Chinese Taipei shuts out Nevada to win 2025 Little League World Series championship

[u/Knightbear49]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6572975/2025/08/24/little-league-world-series-nevada-taipei-results-2025/

[u/HowardBunnyColvin]

It's been 29 long years

[u/Foob2023 → u/HowardBunnyColvin]

Yup 29 years since 1996 when LLWS, tired of Taiwan winning every LLWS, suddenly created a new residency rule specifically targeting Taiwan, stating only on Taiwanese teams must all players come from a single school; and that if a school has > 1000 pupils, the team must be split.

The rule did NOT apply to other countries.

Taiwan is one of the densest countries in the world (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density) which made fulfilling these rules impossible. It took them about 8 years to completely rebuild their LL infrastructure to satisfy those requirements.

American media has been gleefully claiming Taiwan was "cheating" ever since, often furthering corrupting the story that Taiwan was using overaged kids. Only surprising they have not claimed PEDs yet.

EDIT: a word + add sources

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/23/sports/taiwan-returning-to-little-league.html

Play Ball! The Story of Little League Basebal by Lance and Robin Van Auken. Excerpt:

After back-to-back titles in 1995 and 1996 for Taiwan, Little League took a proactive approach to ineligibility, particularly with Taiwan. Little League informed Taiwan that the rules regarding eligibility would have to be strictly enforced, with no exceptions, including residency requirements.

Residency rules in effect since 1992 call for one of two methods to be employed: (1) A league, from which one all-star team is chosen for tournament play, could include players from boundaries with a total population of 20,000 or less, or (2) if schools ally with the Little League system, one league could be formed for every 1,000 students in grades Kindergarten through Seventh. The latter method was the one used by Taiwan, but many Taiwanese schools had far more than 1,000 students. Officials from the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association asked for a waiver to allow one all-star team in schools with more than 1,000 students, but Little League refused, saying that such a waiver would give each league a distinct competitive advantage over those in the rest of the world.

[u/inceptionse7en → u/Foob2023]

You're not really adding sources to dismiss Taiwan's cheating allegations though. Allegations that include using their program to recruit players from across the country. So effectively other teams were facing Taiwan's whole All Star team of players not one specific community. Which is why the residency rule was harsh on Taiwan.

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/inceptionse7en]

No one has even been able to prove that Taiwan was cheating so if you have proof, show it

[u/inceptionse7en → u/Material_Archer9326]

Here

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/inceptionse7en]

Where in that article does it prove that Taiwan cheated? The only part it says anything to that effect is that they were “ACCUSED”… still literally no proof lol

[u/inceptionse7en → u/Material_Archer9326]

Dang only took you 2 minutes to read that whole article and then come back on reddit and type that reply out to tell me I'm wrong, that's crazy lol. Almost like you didn't even read it.

Literal journalist from Taiwan writing for a Taiwanese website but okay. He's writing as if it's common knowledge too. You were never going to be convinced though so I'm not going to waste anymore time with you.

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/inceptionse7en]

lol again, where in that article does it say anything about PROVEN cheating? Allegations and accusations are not proof

[u/AdPresent8258 → u/Material_Archer9326]

Dude, it's international Little League Baseball. There's no court/legal case if that's what you're looking for.

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/AdPresent8258]

What? You still have to prove it… it was proven that the New York team cheated with Danny Almonte for example. It has never been proven that Taiwan cheated, just a bunch of accusations from sore losers

[u/Devium44 → u/AdPresent8258]

So accusations alone are enough for you to pronounce them guilty?

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/inceptionse7en]

All you guys have are unfounded allegations that have never been proven

[u/Foob2023 → u/inceptionse7en]

That is another allegation, like "over-age", that's often floated as rumor against Taiwan but never corroborated by any reputable sources such as the book I cited.   It's a bit unfortunate you are helping parroting it again, or you are conflating it with the 1992 Philippines' Zamboanga team which was accused and found guilty of it.   For the subsequent years 1993-1996 LLWS was extra vigilant watching out for All-Star teams, yet Taiwan kept winning until a different gotcha was introduced in 1996 to disqualify them.

If Taiwan was recruiting players from across the country, then why would it even matter how big the schools were?   A school of 999 is more than enough to support < 20 all-stars. Yet school size was the condition used to disqualify them, meaning "all-stars" was never the issue. The sophistry was large schools created too big a talent pool--although for other nations e.g. the US, teams were welcome to assemble all-star kids from different schools using method 1 (provided the area had < 20k people which, again, is impossible for super-dense nations).

I'll say though, pre-1987 in the KMT era, that might've been a possibility because things were much more opaque then; when the country was more North Korea-like complete with a cult of personality and martial law.

