The J.League YBC Levain Cup is back for 2024 with a brand new format that will see a record number of clubs participating in a knockout tournament that will make the competition bigger and better than ever.

All Meiji Yasuda J2 and J3 clubs take part in the competition this season, making for a record 60-team tournament where every team from Japan’s top three flights has been given a chance to hoist the trophy.

We are now into Round 2, where 40 clubs are taking part; the 17 winners from Round 1 and another 23 sides entering the competition in their quest for the cup.

The 20 Round 2 victors from these matches will then be matched up in Round 3 to determine the 10 group victors.

Those 10 remaining clubs will then meet in the Playoff Round, where they will play five home-and-away ties to whittle that set of teams down to five.

Those five will then progress to the Prime Stage, where they will be joined by Japan’s three AFC Champions League knockout stage participants from the 2023/24 competition - Yokohama F·Marinos, Kawasaki Frontale and Ventforet Kofu - to make up the quarter-finals octet.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals will also be two-legged ties, setting up the final of the 32nd annual edition of the J.League Cup.

Last year's final was an epic, with Avispa Fukuoka taking home the 2023 J.League YBC Levain Cup crown — their first-ever piece of silverware — in front of a massive crowd at the Japan National Stadium.

Who do you think will make it all the way this year?