The ION X-Mas Tournament runs for four days and welcomes 196 teams from 19 countries. Players between the ages of 12 and 19 compete against each other, spread across twelve playing locations. “We never thought it would be this big,” says organizer Peter De Lepeleire. “The ambition was to organize something unique with strong teams from several countries, but we never dared to dream of this number.”
The size of the tournament requires a solid logistical organization. It is striking that the foreign teams stay in hotels. “That is a great luxury,” says De Lepeleire. “At international tournaments you often sleep in a school or youth hostel, but here the teams can stay in full-fledged hotels.”