Japan - 7th V9 Women's Champ League 2021

Japan - 7th (Reiwa 3) V9 Champ League
(Women's First League) 2021

Panasonic Bluebells (Champions 2020)	Denso Ten Red Phoenix (2nd Place 2020)
Mazda Cross Nine (3rd Place 2020)	Ibiden Regulus (4th Place 2020)
Kagoshima Bank Regionwings (5th Place 2020)	Tokyo Higashi Shinkin Bank Blue Rabbits (6th Place 2020)
Hita Kenshin White Dolphin	Sanden Blue Ecores

This year's Women's First League Tournament --usually contested during the summer months-- has been condensed and rescheduled so many times it's dizzying

Regular Round (Round Robin)

• Kagoshima tournament • November 12–14 -- Kagoshima Bank Gymnasium Kagoshima City Kagoshima
• Yonago Tournament • November 27–28 -- Yonago Industrial Gymnasium Yonago City Tottori

Final Round

• Kagoshima Tournament • December 11–12 -- Miyanojo Gymnasium Satsuma City Kagoshima
  
  • Top four teams from Regular Round do a 1<>4, 2<>3 Semifinal, Final and 3rd place match
    
  • Bottom three teams do a three team round robin for final ranking

First League team Sanden Blue Ecores appears to have hung up their towels for good. They did not participate last year and are officially out this year. Hence, the first place finishing Second League team will automatically promote to bring the First League back to eight teams

First League team Hita Kenshin White Dolphin also did not participate last year. They are a medical care company and declined out of an abundance of caution. The Blue Ecores are a car parts company

Panasonic Bluebells have won this all six times it's been contested

The rapscallions at V9 volleyball snuck in a warmup tournament a couple weeks ago without telling me

Heralded as "V9 Champ Exchange Tournament", it had four teams from First League and three teams from Second League. All matches were two sets, tie-breakers be damned

Final Result:

There is video of all the matches here for those into that kind of thing. They are youtube videos also located on the 9volleyball youtube channel but easier to locate at their web site. The videos are all end of court single stationary camera, but fidelity is top notch, about the equivalent of Coach YURI BULYCHEV's analyst view videos. (small bummer for me is that since the teams don't switch sides, we get only one view of a team, and every single Bluebells match has them far side of court --and they are wearing masks)

This is not a good sign. Panasonic Bluebells just updated their match schedule with a strikethrough on the 1st Round:

The Osaka Tournament First Round scheduled for September 18–20, 2021 has been canceled. The official 9-ball people haven't fessed up to it but both Panasonic Bluebells and Denso Ten Red Phoenix (the only teams with web sites) have removed the Osaka Tournament from their schedules

No word yet on how they will restructure the remaining three rounds. Color me bummed

How lame. The tournament was scheduled to start last night and didn't, and the official web site and twitter crap have nothing to say about it

Apparently they sacked what was scheduled as the First Round and are instead making it into its own separate tournament with teams from Division 1 & 2 and a few University teams, similar to the group that contested the "Exchange Tournament" a month or two ago. The official 9-ball web site has nothing to say about it. Thanks to Denso Ten Red Phoenix for the Info:

The 11th Water City Cup 9-person Women's Volleyball Selection Championship
* No spectator match

October 23–24, 2021 - Ogaki City Gymnasium (Gifu Prefecture)

Participating teams

• Panasonic Bluebells
• Denso Ten Red Phoenix
• Mazda Cross Nine
• Ibiden Regulus
• Tokyo Higashi Shinkin Bank Blue Rabbits
• Panasonic Tsu Advance
• Tokyo Women's College of Physical Education
• Japan Women's College of Physical Education
• Nippon Sport Science University

Schedule
10/23 (Sat) 9: 30- Match start

10/24 (Sun) 9: 00- Match start

So ... Four matches a day for two days. Two set matches and that's it. No tie-breaker. That's how the "Exchange Tournament" went down. Ranking will be by set ratio/point ratio in case of ties. The Exchange Tournament ended in a tie for first place. No big deal. This is not important for any of the teams that will finish in the top half. I'm not sure if the Uni teams or Division 2 teams can upgrade. There is an opening in Division 1, as one of the teams seems to have vanished

Panasonic Bluebells will livestream matches on their Tweetbox. Tweetstreams aren't usually worth watching but I may look in just for the rush of live knowing who wins

Starts at 9:30 Japan Time, so I can get in a match before the Uni games start

Go Bluebells

11th Annual Water City Cup Day 1

2021.10.23 Results

11th Annual Water City Cup Day 2

2021.10.24 Results

11th Annual Water City Cup Final Results

Bluebells lost a set

V9 Champ Regular Round starts today. A couple teams took a picture of a piece of paper with the schedule on it and posted it to their tweetboxes. Lame

These three teams may shit-stream things on their tweetboxes

Denso

Ibiden

Bluebells

Maybe the 9-ball youtube will stream some (they said they were going to but they have no competence)

[-] Bluebells are streaming their match. They have a billion dollars in the bank and opt for the ghetto bullshit that is tweetboxing It's not worth watching. Hopefully V9 are filming the matches and will upload them to their youtube at some point. "We will continue to develop it as a sport loved by more and more enthusiasts and fans"

[--] If this tweetfart is any indication, if/when V9 uploads videos they look quite watchable

Round 1 Day 1 •• 2021.11.12 - Kagoshima Bank Gymnasium

The videos are good fidelity but they remain stationary, single, end of court camera. I had hoped by the teaser they tweetfarted that they may have moved up in the world. This first round is going to be the teams in blue beating the crap out of the three weaklings

[Edit] V9 people uploaded what they call "referee" versions of the matches, which are stationary, single, net line camera

Round 1 Day 2 •• 2021.11.13 - Kagoshima Bank Gymnasium

Round 1 Day 3 •• 2021.11.14 - Kagoshima Bank Gymnasium

Round 2

2021.11.27–28

Yonago Industrial Gymnasium ... 10:00am Start Time

Round 2 Day 1 •• 2021.11.27 - Yonago Industrial Gymnasiu

I wish they'd do stats for v9. but that's a big ask. I didn't watch any of the matches because the tweetboxer streams aren't worth watching (and the V.League matches were too exciting). They should have the usual videos up soon

Round 2 Day 2 •• 2021.11.28 - Yonago Industrial Gymnasiu

Regular Round final ranking

1. Panasonic Bluebells

2. DENSO TEN Red Phoenix

3. Mazda Cross Nine

4. IBIDEN Regulus

5. Kagoshima Bank Region Wings

6. Tokyo Higashi Shinkin Bank Blue Rabbits

7. Hita Examination Center White Dolphin

Final Round Schedule:

* If the team with the lower ranking wins only in the final match, one set match will be played 15 minutes later

Final Round DAY 1 •• 2021.12.11 Miyanojo Gymnasium

NEXT UP :

10:30 Regionwings v Blue Rabbits (5th place match)

13:10 Mazda X9 v Ibiden Regulus (3rd place match)

14:30 Bluebells v Densoten (Gold Medal Match)

This is the 7th V9 Champ League and the Bluebells are going for their 7th Gold Medal

Panasonic Bluebells do it again

FINAL STANDINGS

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Kagoshima Tournament Final Day Results