Complex sentence: The format was the same as the previous tournament and again 16 nations competed-though for the first time a pre-tournament qualification match took place to decides Asia's second representative but all other competitors took part by invitation.
Split into simpler sentences: The format was the same as the previous tournament and again 16 nations competed. For the first time a pre-tournament qualification match took place to decide Asia's second representative but other than that all competitors took part by invitation.