[u/inceptionse7en → u/Foob2023]

I never said they did anything. The stricter guidelines were because of those allegations is what I was saying. You never addressed those and still haven't but you complain about me "parroting" the point. But here's an article written by a journalist who lives in Taiwan, saying Taiwan used Little League as propaganda and formed All Star teams.

From the article, "Since the only mission of sending a team to compete in the LLB was to win, Taiwanese officials took the selection of players for the first-ever 1969 national team very seriously. The island authorities, whether intentionally or not, ignored the LLB regulation which stipulates that the teams representing an entire country must be formed on the basis of  local communities.
 
The final roster turned out to be a genuine national all-star team, composed of the best baseballers from around the island.

Local baseball commentator Tseng Wen-chen said in a documentary on Taiwan baseball that the chance of being chosen as a member of the team was so small, “it is even more difficult than getting into National Taiwan University, the best school in the country.”

I'm sure you'll dismiss this too as it won't be sufficient proof in your eyes. Taiwan was winning almost every year and outscoring every team by double digits. Doesn't that seem really odd to you?

[u/Foob2023 → u/inceptionse7en]

Huh? I *just* said

"I'll say though, pre-1987 in the KMT era, that might've been a possibility "

Then you had to dig REALLY deep to find an article from 1969, the pre-KMT era and an entire generation before the 90s teams...to try to use that to back up your false claim "[w]hich is why the residency rule was harsh on Taiwan"...27 years later?

Are you having challenges reading, or are just pretending you didn't read my very specific call-out because the only way to controvert my point by being intentionally disingenuous?

I never said they did anything. 

Oh ok, you just implied they were cheating and that's "why the residency rule was harsh on Taiwan." Then you had to grasp at straws for "proof" from 20+ years earlier which I had already explicitly called out. But "you never said they did anything"

Some posters here are really poor at logic and make fallacious arguments. But hey, I never said you did anything.

[u/inceptionse7en → u/Foob2023]

Yeah you asked for proof so I got some. And you're adding qualifiers to it now saying that that was only in the 70s and 80s so they totally didn't cheat in the 90s either. Then throwing shade for me actually looking for proof when you asked for it?? Lol. So yeah I'm glad they won legit this year though! It's good to have them back. You're very passionate about this so I'll let you continue to believe what you want and ignore logic.

[u/Foob2023 → u/inceptionse7en]

Yeah you tried to take the thing I already very explicitly pointed out to such an extent I ENDED my reply to you with it

I'll say though, pre-1987 in the KMT era, that might've been a possibility because things were much more opaque then; when the country was more North Korea-like complete with a cult of personality and martial law.

And try to claim a post martial-law society from 20+ years later must be cheating b/c of allegations from a different generation 20+ years earlier when it was a different country under martial law, when I even provided sources not > 50 years old re: the real reason.

I say we ban Germany at next Olympics and strip away all their recent gold medals, because any wins must be just Iron curtain-era PEDs and I don't want to hear no "adding qualifiers"! If it's the same country, it's the same. Hell with stupid things like logic and decades of time and qualifiers!

You are very passionate about this--not Taiwan per se, but saving face on reddit--so I'll let you continue to believe what you want for your mental health. Feel better.

[u/inceptionse7en → u/Foob2023]

Are you saying that a team that wasn't following the rules from 1969 until 1987 couldn't possibly cheat in the 90s as well? What is this 20 years you're talking about? Saying it's a "possibility" when I've just shown you an article written by a Taiwanese writer in Taiwan explicitly saying it happened shows you're not willing to budge at all from your preconceived idea of what happened. You resorted to insulting me on every reply, so clearly you have no intention of having an actual conversation and just want to try to bully your point across. It's really easy for you to throw a fit and cry proof when you have no obligation to show any yourself. I have no issue with them winning it now and I'm happy for all the kids that won.

[u/Foob2023 → u/inceptionse7en]

1. huh, 1969-1987? Your own article is titled "Taiwan’s Little League Hegemony of the ‘70s". I said pre-1987 because 1987 is a turning point in Taiwan history (see pt 3) but really changes had happened since LLWS's first investigations under McGovern. So you are just going to slippery slope that into "Taiwan cheated till 1987"?
2. "it happened". What happened? You keep insinuating all stars and children selected from the whole country. You know what LLWS' own McGovern investigations found?

Responding to charges that Taiwan must have been cheating, McGovern appointed a committee to investigate Taiwan's Little League operations. "The tension was at a high point at times here during the Series," he said in a Sun-Gazette interview. The commit-tee, composed of Little League volunteers from Japan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines, visited Taiwan for a week. McGovern reported the findings back to the leagues in a news-letter following the Little League board of directors' fall meeting:

[The committee was] given a pledge that discrepancies in the operation of the pro-gram chiefly through misunderstanding, i.e.,use of school teachers as coaches and managers, baseball training during school hours and early selection of tournament teams,
<emphasis mine> would be curbed to bring the program in better conformity with all Rules and Regulations of Little League Baseball....

