The 2009 tournament was held, for the first time, across a continent — with games played in 27 cities across eight European countries, from September 9 to 27.

The next competition would be the last amateur championship held as the BWC tournament, which was replaced in 2015 by the quadrennial WBSC Premier12.

(Previously, Russia had been set as the host nation for Pool D, however they were replaced by Croatia in an announcement from the IBAF.

)[2] Unlike the 2009 World Baseball Classic, the pools will be conducted in single round-robin format.

The fourteen qualifiers from the first round are assigned to the pools, and commence a single round-robin competition.

[5] The IBAF employs a standard tiebreaking system across all tournaments it sanctions, though it will use a modified version for this World Cup.