NEW teams have joined the Suva/Laucala Basketball League this season.
Raiwaqa giant Warriors is one of the dominant forces to enter the league, while Jats, Pitbulls Two and New Era Two are the other new teams.
With a new league format introduced this season, the organisers are hoping for a better performance from respective teams.
Suva/Laucala Basketball official and national rep Leonard Whippy said the increase in number of teams forced them to re-format the competition.
"We started our competition two weeks ago. So we have had two rounds of games so far. We have a few new teams enter our competition this year and because of this we have had to re-look and adjust our competition structure to better suit the needs of the teams as we strive to lift the standard of competition in our league," he said.
The Jats team is made up of young players who are new to the game while Pitbulls Two and New Era Two are development teams for Pitbulls and New Era.
"Warriors have joined us from Raiwaqa. They will definitely create stiff competition in the league," he said.
Whippy said they wanted to improve the standard of the competition this season.
"Our objective this season is to lift the standard of play by creating stiffer competition. We will do this by separating the teams into different grades. We will have three grades, A, B and C. This will hopefully create games where the scores are a lot closer and no team will win by a huge margin," he said. Defending champion Saints will play Warriors, Idaman and New Era in the A grade, Pitbulls One, Outcydaz, Baseliners and Noobies will compete in the B grade and the C grade consists of Jats, New Era Two, and Pitbulls Two.
"Competition so far has been good. We are happy with the increase in the number of teams. We hope that through this competition format that the standard of play will increase," Whippy added.