How does the World Baseball Classic work? Breaking down format, pools and brackets

How does the World Baseball Classic work? The tournament is unlike what normal baseball looks like. In the MLB playoffs, the tournament is very straight-forward. The top seven teams (four division winners and three wild cards) from each league make it.

Those teams then face one opponent and if they win, they go on to the next opponent, who also won. This goes on until the postseason is over and a World Series winner is crowned.

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How does the World Baseball Classic work? A complete guide

For how the World Baseball Classic works, it's very different. It functions like the World Cup for FIFA. There are five teams in each group and there are four groups.

Each member of a group plays the others, so there are four matchups per team. Once that's done, the top two in the standings will move on to the next round.

How does the World Baseball Classic work? (Image via MLB)

From there, the winner of Group A will play the runner-up of Group B. The winner of Group B plays the runner-up of Group A. The same exact format plays out for Groups C and D.

Once that round is finished, there will be four teams left in the World Baseball Classic. The two teams on the left side of the bracket, from either Group C or D play each other. The same happens on the right side with Groups A and B.

The final two teams meet in the championship, which will be held at LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida. After that, a victor is crowned.