In recognizing the many and unusual prob-lems that are native to developing areas of the world, and particularly in the Far East, it was the Board's judgment that the broad interests of Little League may best be served by accepting the recommendations of the committee [to ban them].

...that was the accusation and what LLWS was able to find as the best reason to ban them. Not "all-star teams", not "all over the country", but excessive training and living with coaches. The country was essentially sacrificing those kids lives as a political sports apparatus. Now, of course getting to live baseball 24-7, training months before the season starts and living with their coaches etc. end up making them better at baseball than other counterparts--it's a huge advantage, no doubt, over other countries that decide to let kids enjoy an actual, normal childhood, esp. in non martial law societies with freedoms. We can debate the morality of that, but it's interesting YOU have no interest in good faith debates and want to keep spin on about all-stars, and all-over-the-country bla blas so it sounds worse and more like cheating (tm). Even if it were so, it's 1970s.

1. "What is this 20 years you are talking about". Yeah, 70s to 90s is like 2 decades, get it?

2. You need to read up more on world history. e.g. pre-1987 Taiwan was, um, single-party, kids required to sing about dear leader at school in the morning, mouthing off about government gets one a ticket to jail and no freedom of speech/press/assembly kind of place. In those societies, like Iron Curtain East Germany, there're sports apparatuses that tend to, like, change once the society is democratized and human rights and western relations get improved. Sure, they can still cheat after. But where is the evidence?

Your "evidence" is their fore-fathers and uncles, in a martial-rights period in early 70s, was used by the government as political tools. So the modern kids must also be cheaters. Ohhhh. ok.

"you're not willing to budge at all from your preconceived idea of what happened. " <-- classic projection.

1. "It's really easy for you to throw a fit and cry proof when you have no obligation to show any yourself."

smh. I've shown tons of evidence, long excerpts which you either didn't read, or more likely intentionally ignore. It's obvious you have no intention to debate on facts in good faith, and are now resorting to false characterizations and passive-aggressive statements masquerading as false civility. We are done here.

[u/standonguard → u/Foob2023]

Honestly, I always found it odd that the "World Series" has the US on one side of the bracket, and the *entire world* on the other. That seems more like cheating the system than anything else -- they've guaranteed the US is always in the championship game! The US should have one representative team in the tournament. I'm sure this isn't a popular opinion, and wouldn't be great for TV ratings or media storylines though.

[u/klawehtgod → u/standonguard]

Giving each country a fair chance is not the goal. The goal is to give each team a fair chance, and that requires proportional representation. Your suggestion is the US Senate, but the LLWS is the US House of Representatives. There are far more leagues, teams and players in the USA compared to the rest of the world put together, and thus they get more regions.

[u/standonguard → u/klawehtgod]

Sure, that's an okay way to think about it... but then the tournament should be seeded as a mixture of World teams and US teams across the brackets. It shouldn't be the US on one side and the World on the other. There should be a possibility the final is World team vs World team or US team vs US team.

[u/Gaming_Birb → u/klawehtgod]

If that was the case Japan would have more teams in the comp too

[u/gjp11 → u/Gaming_Birb]

Japan doesn't have nearly as many little leagues as the US. 96% of little leagues are from the US. That's why the US gets so many slots. Japan has enough to be its own region though.

[u/Few-Row3358 → u/standonguard]

I'm not going to lie, that's actually a valid point. It would be kind of neat to see them bracketed by seed somehow

[u/Prestigious_Team3134 → u/Few-Row3358]

It would but it would be a logistical nightmare for travel.

[u/Fine-Donut-7226 → u/standonguard]

Ah, another globalist, America-hating American.  Here’s an idea: Since the majority of MLB players are American, and since Little League was founded in America, why don’t we just have our own LLWS for American teams and let the rest of the world try to figure out something for themselves. Seems we sure make it easy for them. Let them organize themselves (that’d be fun to witness), generate their own TV ratings, find their own fields, etc.  And, by the way, there isn’t an iota of doubt that Taiwan was using 14 year olds in generations past - none, zip, zilch. 

[u/Suitable-Opposite377 → u/Fine-Donut-7226]

Then 30% of the tournament should be Latin American by your logic

[u/BigrThanBoy → u/Foob2023]

A really weird way to frame past verifiable cheating lmao but go off

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/BigrThanBoy]

How was it verified? Show us proof?

