I looked at the records of Thorpe and Verner this year.
Lukas ended up with more points - 21,700 vs 18,450 for Billy.
More than half of Verner’s points came from a flurry of events earlier in the year in the U.S. The Beasley Open (5,100), The Diamond Open (4,100) and the McDermott Open (1,500),
His best finish in a Matchroom major was top 32 in the Philippines Open. But he lost to the first really good player he faced, Jeffrey Roda.
Verner’s best wins this year were over Tyler Styer and Ralf Souquet, from what I could find.
He’s lost to Alexander Kazakis, Felix Vogel, Cory Deuel, Sanjin Pelivanovic, Fedor Gorst, Ko Pin Yi, Albin Ouschan, Aleksa Pecelj, Skyler Woodward, David Alcaide, Robbie Capito.
Verner did beat Thorpe, 9-8, in a head to head match at Beasley in the semifinals. Thorpe beat Lukas 9-3 in the mini-Derby 9 ball event.
Thorpe got the bulk of his points from quarterfinal finishes at the Derby Classic (4,000) and Peri Open (6,000), both of which were stacked fields. He lost twice to Gorst, 9-8, at Derby and was beaten 10-1 by Ko Ping Chung in Peri.
Thorpe had some notable wins this year. He beat Alexander Pecelj twice, Mickey Krause, Wiktor Zielenski.
In his career, he’s also beaten Filler in the Mosconi, Carlo Biado, SVB and other top names.
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I can’t say the performance between Thorpe and Verner were much different this year. But Billy can and has beaten some of the best established players in the world.
Lukas doesn’t seem to have any career wins this year or really ever. He has lost to virtually every top established player he has played. Nor has he ever gotten very far in a big event like WNT major or the Peri. This is a hump he needs to get over.
I think Billy is the best choice this year. If Lukas takes another big step up in 2026, he’ll be primed to play on the Mosconi.
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