With the start of season 145, the succession to South Africa (winner of the 12th edition) is open.
The rules for this year's competition are the same as those for the previous edition, with one exception: At the request of several coaches and in view of the growing interest in this competition, the number of qualifiers for the finals will be increased from 12 to 16.
This is a trial run, and depending on what happens at this year's event, we will either retain the 16-qualifier rule for the next edition, or go back to 12 qualifiers (with an eighth-place play-off).

In practice, the federations have until Sunday 1 February inclusive to play their 4 matches (without scheduling a 5th, on pain of exclusion) and on Monday 2 February a list of the top 20 from the 1st phase will be published (the teams ranked 17 to 20 will be on the waiting list in the event of the withdrawal of a qualified team from 1 to 16).
The table for the final phase will be as follows:
n° 1 - n° 16
n° 8 - n° 9
n° 5 - n° 12
n° 4 - n° 13
n° 3 - n° 14
n° 6 - n° 11
n° 7 - n° 10
n° 2 - n° 15

Good luck to all future participants

This is a new feature that will have a real impact, as it will allow the top 4 finishers to play a maximum of 4 finals matches like the other 12! Good luck to all