To those who says Ralf Souquet is slow. Did you watch him against Johnny Archer? He won 11-3 pretty quick.
The thing that sticks out in this to me is the fact that the US had way more participants than any other country and not one in the semi's. It shows how superior the Pinoy's are.
Quarterfinals:
Williams (USA)
Orcullo (PHI)
Majid (ENG)
Kiamco (PHI)
Souquet (GER)
Archer (USA)
Boyes (ENG)
Pagulayan (PHI)
Based on continents it is spread fairly even, with Asia having 3 spots, Europe having 3 spots and North America having 2 spots.
Philippines with 3 players in the quarters, all through to semi. They started with around 8-10 players of a field of 128, so that's pretty strong.
USA with 2 players in the quarterfinals.
England and Germany filled the last 3 spots, with England having 2 of them. Both England and Germany had around 5-6 players each, I believe, so that's very strong too. England, Germany and Netherlands are the three strong countries in Europe right now, and these results partly prove that.
No matter who win this event, Philippines once again prove that they are the #1 country in the world.
People here on the forums like to talk about gambling when discussing who is the best players/countries/continents, but I think it is time for the Americans to start focus on tournaments too.
If pool ever make it big it will be with large major tournaments, and it is better to start build leagues/tours before it is too late, imo.
In this tournament, based on how many players USA had compared to the other countries, USA shouldn't be satisfied with 2 players in the quarterfinals and none in the semifinal.
We all know these things "rotate", and I think it was the BCA last year that USA had all 4 semifinalists, with Jeremy Jones winning it. But my point is, like Berry tried to say in his own way in the thread "Europe rocks", that if you take a look at the results of the major tournaments the last 5 years, Europe and Asia have performed better then North America.
Imo, especially Americans should dig into these stats, and figure out if, how and what should be done to change it to make Americans perform better in big tournaments.