The FIBA 3x3 competition network is organized in a pyramidal system split into:
National team competitions are played by national federations
Pro Circuit is played by teams representing cities for the men and countries for the women
Grassroots events
All those competitions are captured by play.fiba3x3 (FIBA’s digital repository for 3x3 events worldwide) and are taken into account for ranking calculation purposes. Competitions are either standalone or a series of tournaments.
NATIONAL TEAM
All National Team competitions are played yearly and in the following age categories:
World Cup – Open, U23 and U18
Zone Cup – Open and U17
Nations League - U23
World Cups have a dual qualification system, allowing teams to qualify either through federation ranking or the previous year's Zone Cups. Both the Zone Cups and Nations League are accessible to all federations. The Nations League is organized into conferences, with the top teams from each conference advancing to the Final. Depending on the number of registered federations, Zone Cups may include qualifiers. Similarly, the World Cup itself may have a qualifier, in case of interest to the host.
PRO CIRCUIT (MEN)
Simplifying, the professional circuit for men is composed of the World Tour and the Challengers.
The World Tour includes a regular season with a certain number of Masters and one Final, to which teams qualify based on regular season standings. The Challengers qualify to the World Tour Masters.
Both, the World Tour and the Challengers are FIBA 3x3 Official Competitions and are fed by qualifiers and the (team) ranking.
There are 3 kinds of Qualifiers: Lite Quest: qualifies one team to a Challenger Quest: usually qualifies to the qualification draw of a World Tour Super Quest: qualifies to the main draw of a World Tour.
PRO CIRCUIT (WOMEN)
Simplifying, the professional circuit for women - known as the FIBA 3x3 Women’s Series - is composed of a regular season with a series of stops and a Final, to which teams qualify based on regular season standings.
Each National Federation is allowed to register 1 federation team, while patrons (such as brands, cities, etc) are allowed to register a so-called 'commercial team'.
For further information, click here.