Team Japan’s Shoma Mori Crowned First World Champion of Baseball Esports Championship the WBSC eBASEBALL™ Series! (2024)

March 12, 2024 16:00

Konami Digital Entertainment

Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.（KONAMI） is thrilled to announce that Team Japan player Shoma Mori (player name: SHORA) has been crowned the first ever world champion of the WBSC eBASEBALL™ Series World Finals, a baseball esports global tournament staged by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).

The WBSC eBASEBALL™ Series is an esports global tournament that utilizes KONAMI’s WBSC-licensed baseball game "WBSC eBASEBALL™ Power Pros" as its competition title. The qualifying tournaments that began around the world last fall attracted over 15,000 participants.

Four players, including the two members of Team Japan, gathered at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland for the World Finals. After going undefeated in the league battles of the group stage, Mori went head-to-head with Takato Fujishima, who came in second in the group stage, in the finals. This battle between the two Japanese players saw Mori come out on top 8-1, earning himself a new place in sporting hall of fame.

Winner, Mori’s remarks:
“I was so happy to have won. This is my first time in Lausanne—it’s an incredibly beautiful and relaxing city. In the tournament, I was able to really utilize my strengths in batting, which was nice. I’m looking forward to going up against the best in the world again at the next competition in Tokyo.”

The WBSC eBASEBALL™ Series World Finals are available as an archive on the WBSC official YouTube channel. Don’t miss the incredible moment the first world champion was born!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtIffeYNKUs

The next global tournament to utilize "WBSC eBASEBALL™ Power Pros" as its competition title, the ePremier12™, will take place this November. The finals are set to take place at Tokyo Dome, to coincide with international baseball tournament the WBSC Premier12™.

Konami Digital Entertainment, along with its partners, will continue to present all the fun and excitement of esports to the world, as it strives to keep creating new esports fans everywhere.

[About the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)]
Headquartered in Pully, Switzerland, in the outskirts of Lausanne, the WBSC is the world governing body for baseball and softball. At present it is made up of 207 national leagues (including full members and associate members) from 137 countries/regions in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and Oceania. It is responsible for overseeing the baseball and softball activities of over 65 million athletes and mobilizing approximately 150 million spectators every year. The WBSC oversees all international competitions in which official national teams participate: the Premier 12, Baseball World Cup (U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23 and Women's), Softball World Cup (U-15 Women, U-18 Women, U-18 Men, U-23 Men, Women and Men), Baseball 5 (Senior and Youth World Cups), organizes the eSports World Championships and oversees the Baseball, Softball and Baseball 5 events at the Olympic Games.

[About KONAMI’s baseball-related esports initiatives]
Since 2016, KONAMI has continuously worked to expand and revitalize esports by holding national tournaments for the PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU series. In 2017, we started using esports for regional promotion by partnering with events such as the Ehime e-baseball Tournament, a cultural program of the Ehime Kokutai (Ehime National Athletic Meet). Since 2018, we have been hosting a professional esports league in collaboration with Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and we are also working with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) to expand the baseball fanbase around the world. In the Olympic Virtual Series 2021 and Olympic eSports Series 2023 international tournaments organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU series was used as the competition title.

" WBSC eBASEBALL™ POWER PROS " product information