The draw for the men’s division of the 2019 North American Invitational will take place on Saturday (Aug 31) in Prague, Czech Republic. We’re very grateful to our friends at LCC Radotín for again hosting the tournament draw!
Although there will be no Czech Republic teams participating this year due to World Indoors, we pride the NAI on being international and three of our teams (Glasgow Clydesiders, NOAFE and Toronto Tigers) are currently competing in LCC Radotín’s fall tournament for the right to hoist the Frank Menschner Cup.
The draw will take place after the third place game at approximately 7:50 PM local time.
Czech Republic is six hours ahead of Syracuse so the draw will be at about 1:50 PM Eastern time.
You can watch live at the LCC Radotin youtube page at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCECM-Hl8vAOOsClkaJC6Jjg
The championship game of the Menschner Cup will be held immediately after the draw.
The NAI has adopted the widely-praised tournament format of the Aleš Hřebeský Memorial, with 24 teams competing in Gold and Silver pools. The winners of the Gold pools advance directly to the quarterfinals. The second place teams from the Gold pools will compete against the winner of the Silver groups in play-in games (winners to quarterfinals, losers to 9-16 bracket).
All 24 men’s teams will be guaranteed 5-6 games and will compete to a final ranking. The third place teams from the Gold pools will compete against the second place teams from the Silver pools in the consolation play-in games (winners to 9-16 bracket, losers to 17-24 bracket).
The third place teams from the Silver pools will continue directly to the 17-24 bracket.
Teams have been divided into six pots for the draw, based on performance in the 2018 NAI and other tournaments/leagues, as well as perceived strength under the good-faith discretion of the tournament directors.
Pots
Gold 1: Graph-Tex, Onondaga Fire, Vermont Voyageurs, Young Guns
Gold 2: Basom Bombers, Big Boys of Akwesasne, Glasgow Clydesiders, NAI Elite Prospects
Gold 3: Megasharks, New Jersey Bootleggers, Team Weekend, Toronto Tigers
Silver 1: Denver Big Tunas, New Hampshire War Pigs, Poland Heritage, Rochester Bats
Silver 2: Brooklyn Dodgers, Moon Bears, Music City, NOAFE
Silver 3: Cleveland Demons, Hungary, NAI House Team, Pittsburgh
**Note: The above pots are NOT the pools. The pools will be drawn on August 31st from the above pots. (ie: Pool Gold A will have one team from Pot Gold 1, Pot Gold 2, Pot Gold 3)
