Royal Rumble Tournament 2024

This past weekend, the Royal Rumble tournament was held in Calgary, Alberta. Run by PrimeTime Sports, a largely B.C. based tournament holder, it was the first of 4 tournaments held outside of B.C., and first of 3 Alberta tournaments to be held this year by them. Primetime is scheduled to host 17 tournaments in B.C. this year, mostly in Vancouver, but also in Kelowna and Victoria. The Royal Rumble held last weekend was hosted by local high schools in Calgary, across 7 courts from 4 schools. The basketball clubs participating in this event were almost exclusively local, with exceptions from Canmore and Central Alberta, but there were some established clubs that put forward their top U18 teams for this event, namely Rise and Supreme Basketball from Calgary. Outside of the U18 division, this tournament was inclusive, holding brackets from age ranges U10/11 all the way up to high school, on both the men's and women's side.

For both boys and girls, the tournament was dominated at the JV level, where there were 25 boys teams playing in the U15 and U16 divisions, compared to just 4 playing in the U18 division. The girls side of the tournament was more balanced, seeing 6 teams at the Varsity level, and 9 in the Junior Varsity division.

Among the many local teams participating, by far the most active club in this tournament was Rise Basketball, where they entered 32 teams across all divisions. This is the most by a long shot, where the second most active club was Supreme, with 15 teams entered across all divisions.

One major pull that PrimeTime tournaments have is the collaboration with BallerTV in order to record and publish all tournament games. This is valuable for all travelling teams who may not be able to have parents go the games, as it makes these games available to watch at home, or share with family living elsewhere. BallerTV also plays a role for local teams, as it allows an avenue for players to receive game film to share online at a high quality.