LIVESTREAM Japan: IBM Big Blue v. Elecom Kobe Finies, Oct. 25, 07:00 CET, (02:00 ET, 15:00 in Japan)

The Japanese X League, the top American football league in Asia, continues its first weekend of play as the Elecom Kobe Finies face IBM Big Blue in the third game of the shortened season.

The last time these two teams met, in 2019,  IBM were surprisingly beaten 45-38 by Elecom.

IBM Big Blue missed the playoffs in 2019 but the Kobe Finies advanced to the X League semifinals in 2019 where they were defeated 31-13 by the eventual champions, the Fujitsu Frontiers.

These two teams along with the defending champion Frontiers, the Obic Seagulls, Panasonic Impulse, Nojima Sagamihara Rise and Tokyo Gas Creators, will play a three week regular season. Initially, the All Mitsubishi Lions were slated to compete but withdrew, hence the three cancelled games.

IBM Big Blue v. Elecom Kobe Finies, Oct. 25, 07:00 CET, (02:00 ET, 15:00 in Japan)

The league has been organized into two groups, Block A and Block B. The seven teams will play every other week in three rounds and the Japan XBowl on December 15 in the Tokyo Dome.

In other first round action, the Frontiers defeated Nojima Sagamihara 48-3 while Panasonic blanked the Tokyo Gas Creators 38-0. The Seagulls were idle this weekend.

The Big Blue feature Austria’s leading rusher in 2019, Herbert Gamboa.

The Frontiers defeated Panasonic in the 2019 X Bowl 28-26 in a come-from-behind thriller winning their fourth Japanese title in a row and the fifth in six years. The only team to break that streak was the Impulse who won the title in 2015 by beating, who else, the Frontiers, also in a come-from-behind win, 24-21.

Watch the game live here. IBM Big Blue v. Elecom Kobe Finies, Oct. 25, 07:00 CET, (02:00 ET, 15:00 in Japan)