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/BigrThanBoy]

You do realize for something to be verifiable there has to be proof right?

[u/BigrThanBoy → u/Material_Archer9326]

It’s well documented that Taiwan used schools to field players across the country that took advantage of and broke little league rules on team building requirements. 1993 Taiwan literally got disqualified for this and only then because the Philippines got caught for residency rules and much worse in 1992 so they decided to actually enforce their residency rules after. You can argue there’s no explicit proof that they violated the residency rules pre 1993 (as my additional research is finding surprisingly) but I mean also come on lol they couldn’t even participate in the LLWS after 1997. Anyways yes they cheated residency and there literally is proof but the degree and length can be generously interpreted if you want to do that.

[u/incady → u/BigrThanBoy]

The accusation was never that Taiwan recruited players from all over the country - it's that they all came from one elementary school, and with some schools having 2,000+ students, it gave them a larger pool of kids. So if a school has over 1,000 students, because of Taiwan, LL came up with the rule that it has to be divided up into multiple leagues - I probably got the actual numbers wrong, but that's the idea. Taiwan has always followed the LL guidelines, whatever they were, and there was never any proof of cheating, as was the case of the team from the Philippines.

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/BigrThanBoy]

Where is the proof? lol you say it’s well documented but then can’t show documentation

[u/BigrThanBoy → u/Material_Archer9326]

The fact you replied within literal seconds with this makes me think you’re not going to be too receptive to this loool. Anyways here is an article from the LA Times in 1993 discussing Taiwan’s disqualification due to residency rules: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-12-sp-22975-story.html

[u/Foob2023 → u/BigrThanBoy]

Huh, that source just reaffirmed the first post in this thread that LLWS, in 1992, created a brand new rule about schools > 1000 pupils specifically to target Taiwan (that then was assiduously enforced starting 1997 to help eliminate Taiwan as an opponent for the next 8 years).

So where's the "all-star" "across the country" claims that you keep saying exists and is "well-documented"?

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/BigrThanBoy]

Where does it say Taiwan was cheating? It just says Taiwan was ineligible because the district chosen didn’t have enough teams to cover the amount of players required lol… that’s not cheating, that’s being ineligible… apparently you can’t read

[u/Material_Archer9326 → u/BigrThanBoy]

Always funny that Americans complain when they lose, but when they win, you guys don’t talk about how you have to rig the LLWS so that the US is guaranteed to make the final

[u/boerighter85 → u/Material_Archer9326]

It's our tournament and we invite you to it. Stop being ungrateful.

[u/NewManufacturer4252 → u/Foob2023]

I'm guessing Chinese money and merchandise had something to do with it. China hates even the mention of Taiwan as a country.

[u/LogicalBurgerMan11 → u/Foob2023]

Source?

[u/Live-Second-4652 → u/Foob2023]

Relax Chico. Your guys won

[u/RagingAcid]

Taiwan*

[u/IamYouamI123 → u/RagingAcid]

Taiwan number 1!

[u/zerothehero0 → u/IamYouamI123]

China Numba 4

[u/Inowthese → u/IamYouamI123]

America last again

[u/yellowbumble-B → u/RagingAcid]

Here in Asia tons of us are flabbergasted and surprised by how they were called on the broadcast. Gonna be headlines tomorrow

[u/upvoter222 → u/yellowbumble-B]

That's the name they use for basically every international tournament. I can't imagine that the terminology would make headlines given that 1) they were called Chinese Tapei throughout the entire tournament and 2) the term has been used in international competitions since 1981.

[u/destinythrow1 → u/upvoter222]

I think he means they were shocked the woman in the booth referred to them as Taiwan during the broadcast. I cant remember her name but she did it several times. She also called them Chinese Taipei too, sometimes.

Edit: it was Jessica Mendoza and she even commented last year how the team strongly preferred to be referred to as Taiwan. I didnt hear Frazier or Ravich ever do it though. Only Mendoza. Good for her and them, imo.

[u/upvoter222 → u/destinythrow1]

That makes more sense as something that would surprise viewers in Asia.

[u/DetBabyLegs → u/destinythrow1]

Dang I wonder if she wasn’t supposed to do that? Either way, I appreciate the balls she has

[u/yellowbumble-B → u/destinythrow1]

Nah man. We just surprised by the pandering

Even in Asia there are two camps. Pro china and anti china.

Anything with Taiwan & Hongkong is a touchy subject.

I am from neither. Being From Singapore. And no , Singapore aint in China.

[u/Cahootie → u/yellowbumble-B]

I've lived in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and at this point I've given up on pretending like Hong Kong is anything other than just another part of China. Any semblance of autonomy is just a facade, and the independence movement is dead.

