In Korea, high school baseball (고등학교 야구) is played at a very high level by students who train year round. Unlike in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 or the U.S. where nearly every high school fields a team, there are only about 60-70 Korean high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 teams which makes the competition tantamount to an all-star league of Korea's young talent. KBO

Korea Baseball Organization

The Korea Baseball Organization is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. KBO should not be confused with the Korea Professional Baseball League. KBO was founded in 1981 and has been governing two leagues, Korea Professional Baseball and Futures League since...

, MLB and NPB

NPB

NPB can refer to:* NAS Parallel Benchmarks, a set of benchmarks developed by the NASA for measuring the performance of supercomputers* National Printing Bureau of Japan...

 scouts are frequently in attendance at all of the four national high school baseball tournaments.

Four major national tournaments

The four Big 4 tournaments are the most important high school baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 events of the year in terms of tradition, prize-money awarded, and public attention.

Four Major National Competitions
Competition	Host City	# of Team	Start Year
Phoenix Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...	63
Blue Dragon Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...	63
Golden Lion Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...	64
President's Cup National High School Baseball Championship	Seoul Seoul Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...	27

National tournaments hosted by local cities

There are four lower-level high school baseball events of the year sponsored by local cities.

National Competitions in Local City
Competition	Host City	# of Team	Start Year
Hwarang Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Busan Busan Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...	24
Daebung Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Daegu Daegu Daegu , also known as Taegu, and officially the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea, the fourth largest after Seoul, Busan, and Incheon, and the third largest metropolitan area in the country with over 2.5 million residents. The city is the capital and principal city of the...	22
Mudeung Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Gwangju Gwangju Gwangju is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...	22
Michuhol Flag National High School Baseball Championship	Incheon Incheon The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...	22

See also

• Baseball awards #South Korea
• Baseball awards #U.S. high-school baseball
• Australian Schools Championship (baseball)
  Australian Schools Championship (baseball)
  The Australian Schools Championships for baseball, also informally named at all levels 'schoolboys', is an annual secondary school tournament that has been officially running since 1989. It includes an Open and U-15 tournament...
  
  
• Japanese High School Baseball Championship (Summer Koshien
  Koshien Stadium
  is a baseball park located near Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the national high school baseball tournaments, and opened on April 1, 1924. It was the largest stadium in Asia at the time it was completed, with a capacity of 55,000.The name Kōshien comes...
  
  )
• National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament
  National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament
  The National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament of Japan, commonly known as "Spring Kōshien" or "Senbatsu" , is an annual high school baseball tournament....
  
  championship (Spring Koshien)

External links

• Korea Baseball Association (KBA)