It’s down to the final day to win the title. The teams that will advance to the Korea Tour Finals are all set.
In the ‘KBA 3×3 Korea Tour 2023 Finals Jeonju’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘Jeonju’) held at Jeonju High School Gymnasium 텍사스홀덤 on Saturday (April 4), the established powerhouses advanced to the final tournament without any major upsets.
The Korea Tour Finals, which brought together teams from the 2023 edition of the Korea Tour from across the country, was a nail-biting affair as the preliminary rounds were filled with upsets.
In the group stages of the Primary, Middle School, Men’s Open, and Korea League Men’s and Women’s divisions, the favorites in each group cruised into the final tournament.
In the battle of elementary school dreamers, favorites Wonju YKK, SF Shorts, Jeonju Vision Sports Club, BALLER, Bukmyeon LG, and Dongtan TOP made it through to the final tournament to challenge for the top spot in the elementary division.
The competition was even more intense in the middle school division. With eight teams playing three games a day, Pyeongtaek Kimhoon and Jeonju Kongnamul topped Group A and B to advance directly to the quarterfinals. Wonju YKK, NewJins, ATB, and Gwangju TeamK made it to the quarterfinals.
In the Men’s Open, favorites Master Wook and Ait Iksan dominated. They swept both of their preliminary matches with 21-point victories to top Group A and B, respectively. As a reminder, only six teams participated in the Men’s Open, including Masterwok, Ait Iksan, Man2Man X Yunnan Gymnasium, Motion Sports, Team Wooji-won, and Elegant Sports, so all six teams automatically advanced to the quarterfinals regardless of their qualifying results.
In the women’s Korea League, which returned after a six-month absence from the Yangsan tournament in May, 1EYEHANSOL defeated Sacheon City Hall and Gimcheon City Hall to reach the finals without Master Wook. Sacheon City Hall and Gimcheon City Hall will battle it out in the quarterfinals.
In the Korea League Men’s Division, the main event of the Korea Tour Finals, Korea League Men’s cumulative leader MasterWook advanced directly to the quarterfinals, while Hansol Remicon, led by Park Rae-hoon, and Descent Bumpers, led by Han Jun-hyuk, stood out in the first day’s qualifiers. Descent Bumpers in Group A and Hansolemicon in Group B showed off their dominant performances, winning both of their preliminary matches by 21 points. However, due to the multiple scoring rule, the 43-point Descent Bumpers advanced to the quarterfinals ahead of the 42-point Hansolemicon.
Black Label Sports, who won the gold medal at the National Championships last October, suffered two losses in the qualifiers, which put a red flag on their title hopes. Black Label Sports was missing three of its main players, Song Chang-mu, Kim Jun-sung, and Seok Jong-tae, who all missed the tournament.
In the Korea League Men’s Division, which had a total of six teams in the qualifiers, all six teams automatically advanced to the quarterfinals regardless of the results of the qualifiers.
Meanwhile, in the Women’s Open, which was played on all four days, Gwangju Women’s University’s Man2Man won the title, and the high school division will begin on the fifth.
The Jeonju tournament concluded its first day of qualifying without any major upsets, with the top teams advancing to the final tournament. As the last 3×3 tournament until 2023, the Jeonju Basketball Association is actively sponsoring the event, and the prize pool is higher than in previous regional tournaments.
It will be interesting to see who will be smiling at the end of this tournament to determine the true champion of Korean 3×3 in 2023.