[u/yellowbumble-B → u/Cahootie]

It's true. And to some extent I agree. But it still remains to be controversial among the stakeholders.

I don't stay there nor am I citizen from any of them. So i can echo your sentiments. But to residents, there are always two camps.

[u/dan_144 → u/yellowbumble-B]

“Senator, I’m Singaporean.”

[u/destinythrow1 → u/yellowbumble-B]

The US has been pandering for decades. Thats nothing new lol

But apologies for misunderstanding what you meant.

[u/UgieUrbina → u/upvoter222]

Disney wants to sell movies tickets in China. More news at 11.

[u/Knook7 → u/yellowbumble-B]

The olympics do the same thing. Its dumb pandering to china

[u/Not-a-bot-10 → u/Knook7]

Sell outs

[u/pantiesdrawer → u/Knook7]

It's actually dumb pandering to all the countries in the world who agreed with China's position, and who continue to refuse recognition of Taiwanese sovereignty, or allow Taiwan a seat in the UN (despite Russia, North Korea, Iran all having seats), or to even allow Taiwan to have a seat in the WHO--a completely apolitical organization whose goal is to promote global health. Everybody is complicit. This is nowhere near a China only issue.

[u/Yangervis → u/pantiesdrawer]

Do you think the remnants of the Communist Party should have Russia's seat? Or the Tsar's descendants?

[u/pantiesdrawer → u/Yangervis]

No, I've learned to live with the status quo. I'm just explaining how we got here.

[u/Yangervis → u/pantiesdrawer]

I just don't see the connection to the PRC/ROC disputes

[u/MusicListener3 → u/yellowbumble-B]

Legitimately, is this their first time watching international competition including Taiwan? I don’t think I’ve ever seen them not referred to as Chinese Taipei

[u/destinythrow1 → u/MusicListener3]

Jessica Mendoza called them Taiwan several times on the broadcast. Thats probably why they were surprised.

[u/t-poke → u/destinythrow1]

How long until she’s forced to give an apology in Mandarin like The Rock John Cena?

[u/destinythrow1 → u/t-poke]

Eh she did it last year too when Taiwan made the finals and ESPN still invited her back so I dont think they care.

[u/JayDeeLA → u/t-poke]

That was John Cena

[u/t-poke → u/JayDeeLA]

Haha whoops, my bad.

[u/JayDeeLA → u/destinythrow1]

ESPN about to get lots of angry Wumaos on their social media feeds lol.

[u/roadman67761 → u/MusicListener3]

Been that way as long as I can remember

[u/beeeemo → u/yellowbumble-B]

New expats were flabbergasted you mean?

[u/Maverick721 → u/RagingAcid]

"Real China"

[u/Yangervis → u/Maverick721]

Why are they more real than the PRC

[u/Liqmadique → u/Yangervis]

Lookup how Taiwan came to be. They're the legitimate "real" government of China in exile from the mainland.

[u/Yangervis → u/Liqmadique]

They lost a war. I don't see how that makes them more real.

[u/kanakalis → u/Yangervis]

exactly. both are their own countries split after the end of the civil war. however the PRC does not have the right to claim the ROC as their own province

[u/Liqmadique → u/Yangervis]

The war has never been concluded, it is not "lost" by any stretch tho the PRC would love for everyone to believe that.

[u/Yangervis → u/Liqmadique]

When you retreat to an island and lose 99%+ of your territory, you lost.

[u/klawehtgod → u/Maverick721]

Taiwan and Mainland Taiwan

[u/SailTheWorldWithMe → u/Maverick721]

中華民國

[u/Chao-Z → u/SailTheWorldWithMe]

Translation: Republic of China

It's the name of the government of Taiwan, Kinmen, Matsu Islands, and Penghu archipelago

[u/SailTheWorldWithMe → u/Chao-Z]

Correct.

[u/4LostSoulsinaBowl → u/RagingAcid]

In reality, yes. But in the official record of basically every single international tournament, they're Chinese Taipei.

[u/handofluke → u/RagingAcid]

Reddit moment

[u/LopsidedKick9149 → u/RagingAcid]

Thank you. Crazy some people won't call them that.

[u/Knightbear49 → u/RagingAcid]

🤝

[u/DingerSinger2016 → u/RagingAcid]

Team's official regional name is Chinese Taipei. The politics doesn't matter, that's their official name.

[u/Zariman-10-0 → u/RagingAcid]

Tom McCarthy called them Taiwan on the broadcast the other day and I loved it

[u/Fresh_Ostrich4034 → u/RagingAcid]

Chinese Taipei* Dont America other peoples problems

[u/Robert_Bloodborne → u/Fresh_Ostrich4034]

What does that even mean

[u/Fresh_Ostrich4034 → u/Robert_Bloodborne]

Americans treat the world like America and its not. Westerners always trying to inflict their beliefs on the East.

