The 2022 World Lacrosse Men's U-21 Championship was the ninth edition of the international junior men's field lacrosse tournament for national teams organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) held at University of Limerick in Limerick, Ireland from August 10 to August 20. This competition was broadcast worldwide including United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Caribbean, Middle East, Africa, and Oceania.[2][3][4][5] This competition also ran alongside the Lacrosse World Festival which held from 16 to 19 August.[6] The United States won the championship with nine titles, after beating Canada 12–10 at the final.[7][1][8]
This competition was planned to be held in 2020 as an under-19 tournament, but was postponed to 2021 as an under-20 tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic,[9] and then was postponed once again to 2022 as an under-21 tournament.[10]
Pool play will determine seeding for the playoff brackets. The top four teams from Pool A go directly to the quarterfinals. The fifth-place team from Pool A, the top three teams from Pools B and C and the best fourth-place finisher from those pools will play play-in matches to decide four teams to join the quarterfinals. The four losers of the quarterfinals and the four losers of the play-in games play championship consolation matches in a knock-out format.
In the Platinum play-ins, the second-ranked team in Pool D (D2) plays with E2 (Game 49) where the winner goes to the Platinum semifinal. Similarly, E4 plays with D4 (Game 48), D3 with E5 (Game 46), and D5 with E3 (Game 45). The three winners play with B4/C4, E1, and D1, respectively (Games 52, 55, and 58) where the winners go to the Platinum semifinal (13th to 16th). The loser of D2 vs. E2 faces the loser of D3 vs. E5 (Game 57), and the loser of E3 vs. D5 faces the loser of E4 vs. D4 (Game 54).
The losers of Games 55 and 58 play a consolation game (Game 60) where the loser of this game plays a consolation game with the loser of Game 52 (Game 71). The losers of the Games 54 and 57 play a placement game where the loser becomes the 23rd-ranked team, while the winner faces the loser of the Game 60 to decide the 21st-ranked team.
The winner of the Games 60, 54, and 57, and the loser of the Game 52 play a knock-out tournament to decide 17th to 20th ranked teams.