2024 Village Super League Finals kick off in SW China's Guizhou

The Village Super League (VSL) Finals of China began with the first game between Pingdi Village and Kouzhai Village in Rongjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, on Saturday.

A total of 20 teams will be competing in the finals after going through fierce preliminaries of 62 teams in the previous one and a half months. The 20 teams will be divided into two groups of which the top-four teams can advance to the knockout stage.

Eight teams participated in the VSL for the first time this year, making the first phase of the finals even more unpredictable.

In order to make the tournament more exciting and increase player involvement, each of the 20 teams are allowed to recruit new players from teams that were eliminated during the preliminary stage. Every team can have no more than 35 players on their roster, including at most five who were not born in Rongjiang, but in Guizhou. One team can have no more than three of such players on the field in one game.

At the opening ceremony of the finals on Saturday, some 3,500 people, including players and cheerleaders, attended the parade. Over 20 singing and dancing events plus musical firework shows have been arranged prior to, after and in the halftime break of the three games to add more fun to the tournament.

The organizers have also prepared local cuisines including rice cooked in bamboo tubes as well as bamboo shoots for tourists to have a taste of Rongjiang flavors.

Lu Yongzheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Guizhou Provincial Committee, believes that as both the Village Basketball Association and the VSL became hits both domestically and internationally, they have not only brought more attention to the two counties and the province, but also stimulated local economic development. In 2023 alone, there were over 12 million tourist visits to Rongjiang and Taijiang. Overall local tourist revenues surpassed 15 billion yuan (about $2.1 billion).