I think Scott Frost hit the nail on the head. There’s too much talking coaching during shots. ‘I like this’. You’re not shooting! These guys are pros. It should be ‘Welcome to my world, you’ll shoot shots you never thought you would. I’ll make you a champion’.

Bob Jewett said:

I think it takes time. It took the Mosconi Cup over 20 years to turn into a real financial success.

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Selection is one issue, and we've beaten that to death. The other is timing.

Last year, the event took place just two days after the finals in Hanoi. This year it's four days away from Hanoi. Ideally it would be a week away.

Not sure that will be doable if the Philippines Open turns out to be a success and MR brings it back next year.

Surprised by the lighter crowds this year and last, at least early in the Reyes event. We'll see what the weekend brings.

Got to wonder what kind of attendance the Philippines Open gets next week, The Philippines might be producing more great players than fans these days!

Observations on the first day here.

It's a beautiful arena and a First Class production, with a similar look and feel as the MC. The crowd was sparse at first but grew to several hundred by the end of match one. They were loud and partisan, but respectful of all the players.

What looked like a good match on paper turned into a first day rout, with Team ROW making countless unforced errors and Team Asia taking advantage of every one. The Rasson table is unforgiving and you must take full focus on every shot or whoops another miss.

As I somewhat expected AJ Manas showed up big time. The crowd loved him and he responded with solid pool. Carlo is the team leader of Asia and he played like it, smooth and strong every inning. ROW has no real player leader and that showed too. David Alcaide seemed to be the dedacto captain giving support to all their players.

VVP said:

Jayson Is not nearly what he used to be. Let's see his showmanship when he gets his butt kicked. Matter of fact, he is known to make excuses whenever he loses. BTW, MVP for Mosconi is based on a point system and Jayson played most matches in the those he won MVP, nothing spectacular about that.

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Shaw has had a solid year. Not great. No big wins. But fairly consistent.

9th in the Scottish Open
5th in the UK Open
Final 32 WPC
Final 32 Florida Open
Final 16 US Open
Final 16 WPA 10-ball World Championship
Final 16 Hanoi Open

Is he dropping off? I am not sure. He earned at least $450,000 in tourneys from 2022-24.

Next year will be big for Shaw. He just turned 38, and he probably is past his prime.

Truth is, it’s been an up and down year for almost all European players. The most consistent player has probably been Neuhausen.

Filler has had a very good year, but inconsistent by his standards. Souto, Labutis and Lechner have had their moments.

sjm said:

... I'd really like to see this event succeed in a big way. The idea is a great one, but to this point, the event is failing to live up to its potential. I have complete confidence that the good folks at Matchroom will figure out how to fix this.

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I think it takes time. It took the Mosconi Cup over 20 years to turn into a real financial success.

Taxi said:

I think a vote among AZB Forum members would've produced a more competitive ROW team than we saw today. There's no excuse for Sky to be there instead of Filler, regardless of the fact that he's a native born American.

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a vote on AZB would have led to Sky being on the team.