CEFL has cooked up another one of its competitions in 2019. After arranging for the 14th season of the Championship, CEFL will also bring back the Cup. League management was faced with a difficult decision of selecting the best candidates from the record number of applicants. In the end, 8 participants from 6 countries were chosen, all of them placed at the top of their national leagues.

Serbian vice-champions, Belgrade SBB Vukovi are the most familiar name, as the regular participants of all the past 13 CEFL seasons. They’re also the 6-time winners of the Championship, which is an achievement that won’t be broken soon. Right with them are also some of the well-known names to CEFL pundits. Moscow Patriots, runners-up of the Russian top league have competed in the Championship last season and this time they’ll try out the Cup. Budapest Cowbells will also return as the long-time participants of CEFL competitions. Their cross-town rivals, Budapest Wolves will make a comeback too after a four-year hiatus, this time as national champions.

The other half of the tournament is allotted to new entrants. Italian vice-champions Bolzano Giants are the first among equals, as the western-most team in this year’s selection. Moscow Spartans are another valuable addition, who will premiere in CEFL competitions as Russian champions. A new team on the CEFL map is also Istanbul ITU Hornets, appearing for the first time on international stage. Lastly, an invitation to the big stage was also earned by the runners-up of Romanian national championship, Bucharest Rebels.

The Cup will be played as a knockout system, in three rounds, beginning from the quarterfinals. Teams are paired and will play one game in each round, with the winners advancing. The matchups in the semifinals will be decided by CEFL according to a set of criteria. The weekend scheduled for first round games is 13/14 April and the matchups are as follows:

Bolzano Giants – Budapest Wolves
Budapest Cowbells – Moscow Spartans
Bucharest Rebels – Belgrade SBB Vukovi
Istanbul ITU Hornets – Moscow Patriots

Semifinals games will be played on 27/28 April, or alternatively 11/12 May. The final game is scheduled for 8/9 June, and the host will be selected subsequently.