The tournament was created by the International Hockey Federation in 2001 to broaden hockey's competitive base globally and featured the 8 teams just behind the top six teams in the world.[2][3]
South Korea won the tournament for the first time after defeating Canada 4–0 in the final, earning an automatic berth at the 2016 Champions Trophy after their absence in the previous two editions.[4]Malaysia won the third place match by defeating Ireland 4–2 to claim their first ever Champions Challenge I medal.[5] This was the last edition of the tournament that was held. The tournament was replaced by the FIH Hockey World League in the hockey calendar.[6]
Even though Spain was automatically qualified as the highest ranked team not qualified for the nextChampions Trophy or Champions Challenge I (this due to the withdrawal from participating at the 2012 Champions Trophy), they withdrew from participating. In addition, South Africa qualified as the seventh placed team in the previous edition, but also withdrew due to financial issues. Both teams were replaced by Poland and France, respectively. The following eight teams competed in this tournament.[7][8][9]