[u/Robert_Bloodborne → u/Fresh_Ostrich4034]

“The Americans keep treating the country thats under constant threat of conquering as if it deserves its independence!”

Replied and then blocked lmao

[u/A_Character_Defined → u/Fresh_Ostrich4034]

Taiwan prefering independence from China has nothing to do with America.

[u/5th_heavenly_king]

We cried at the field. It's been so long 

[u/SailTheWorldWithMe]

加油台湾! 🇹🇼🇹🇼🇹🇼

[u/John3192]

It’s Taiwan. 

[u/ThatZX6RDude → u/John3192]

As soon as I read the title I expected karma farming, well done.

Comment went exactly as I thought lmao look man. Normal people know that shits Taiwan. But Redditors… oh Redditors gotta point that shit out and make sure they went positive on it.

[u/doctorchubbs → u/ThatZX6RDude]

It’s so funny that you’re being downvoted but you’re being proven 100% correct by the fact that most of the top level comments in this thread are all saying the same thing. They could easily instead upvote the first person to comment it if it was actually about increasing visibility that the name should be Taiwan, but everyone wants a piece of the karma pie for themselves

[u/dinkleburgenhoff → u/doctorchubbs]

Or, crazy thought, a bunch of people all wanted to say the same thing. You know, shit that happens everywhere, offline and on, in every corner of the world, literally every minute of every day?

People wanting their own voice heard, even if it’s saying the same thing as everyone else, wasn’t a new phenomena discovered upon the creation of reddit karma. You weirdos think the human condition is something you can just wag your finger at and blame reddit.

[u/DarthHM → u/ThatZX6RDude]

Calm down. It’s just a piece of metal.

[u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

Ok… I don’t know anything about the little league World Series, so this is probably a stupid thing to say. But I thought it was hilarious that it was an entire countries team against Nevada lol

[u/HowardBunnyColvin → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

Yeah they all represent a certain region or city

Like Japan's team was from the Joto region !

[u/magikarp2122 → u/HowardBunnyColvin]

So they had Marills?

[u/KenshiroTheKid → u/magikarp2122]

Wait until you find out what region Tokyo is in

[u/Outrageous_Golf3369 → u/HowardBunnyColvin]

Oh. So this team was the best from Taiwan, and Nevada was the best from the US? It would’ve been funnier if it was the other way, but that’s good to know!

[u/Noticeably-F-A-T- → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

These aren't like Olympic teams where they make a team of the country' best players. These are teams that won their regions/country's league and then advanced to the LLWS tournament. The format of the LLWS is an international bracket and a US bracket so the final is always a US team vs an international team.

[u/Outrageous_Golf3369 → u/Noticeably-F-A-T-]

Oh. Looks like I was way wrong lol. Thanks for taking the time to explain it!

[u/devAcc123 → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

The idea is that its one town/city vs another town/city.

Theres a wordwide bracket and a US bracket and the winners of each play the final.

If youre at all familiar with high school sports the whole city vs. city thing is often easy to get around, ex. * gestures broadly towards * IMG Academy in Florida.

[u/duwamps_dweller → u/devAcc123]

So are these the champion teams from local little leagues competing with each other, or are they all-star teams from the little league? Can a select travel ball team make it to the LLWS?

[u/tornait-hashu → u/duwamps_dweller]

These are local teams. A few years ago it was a team from El Segundo, California that won the LLWS.

[u/jl_23 → u/duwamps_dweller]

They’re the all-star teams

[u/GCIV414 → u/duwamps_dweller]

Select travel can’t…its communities all stars

[u/devAcc123 → u/duwamps_dweller]

It’s your local travel little league team, from your town or district whatever it’s called

[u/Cahootie → u/devAcc123]

An elite boarding school in the US being owned by the Asian branch of a European private equity firm is just wack. We've come a long way from schools existing primarily to teach students.

[u/RogerTreebert6299 → u/Cahootie]

Good thing there don’t seem to have been any repercussions thus far from shifting the focus away from education! ….wait, shit…

[u/2RINITY → u/Noticeably-F-A-T-]

Yeah, my hometown fell one round short of the main LLWS once, and if they’d made it, they would have competed under the state’s name

[u/draker585 → u/2RINITY]

My hometown competed as the Great Lakes region.

[u/ContinuumGuy → u/Noticeably-F-A-T-]

In fact, part of the reason why the "Taiwan must be cheating" meme exists is because during the 1970s, Little League didn't really have a way of checking if everyone was actually from the league they were supposed to be, particularly overseas. It later turned out that Taiwan WAS actually sending basically a national team during those glory years.

