Since 1993, the league has had 16 teams: one representing each province, and one for the city ofHavana. Each team is made up of players from the province it represents. In Havana, most of the top tier players take the field for Industriales, traditionally the strongest team in the league. Other typically strong teams include those from Santiago de Cuba, Pinar del Río and Villa Clara. The 96-game regular season stretches from early August until late January, split into two halves - the fall period stretches from August to early October and the winter period from late October to early January the following year, and culminates with a six team postseason tournament in January to decide the league champion, the winner of which then goes on, since 2015, to become the Cuban representative to the Caribbean Series. Since the 2008-2009 championship, the Cuban League has been reorganized - qualification is by zones, and not in groups as it had been the previous 15 years. In the 2011-2012 series, there were 17 competing teams, since Havana Province was split into two provinces: Artemisa Province and Mayabeque Province. Thus, the Western League had 9 teams. The Artemisa team were named "Hunters", and the Mayabeque team "Hurricanes". Beginning with the 2012-13 season, the Metropolitanos, long seen as the "farm team" of Havana's other team, powerhouse Industriales, will no longer field a team. This brings the number of competing teams back down to 16. The Cuban National Series is the beginning of the preparation for all the selection for the formation of the Cuban national baseball team players for international competitions during the summer, as well as for the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics. The Cuban National Team Preselection is selected from the Series and Havana is the venue for team practice games before international competitions. Sometimes more than one team can be asked to select players for international duty as part of the national team. To accommodate the 2013 World Baseball Classic, the league took a six-week break after the February 3rdAll-Star Game. The Series Nacional played a shortened 45 game season, with all 16 teams competing in a single table format. The bottom 8 seeded team then played amongst themselves in the consolation round, while the top 8 seeded teams did the same for the championship. In 2014, the consolation round format for the midseason was officially adopted, effectively making it a de factowild card game with the winners having a chance to make it to the postseason. The designated hitter is used in all games, in addition, the CNS All Star Game is held yearly in the middle of the regular season in between the phrases.
