I was able to catch portions of the last two matches this morning. I was surprised the stands weren't packed. How was attendance last year, I forget now. Of course this is day 1, but we are talking about the Philippines here, not Doha.

Nobody's perfect life goes on.

sudocrushms said:

While there may have been a bug, there's no need for people to complain about it publicly. I mean, come on. It's not hard to look past it as a user and I'm sure Mike and FR would have caught it anyway.

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i must admit, i got sad checking the fargo top 100 last week. but there's another way to look at it of course, and that is to say look how good this guy was. JLC was a top 10 fargo player for as long as i've known about fargo, maybe since it's existence?

skogstokig said:

what can you say. asia is far too strong for anything not including the absolute best, like filler. and even then. who can beat biado in manila? or chua? it's always been the ultimate test to go to the philippines and play pinoys. this is the same, just amplified

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SA96 said:

Team ROW should be doing a lot better.

You have to ask questions about Jeremy Jones.

If Johan was coach for ROW, this would be a contest.

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Team Asia, imo, is not far too strong. Nor was it great on Day 1. Chua was superb and Biado was excellent. Yapp and Duong struggled a bit. Manas played to par.

The big difference was a series of major mistakes by experienced players on World Team - FSR, Woodward, Neuhausen and Shaw. The most mistakes I have ever seen in one of day of Reye/Mosconi matches.

Even Johan would not have been able to stem the tide.

Black-Balled said:

...
Or do you mean control of the balls/ position play becomes so easy it becomes Corey deuel soft break stuff?

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Yes, some kind of repeated series of shots like you see at balkline -- two preps and a drive, but of course more complicated. I heard a story of Raymond Ceulemans playing roughly the same natural to the corner multiple times in a row but I didn't see it. You need to have a way to get the balls back to the correct positions if they wander a little. Having a few different shots to restore the position might be needed.

Xenon256 said:

Wondering if Matchroom is regretting not letting Filler and SVB playing.

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Matchroom supposedly has a participation rule in place for invitations to Reyes/Mosconi. They could not change the rule suddenly and piss off all the players who complied this year.

Should the rule be there in the first place? In my view, no. Stick to the points system. But MR has every right to exclude players who skip a lot of its big events.

Team ROW should be doing a lot better.

You have to ask questions about Jeremy Jones.

If Johan was coach for ROW, this would be a contest.

Kris_b1104 said:

Actually, you can replace Manas with literally any other Filipino who isn't even on the rankings and they will play better under pressure than those two. But they are given chances and chances again as opposed to young new blood. Politics indeed.

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This is decidedly not true. I have seen a number of Filipino players crumble in the pressure cooker of a big WNT event.

I watched Chua melt down in the European Open 2024 finals vs. Mickey Krause. I've seen Jefrey Roda succumb to nerves twice in the final stages of big WNT majors. I've seen Anton Raga get the yips. And earlier this year, I saw Manas struggle and deflate during the Premier League of Pool.

Heck, Chua even struggled last year in the first Reyes Cup.

These guys might play great under pressure in money matches in Manilla with a few dozen people watching. But bigger crowds, TV cameras and being part of all-star teams can make them nervous too.

what can you say. asia is far too strong for anything not including the absolute best, like filler. and even then. who can beat biado in manila? or chua? it's always been the ultimate test to go to the philippines and play pinoys. this is the same, just amplified

Kris_b1104 said:

Sky is ranked #4 in WNT rankings for America. He was a captain's pick by JJ because they are buddies, not based on merit or performance.

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I don't think Sky was picked because he's buddies with JJ. Seems pretty clear Frazer/WNT/MR wanted a native-born American on the Team World. Since Shane didn't play in Hanoi, that left Sky as the only other option under (reportedly) existing MR bylaws.

Wondering if Matchroom is regretting not letting Filler and SVB playing.

Kris_b1104 said:

Anyone getting playback error on WNT.TV?

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Had that error figured out I was logged into phone. Check if you are logged in on another device