
Sri Lanka
Pakistan
Indonesia

Pool C
Nicaragua (host)
Argentina
Ecuador
Bahamas

Pool D
Czech Republic (host, but playing in U.S.)
Croatia
Greece
Russia

For this thread, I will be posting one pool at a time, getting feedbacks here and there, maybe make a few little changes here and there as well. Once I get all of the Sub-Qualifiers teams done, then I will be running a “simulation” of some kind and see which country will advance to the Qualifying Rounds. There, then, is when I will be posting the concepts for the teams that are already waiting in the Qualifying Rounds.

I know that most, if not all, actual WBC teams usually have just two, maybe three jerseys for the entire tournament. But I will be posting the concepts as if they were an actual team playing in an actual season. That means that each team would be getting up to five sets; home whites, road grays, home alts, road alts and batting practice.

I also tried to pick the countries that’s somewhat plausible and could participate in the World Baseball Classic. Basically I just looked at the top 40 teams from the IBAF (I think that’s right) rankings and put them in the tournament.

Anyway, here’s the first pool, Pool A, which has France, Sweden, Belgium and Ireland.

[jaxon#08]

Wow

[MojoRoberts]

The uniforms are great but I might be in love with the presentation. really cool, can't wait to see more.

[marble21]

Love these. You have managed to capture the national identities very well. It is a shame these won't see the light of day! Although most of the designs are simple enough to put into Diamond Dynasty on The Show I guess. I'd also like to commend the presentation too, its fantastic.

The BP cap for Ireland is a thing of beauty and the Belgian one is beautiful for completely different reasons.

I look forward to seeing the rest!

[camly]

That front-and-center Ireland jersey is just a thing of beauty. I mean, Wow!

Is there any other way to incorporate the tri-color cap in Belgium's alternate?

[cohenj21]

These are incredible. Makes me want to see them for every country (hint, hint).

Seriously though, great designs and awesome presentation. Looking forward to more.

[Hathaway Browne]

Outstanding, Sweden has to be my favourite so far. Shame there's no Great Britain, we did participate in the '13 WBC. (I appreciate that you've explained in the first post how you arrived at the pools )

[LMU]

The old English font for Ireland may be a bit too similar to what China uses. Maybe something more Gaelic/Celtic?

[KJTALBOT]

You read my mind with this series. Super +++++ Great. One thing. The shamrock needs to be green.

[KJTALBOT]

Could you also make at least one uniform in English per team?

[sparkychewbarky]

I can only echo what's already been said.

The unis look fabulous.

The presentation is top-drawer.

That Belgium tri-colour cap is a thing of beauty.

The Irish Shamrock should be green.

Great work...will be following this one.

[RoughRiders99]

Thanks everybody for the feedbacks!

Right now I'm working on the next pool, just finishing up Thailand. The rest of the pool should be done by this weekend or so.

And as for the modifications (possibly changing the shamrocks to green, etc) would be put on hold until a later date because I want to focus on the current pool that I'm working on.

Again, thanks! Glad to see that some of you are enjoying the thread!

[kevsim1]

Can`t wait for this ``simulation`` you`re going to be doing. Should be interesting...

[Dbroalexander]

Sweden's probably my favorite set so far.

Top Notch!

[jaxon#08]

Love Belgium and France

[RoughRiders99]

Now, up with the second pool, hosted by Thailand! The four teams are Thailand themselves, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Indonesia.

As for Thailand, I saw that they were already in the WBC Qualifying Rounds and noticed that their uniforms was just so, so, SO boring. They only had gray uniforms with generic font across the front and on the cap as well. So I decided to make it more Thailand-y by putting flag-like stripes all over their set.

Sri Lanka is probably one of the most interesting teams that I’ve worked on so far because there isn’t much information about them and their sports. But from what I could gather, it seems that their athletic colors are blue and yellow/gold, while their flag colors are maroon, green, orange, yellow. Also, I based their uniforms from their national cricket team, so I thought it might work “well” here.

Pakistan was pretty fun team for me to work with. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but one of my friends is from Pakistan, who’s also a baseball fan, and he said himself that he loved the uniforms so I decided to leave as it is. Here's a quote from my friend when I showed him the uniforms on facebook. “hot damn!! Love this immediately! I saw and almost cried. we gotta send this to the Pakistani baseball team and I guarantee you guys one look at this and boom! on their backs now”

For Indonesia, for some reason, I just felt that they should be one of the “most” modern team in the WBC and I felt like I achieved it with their simple, yet, sleek look with a font that fits the Southeast Asia style. I threw a little green in there to bring some similarities with their football (soccer) uniforms.

[kevsim1]

I'm liking teh Indonesian font, the pakistan P and the entire set for both of these teams. I would say that those 2, Belgium and Sweden are my favourites so far.

[IceCap]

Awesome so far. The only compliant I have is pretty minor. I would lose the fleur-de-lis for France. The fleaur-de-lis was a symbol of the French monarchy, not the French Republic. It would be a bit like a modern day Russian team using the hammer and sickle.

[jaxon#08]

My least favorite is Sri Lanka. On their home and away the undershirt needs to be blue instead of yellow. Also, the all blue uniforms need to have yellow socks. Love the batting practice uniform for Sri Lanka. Can not wait to see more.

[kevsim1]

My least favorite is Sri Lanka. On their home and away the undershirt needs to be blue instead of yellow. Also, the all blue uniforms need to have yellow socks. Love the batting practice uniform for Sri Lanka. Can not wait to see more.

My thoughts exactly. Sri Lanka needs a bit of work