MIES (Switzerland) - Just two weeks after announcing the FIBA 3x3 World Tour 2019 calendar, FIBA set a new historic mark for the 2019 3x3 professional season.

The Challengers are premium direct international qualifiers to the FIBA 3x3 World Tour and attract the best 3x3 players in the world.

Last year, an all-time high 22 Challengers were held. A total of 23 Challengers are already confirmed for 2019 and this number is expected to increase significantly as more Challengers will be announced at a later stage.

Here is the list of confirmed Challengers, sorted by FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters to which they qualify.

Chengdu Masters (June 1-2)

Event	Country	Date
Wuxi Challenger	China	April 13-14
Fountask Nanjing Challenger	China	April 20-21
Huaqiao International KunShan Challenger	China	May 18-19

Mexico City Masters (6-7 July)

Event	Country	Date
Penang Challenger	Malaysia	May 11-12
Novi Sad Challenger	Serbia	May 24-25
TBA

Saskatoon Masters (20-21 July)

Event	Country	Date
Ulaanbaatar Challenger	Mongolia	June 8-9
Lipik Challenger	Croatia	June 14-15
Yi Chang Challenger	China	June 15-16

Prague Masters (3-4 August)

Event	Country	Date
Tinkoff Moscow Open	Russia	June 7-8
OPAP Limassol Challenger	Cyprus	June 8-9
Belgrade Challenger	Serbia	July 13-14

Lausanne Masters (23-24 August)

Event	Country	Date
Poitiers Challenger	France	July 5-6
Yekaterinburg Challenger	Russia	July 9-10
TBA

Debrecen Masters (30-31 August)

Event	Country	Date
Bucharest Challenger	Romania	August 10-11
Ljubljana Challenger	Slovenia	August 17-18
Rimini Challenger	Italy	August 17-18

Montreal Masters (7-8 September)

Event	Country	Date
Hai Ning Challenger	China	June 29-30
Huai An Challenger	China	July 20-21
TBA

Los Angeles Masters (21-22 September)

Event	Country	Date
Xiongan Challenger	China	August 23-24
Shanghai Challenger	China	TBA
TBA

Nanjing Masters (12-13 October)

Event	Country	Date
Taoyuan Challenger	Chinese Taipei	September 21-22
Edmonton Challenger	Canada	September 28-29
Seoul Challenger	South Korea	September 28-29

The Doha Masters is staged so early in the season (April 18-19) that no team can qualify via a Challenger. FIBA will shortly announce the list of qualifying events to this event.

Sixteen invitational teams take part in each Challenger and the two finalists stamp their ticket to a designated FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters (unless they are already qualified to the same Masters).

With the exception of Doha, each Masters will be connected to 3 Challengers. This means that 50% of the teams competing in (the main draw of) World Tour events come from Challengers.

Prize money will soar from 20 to 32k USD in each one of these challengers this season, a large contribution to the professionalization of the game.

There are 3 ways to qualify for a FIBA 3x3 Challenger:

1. Win a satellite event (a satellite is a tour or a standalone event which qualifies directly to a challenger)
2. Rank as high as possible in the FIBA 3x3 Team Ranking (best ranked teams - at the moment of auto-allocation 5 weeks before the event - have preferential access to challengers)
3. Get one of the wildcards from the tournament hosts

A first list of satellites will be announced by the end of March.

All organizers interested in hosting a 3x3 Satellite or a Challenger in following seasons can contact FIBA's 3x3 team.

FIBA

Chengdu 2019

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