In less than two weeks, on October 17 and 18, the Liepaja Olympic Center will start in 2020/21. Liepaja City Basketball Championship, which this year will bring together a total of 14 teams, which will play their games in two divisions.
This year’s city basketball championship is also organized by the Liepāja Amateur Sports Games Agency in cooperation with the Liepāja City Council Sports Department and the games will be held at the Liepāja Olympic Center.
This will be the fifth year in a row that the city basketball championship will take place in two divisions. Six teams will start in the highest league or 1st division – previous year’s champions “Oscar Transport”, vice-champions “Nīca / BL Inženiertīkli”, who have a new supporter this year and changed the team name, as well as last season’s bronze award winners “Grobiņa” , “Surveyor”, “Promenade Hotel” and “Camping ODS”. Theoretically, the 2nd division champions “Lesjofors” had also earned a place in the strongest family, however, seeing the team’s capabilities and lineup, the team considered staying in the 2nd division to be able to compete and fight with equivalent teams throughout the season.
In turn, in the 2nd division, eight teams will compete, which is one more than in the previous season. From the previous season, all the existing teams remain – the existing champions “Lesjofors”, vice-champions “Gavieze”, bronze award winners “LSSS”, as well as “Phoenix”, SK “Jumts”, “Kraukļi”, “Liepāja University” and Retro Garāža ”, which in a sense will represent Grobiņa region, as it will include practically all players living in Grobiņa.
The games in both divisions will take place in two rounds and, as a year ago, the first two places in both divisions will automatically secure a place in the semi-finals, while the winners of positions 3 to 6 will have to play in the quarterfinals, where the winner will be determined. According to the same principle, the semi-final matches will take place within both divisions, and in the final round or Final 4, there will be fights for prizes within one game.
The first round of the championship will take place a little earlier than usual, which is related to a larger number of games in general, as well as this year there are several teams from the Liepaja Championship, which will start in the “Regional Basketball League”, previously known as the 3rd Division of the Latvian Basketball League. Thus, the total number of games, especially for the representatives of the 1st Division, this season promises to be equal to professional basketball teams. We remind you that two Liepāja side teams “Grobiņa” and “Nīca / BL Inženiertīkli” will start in the Regional Basketball League this year, the composition of which consists of practically all the players of the strongest teams of Liepāja City Basketball Championship.
The first round games will take place on October 17 and 18, where the first six championship games within both divisions will be played. The championship is planned to run until the end of March, so the number of games for more than five months for all teams will be quite large. This year’s championship will also be awarded individual prizes and, similarly to the previous year, this time the prizes will be awarded to the symbolic five or the five best players of the championship. The championship will also award the most valuable players of each month in both divisions, which will be determined by the total vote of all team representatives.
Division of teams by divisions:
Division 1
Oscar Transport
“Nice / BL Engineering Networks”
“Grobina”
“Surveyor”
“Camping ODS”
“Promenade Hotel”
Division 2
“Lesjofors”
“Gavieze”
“LSSS”
“Phoenix”
SK “Roof”
“Ravens”
“University of Liepaja”
“Retro Garage”.
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