China: Western Bowl regional tournament gets underway

A new friendly tournament called the Western Bowl has brought together multiple teams in Western China, and the tournament will kick off this week, with games taking place over the next two months.

Six teams (Chengdu Pandaman, Xi’an Panthers, Mountain City Fury (Chongqing), Guiyang Jungle Fighters, Zunyi Mellivora Capensis, and Chengdu Troopers) will be taking part in the inaugural version of the competition, which bears a resemblance to the South China Bowl, a similar regional tournament of teams from Southern China.

The six Western Bowl teams compete in both the American Football League of China, AFLC, whose regular season doesn’t begin until late summer, and the City Bowl, whose season has already started. Some of the teams will be participating in four games (the Chengdu Pandaman, McFury, and Xi’an Panthers), while others (Guiyang, Zunyi, and the Chengdu Troopers) will only be participating in one or two games.

He Tianfu, captain of the Chengdu Pandaman, and one of the competition’s organizers:

“The goal of this tournament is to give teams out West more games to play. It’s also to help each other improve, get to know the other teams out here better, and to learn, as we don’t have as many teams in the West as in Easter, Northern, and Southern China. It is also easy to travel between cities in the West, so we wanted to take advantage of how cheap is to travel out here, this is another important reason.”

Chengdu TroopersThe Western Bowl kicks off this Saturday, as the Mountain City Fury play the Guiyang Jungle Fighters, while the Chengdu Pandaman will take on the Xi’an Panthers next Saturday.