[u/jay1715 → u/ContinuumGuy]

This is not true. I grew up in Taiwan during the early years when Taiwan started to participate LLWS. There were tournaments in each city and the winner from each city then competed for the national championship. The winner represented Taiwan to compete with other teams from the Far East region (Japan, South Korea, Philippine). The regional winner then participated the Little League World Series in US. There was no national team when I was growing up in the 70’s.

[u/Striking_Yard_295 → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

It’s not like they just take the best kids in the state/country and put them on one team. The kids are all from one town or maybe a few towns combine in sparse areas. And then it’s tournament style. You start with a district tournament which is against some towns close by. If you win your district, you move on to playing other counties (sectional), you win there you go to states, country for international teams, then regionals and then to what you see here on tv.

So the kids from Nevada are from specifically Las Vegas. The kids from Taiwan are specifically from the Zhongli district of Taiwan.

[u/lilclosetbigwardrobe → u/Striking_Yard_295]

This year's team was from an elementary school in Taipei

[u/Kaiserhsu → u/lilclosetbigwardrobe]

Yeah they’re all from the same school, Dong Yuan Elementary school. The idea that these teams from Taiwan recruit prospects from other regions or towns to form an all star team to represent their region has not been the case for decades.

[u/RainbowKarp → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

It’s not an entire country. They are from one league just like anyone else, but they are their country’s representative. Just like if Nevada was wearing jerseys that said America but they were all just kids from a league in Vegas

[u/IWTLEverything → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

They compete their way up through regions. One team in the championship will always be a US team and the other will be international. The Nevada team started local and eventually represented the Mountain region to come out on top. Taiwan was in the Asia-Pacific region.

[u/LopsidedKick9149 → u/Outrageous_Golf3369]

Kind of how it always is. Everyone knows the US has more top tier players and larger than most countries if we took the best of all the US the game wouldn't be nearly as competitive.

[u/anonymousscroller9]

Good for Taiwan.

[u/Jonjon428]

Taiwan #1!

[u/lieutenantham]

*Taiwan

[u/Inowthese → u/lieutenantham]

Taiwan, the largest island that makes up the Republic of China which retreated from the mainland after losing the Chinese civil war to the People's Republic of China.

[u/lieutenantham → u/Inowthese]

Bad bot

[u/Inowthese → u/lieutenantham]

Bad American education system

[u/CFBCoachGuy]

That pitcher is damn good. Shame he lost the no-hitter but that team was so good defensively

[u/ForgotMyPassword1989]

Put me in coach

[u/zerovanillacodered]

Great job Taiwan!

[u/rug1998]

John cena is pissed

[u/LopsidedKick9149]

Taiwan.... they are called Taiwan.

[u/kingjakerulezz]

*Taiwan

[u/Most-Artichoke6184]

Damn, the Nevada team was from Summerlin in Las Vegas, which is my neighborhood.

[u/Hkmarkp → u/Most-Artichoke6184]

Wow. Incredible!

[u/bselko → u/Most-Artichoke6184]

Yeah I’m from Vegas too, was rooting for the kids big time. They still did us very proud!

[u/SMV66]

Let’s go Taiwan!

[u/Poppunknerd182]

Awesome job Taiwan!

[u/Smart-Water-9833]

Where the hell is Chinese Taipei? Just call it Taiwan and fuck whatever the Chinese Communist Party thinks.

[u/AdventureCakezzz → u/Smart-Water-9833]

Organizers care about the money. If they call it Taiwan they lose the Chinese market.

[u/cBlackout → u/AdventureCakezzz]

Just FYI, and I wish it were Taiwan, but there’s literally no country on earth that recognizes Taiwan as a country, including Taiwan

It’s not just organizers, there is literally not a country on earth that recognizes a state called Taiwan. As much as I wish there was an independent state of Taiwan, calling it as such flies in the face of the Taiwanese government’s own position on its status and so there’s very little reason for the team to be called anything other than either Chinese Taipei or the Republic of China in anything official

[u/Cahootie → u/cBlackout]

11 countries and the Holy See do recognize Taiwan, with some ending that recognition in recent years largely due to Chinese investments and political pressure campaigns.

[u/Bread_Fish150 → u/AdventureCakezzz]

There's a mainland Chinese baseball market?

[u/bodegacatsss → u/AdventureCakezzz]

Olympics and basketball sure, but since when does the Chinese market care about baseball?

