The Men’s 8-ball Championship has 36 of the 72 players with 800 or better Fargos. Half the total.

Nearly all these 36 typically appear at most major events sponsored by the WNT, WPA or Predator.

Most of the Fargo 800 players who are missing are Filipinos - Chua, Raga, Roda, Ignacio, Regalario, etc. The Ko brothers are also absent as expected.

Among the Pinoys, Biado is the only Filipino living in the Philippines who makes most big events. Yet that hasn’t always been the case - he didn’t travel as much right before Covid.

Lee Van Corteza, who is now based in the U.S., is probably the next most traveled Pinoy, followed by De Luna and Chua.

***

By my count, only 33 of the 72 players with 800 Fargos are regular travelers to the big WNT, WPA or Predator events. Here’s the list:

Joshua Filler
Fedor Gorst
Shane Van Boening
Aloysius Yapp
Carlo Biado
Jayson Shaw
Wojciech Szewczyk
Albin Ouschan
Eklent Kaci
Quoc Hoang Duong
Naoyuki Oi
Wiktor Zielinski
Alex Kazakis
Kun Lin Wu
Moritz Neuhausen
Daniel Maciol
Robbie Capito
Lee Van Corteza
David Alcaide
Oliver Szolnoki
Max Lechner
Sanjin Pehlivanovic
Mario He
Skyler Woodward
Kledio Kaci
Pijus Labutis
Denis Grabe
Aleksa Pecelj
Mieszko Fortunski
Marco Teutscher
Tobias Bongers
Konrad Juszczyszyn

Here’s the list of sub-800 players who turn up at most big events

Jonas Souto
Mateusz Sniegocki
Ralf Souquet
John Morra
Mickey Krause
Szymon Kural
Thorsten Hohmann

dtroup64 said:

I agree with so much of your post, but I'm confused by this section. Finland is generally considered to be one of the most expensive places to live in Europe. Why would he have fewer financial burdens than a US-based player? I'll admit I don't know anything about his lifestyle. Does he not rent or own an apartment or house?

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Hmmm. Happiest country in the world. Looks like happiness does not come cheap

ratcues said:

Jerry Powers has a newer kind of UV finish that looks promising. The recommended UV light to cure is around $500 but, if you compare that to the price of a spray booth, it isn't a bad option.

I've used every type of finish over the past 30 years. Each one has its pros and cons. I still go back to auto clear. It is hard to beat the clarity and sheen.

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Its a really good and easy finish to apply, pain the butt to get a nice shine. Way to much for lights. I bought a 2 pack of UV light bars for $20 on amazon that do the job.

jbart65 said:

*Says Predator is "probably losing a lot of money in its big events." Says it's crazy to think the Predator events could actually be making money. He pointed to the prize fund for the World 8 Ball Championship - $90,000 for the winner, $42,000 for the runnerup and $21,000 for third.

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Simplistic view by a pro.
Predator is different animal from pure event promoters like MR WNT who are basically service intermediaries with limited revenue streams while Predator is a manufacturing products business. Different operating models. My guess is Predator ad spend marketing budget is few million a year and they are pumping that into the PBS business to generate revenue for their products. Say their marketing budget is $4M per year. They pump all that into PBS and PBS lose $1M a year (after adding sponsorships, entry fees and less prize funds, production costs etc). On face of it, PBS shockingly lose big money.
But assume PBS generate same revenue on their products as $4M they use to spend (before PBS) on external ads. Then in reality, they are better off by $3M. PBS tour growing bigger every year I think now total prize funds more than WNT own produced events (not including smaller events produced by others that they just add to their tour). So maybe they are not doing as badly as other people think otherwise they would have cut or run like many promoters

Bob Jewett said:

I went last year. The hotel room was, if I remember correctly, 110 euros per night and I think that included breakfast. A double might have been 150. A round-trip flight to Sarajevo from SFO, including a large bag, was $750. I don't know how Fedor got to $3500 unless he flew first class.

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Nice catch.

LGBTQIA2S+

Single set to 10 is much better.

Bergman has a very tough opening match.