The 2016 series included Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

Other Asian nations competed in the lower division tournaments.

The format of the competition is a double round-robin where the top-three nations play each other twice on a home and away basis.

The team finishing on top of the standings is declared the winner, and the bottom-placed team is subject to a promotion-relegation play-off against the winner of Division 1,[1][2] although this opportunity to challenge is often declined.

The teams involved, with their world rankings prior to the 2016 tournament in brackets: Division 1 winners, Malaysia did not choose to participate in the promotion-relegation play-off.