[u/BrightHovercraft2716 → u/AdventureCakezzz]

Sad that they kowtowed to authoritarian regimes for sponsorship money. I guarantee this only happens for a country as big as China

[u/soonerfreak → u/BrightHovercraft2716]

The whole planet is bending the knee to our wanna be dictator at the moment. Yeah, countries with giant economies and militaries get their way. Of course had the communist lost and took over Taiwan I seriously doubt Americans would be working this hard to defend that island.

[u/BrightHovercraft2716 → u/soonerfreak]

I have no idea what your point is? Both of those things can be sad. I’m not really blaming the LLWS, it’s just a sad sign of our times

[u/Yangervis → u/Smart-Water-9833]

Taipei is a city

[u/D20_Buster]

Taiwan

[u/ZeroMomentum]

More like Taiwin

[u/Eriks0n]

The plate ump made a number of questionable 'ball' calls in this game. Would hope the umping for the championship final would be better.

[u/SilverBuggie]

Good games.

Didn’t want to see dodger game yesterday and watched the LL USA finals and today’s championship game. Taiwan was a very strong team. Nevada might have done better against Taiwan if they had the pitcher they used against Connecticut(US final). Gallegos or something is his name. Pitched well and hit a homer vs Connecticut, much like Shohei.

Iirc Taiwan also won the junior league World Series that took place a few weeks ago? I remember seeing it somewhere.

[u/Liqmadique]

Taiwan.

Or if you prefer "Real China" as they're the legitimate government in exile.

[u/Inowthese → u/Liqmadique]

Yes, Taiwan is China

[u/IWTLEverything]

Taiwan had really great defense.

[u/Texas_Kimchi]

Taiwan

[u/Mr_Cornwall]

The better China*

[u/Texas_Kimchi → u/Mr_Cornwall]

West Taiwan sucks.

[u/jsdodgers]

daflip is chinese taipei?

[u/Ok_Opportunity2693]

Taiwan

[u/coffeeeeeee333]

Taiwan

[u/walrusonion]

Piss off its Taiwan

[u/BigrThanBoy]

Foob2023 blocked me from replying to the thread in another comment lol but anyways just putting this down in case anybody was following or curious about the rest of the conversation. Anyways this isn't meant to put down Taiwan's LLWS 2025 WS or anything just thought the conversation is interesting. This would've been my reply:

This thread has made me research into this a lot more than I ever have before admittedly. Nowhere in the article does it say this rule was new at the time and if anything it talks about the rule as more of a matter of fact. Even then I tried looking into when this 1000 students to 1 league rule was created and I can’t find anything definitive on when it started. So anyways if you are right that this rule was created and enforced in 1992, then yeah I’d say Taiwan broke the rules but I’d agree they were set up to fail and that’s not really cheating.

[u/BigrThanBoy → u/BigrThanBoy]

u/incady also just as a reply yeah I messed up that one. I shouldn't have said fielded players across the country but more so that there's a pretty huge competitive imbalance when you field a team from thousands of students. I was being a little presumptuous because anybody familiar with american high school teams know that high schools are riddled with recruitment whether official or not. Taiwan little league being school based kind of immediately made me think of that. As for the Philippines, the article I linked before does explicitly say the LLWS championship was revoked from the Philippines for both residency rules and field players over the age limit: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-12-sp-22975-story.html

[u/RobutNotRobot]

Reminds me of when they dominated when I was a kid.

[u/princemark]

Oh Pooh, it's called Taiwan.

[u/Straight-Ad-4981]

It's a kids game,mean shit all in the real world implications....let them enjoy there win.

[u/no_fooling]

Last time i seem "chinese taipei" i was playing little league world series on the NES

Its Taiwan

[u/The0utlanded]

So many cringe Americans in these comments

[u/sweatingbozo → u/[deleted]]

No it's the same qualifications. In fact Taiwan has a smaller pool to pick from due to them having to come from the same school.

[u/wagadugo → u/sweatingbozo]

Thank you! Wasn’t sure if the rules are different for international!

[u/ConversationIll8155]

I just watched some highlights of the game and it is surprising how many players appear to be much older than 10-12. Seems like some are 16 with how large they are. Are they checking birth certificates?

[u/sweatingbozo → u/ConversationIll8155]

Are we still doing this? The kids that win a national tournament are likely to be more physically developed than the average kids their age. 

[u/Playful_Bear_5943]

Not cheating if they are allowed to play??? Just because it's not a U.S. team!?? The last nine years have been a U S. Team winning it. LMAO!

[u/ZenZenZenAgain]

Little League is a shit league. Dizzie Dean Winner wins by 10 runs. Bad product. No Little league child has ever made it to MLB. Stop selling this shit product.

[u/dinkleburgenhoff → u/ZenZenZenAgain]

Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about.

[u/zerodad → u/ZenZenZenAgain]

Jason Varitek would like a word