Perfect Game and PBR: Understanding Youth and High School Baseball Tournaments

Across the country, youth baseball is packed with tournaments, showcases, and rankings. Here’s a quick breakdown of the biggest names you’ll run into — and how they shape a player’s path.

Perfect Game

Perfect Game (PG) is the biggest tournament and showcase company in the country. The heart of PG’s baseball universe is East Cobb, Georgia, which is about an hour northwest of downtown Atlanta. PG runs events year-round primarily in the south. At the youth level, PG runs tournaments starting at the 9u level. It ranks teams at all ages based on their performance at its tournament. Better performing teams have access to more exclusive tournaments with tougher competition. The company also ranks individual players beginning at the 12u level. Players generally have to spend upwards of $700 to attend a showcase where metrics like 60 yard time and throwing velocity are taken along with batting practice and a game as inputs to scouts’ rankings. Top players at the youth level are invited to All-State Games for each age group or other events cumulating with an invitation to Select Fest.

At the high school level, PG’s best-known tournament is the World Wood Bat Association (WWBA) championship in the summer. WWBA is the largest and longest of the tournaments and it’s like running a marathon to win requiring a large, deep pitching staff. There is a fall version of WWBA, which takes place in Jupiter Florida and ends the fall baseball season with significant attendance by MLB teams. PG’s other top tournaments include Beast of the East, Baseball Championship Series (BCS) and the World Series. Most major events at this level require wood bats with the exception of BCS.

At an individual player level, Perfect Game runs the PG National, an event that brings together many of the top high school seniors for a game at a MLB stadium. For underclassmen, the Underclass All American Games is the culmination of the season. To attend these events, players must tryout at the two-day National Showcase or Junior National Showcase, which each cost $1,000.

PBR

Prep Baseball Report (PBR) is another version of PG at a smaller scale. PBR runs all of their major tournaments out of Lake Point Georgia (down the road from East Cobb) with smaller tournaments scattered across the country. PBR’s high school season kicks off in June with the National Program Invitational (NPI) followed by its National Championship.

Unlike PG, PBR has state-based scouts that attend high school games to report on players. The frequency and quality of the reporting varies significantly by state. Like PG, the company also runs showcases across the country and ranks players. PBR’s showcases are at a lower price point, but offer a more thorough analysis of players. The combination of volume of showcases and geographical scout coverage gives PBR a broader view of players at the high school level nationwide.

As with PG, PBR has cornerstone individual player events. It runs State Games at the local level that the lead to its Futures Games and Junior Futures Games at Lake Point for stand out players. Held in late July, the Futures Games are heavily attended by college coaches preparing to recruit players for their freshman classes when the August 1st recruiting kickoff date passes. Equivalent to PG’s National, PBR also holds its All American Game in September at an MLB park. In the winter, PBR runs the Super 60 showcase in Chicago. Super 60 highlights seniors hoping to raise their draft stock before the beginning of the high school season.

Other Tournament Organizers

There are several other tournament organizers that are more regionally based. These include USSSA, Baseball Factory, Prospect Select, Future Stars Series (FSS), Primetime and Top Gun. United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) is a large youth focused tournament organizer that seems to fade away at the high school level. Top Gun is also youth oriented an attracts some of the least competitive teams. FSS focuses on high school and offers showcases and rankings, but they’re not followed to the level of PG or PBR.

Event Selection

The selection of tournaments is driven by your coach and baseball organization. It’s generally very regionally driven and also based on the relationship between the teams and tournaments (for discounts). For National teams at the high school level, many primarily play Perfect Game and may mix in PBR or another regional one to ensure broader exposure for player rankings. USA Baseball also enters the picture here by hosting the National Team Championships (NTC), which is the premium event of the summer and highly selective of the 16-24 teams that participate. At the youth level, USAB holds the Futures Invitation event. You can see an example of the 2024 baseball event schedule for elite high school players at this link.