Leaderboard

Aurresku Aurresku is a traditional Basque dance that is performed in Euskadi, a region in northern Spain and southwestern France. The dance is usually performed by a male dancer, who performs acrobatic and athletic movements while holding a white/red handkerchief. The aurresku is typically performed during important celebrations, such as weddings and traditional festivals, and is accompanied by a tambourine and the singing of traditional Basque songs. The aurresku is an important part of Basque cultural heritage. The dance is also associated with the Basque rural tradition.

Women's qualifier sep.10-sep.24 Japan China Poland https://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/impressive-line-up-of-hosts-confirmed-for-volleyball’s?id=100726

Last 25 hours to vote! If I did the maths correctly 31 users have already sent their votes, which means that we are missing 16 users of 15 nations. I know that @dcro @catgamer @Finnator123 @maestro @heywoodu @Glen @mrv86 @rybak @justony @Federer91 are aware of the deadline since they have commented and/or reacted to the thread in the last few days. I'm not so sure about @Makedonas @Fly_like_a_don @Dnl @NikolaB @amen09 @Illya. Hopefully we can have you in . The Voting Order Draw will be presented once more by @mrv86. It will take place this Saturday at 15:00 (CET) and you are more than welcome to participate.

Difficult group for sure, but good news we are going to play at home in Ljubljana... Group A: Spain; Greece; Montenegro; Latvia Group B: Belgium; Italy; Czech Republic; Israel Group C: France; Slovenia; Great Britain; Germany Group D: Serbia; Turkey; Slovakia; Hungary Tel Aviv will host teams drawn to Group A and Group B, while Group C and Group D will be based in Ljubljana.

Men's qualifier Sep.30-Oct.8 Brazil Japan China https://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/impressive-line-up-of-hosts-confirmed-for-volleyball’s?id=100726

Just found a report on the first ever game between two national teams. From 1938.

I choose and

Let's the Festival of Music begins! The Festival of Music is an event held the days before the Grand Final of every TISC where everyone can present songs from non-participating countries. You can pick up to two nations! Rules about selecting the songs for the Festival are the same like for the contest, which means that preferably the selected song had to be released after January 1st 2022. The first post of the thread has been updated to keep track of all the songs presented for the Festival of Music and now also includes links to the cultural posts in case you want to check them out. I will inaugurate the Festival of Music by picking and . I already have in mind a couple of songs from these countries and I will share them during the week.

I'm down to 15 countries... Just need to give points & select the 3 reserve countries...

horrific performance by Cuba and Chinese Taipei. Cuban hitters looked still completely asleep (Noon start doesn't help for sure). the Host team was just awful in every aspect of the game...pitchers that can't throw a strike in a bath tub and hitters swinging at mosquitos... very curious to watch the Italian team's debut Tomorrow...if the Cuban hitters don't wake up all of a sudden, I think we could even pull out a miracle against them, like the Oranjes did Today. p.s. pitch after pitch, I started to re-evaluate my opinion on the pitch clock...please, bring it to the International Baseball, too

oh I know you respect the deadline, I never said the opposite

will play pre-WC exhibition matches 18-20 August in Abu Dhabi.

World Cup groups Group A: Group B: +1 WCQ Group C: +1 WCQ Group D: +1 WCQ

World Ranking by Nation updated as of March 7th, 2023

Olympic Qualification Rankings updated as of March 7th, 2023

5 1/2 complete and holds an 11-1 advantage over the hosts . A real shocker for how out of hand this game got.

It is here! The WBC has returned and first pitch is just moments away.

And the win in Puerto Rico was powerful for Echavarria - he is now within the Olympic 60:

became the 20th country to vote! The original deadline is in slighltly less than 30 hours, but considering that we are still missing 18 nations and it has been requested by and juries, I will give an extra day to vote. This means that the new deadline is Thursday, 9th March at 23:59 (CET). The Festival of Music will keep the original dates, so you can pick countries and/or send songs from Thursday, 9th March at 00:01 (CET).

More bad news from The Canadian equestrian Wyn St. John died on Monday after suffering a brain injury when she fell from her horse during a show jumping competition in Spain. She was 63