Mosconi Cup Day One

Razor

Lex Parsimoniae
Silver Member
He and some of the other Team Europe members seem to be exhibiting a poor mannerism. I don't like it.

Why is Karl Boyes commentating now if he's Team Europe vice captain? I like him, though, so it's cool with me. His thick accent, though, is hard for me to understand. Sounds like he's from Scotland more than England.

That referee, wait a minute. He's a snooker referee, I think.
Yes, Marcel Eckardt. Fine snooker referee, youngest ever to referee a World Snooker Championship Final, this years 2020 event.
 
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markjames

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i am guilty of this.
i definitely complain more about 9 ball
when a big 9 ball event is happening.
but i try not to do it on a pool forum.
 

MattPoland

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
They are using the Aramith Tournament Black balls. These were also used at last year's Mosconi Cup, provoking quite a bit of discussion (such as this thread -- https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/the-new-aramith-tournament-balls.502795/).

Here is Saluc's explanation for the colors: https://www.aramith.com/story-behind-aramith-tournament-black-colours.

I get it. It’s dumb. 4 is purple. 5 is orange. SD TVs had trouble with the 4 and 2. So the 4 became pink. Now we have HD. But they wanted to still improve on it. They assumed the TV colors were what people are familiar with. They assumed wrong. People are familiar with what they play with, not what they saw on ESPN in the 90s.

They could have made the 4 light purple and the 5 could have been skittle orange. Or if you want to swap anything, the 5 could have been pink. It’s about as dumb as swapping snooker colors and making the pink into purple and making the blue into pink.


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Catalin

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
He and some of the other Team Europe members seem to be exhibiting a poor mannerism. I don't like it..[/QUOTE
Were we watching the same games? If anything, the players were the most restrained I have ever seen them.

QUOTE="JAM, post: 6811024, member: 2568"That referee, wait a minute. He's a snooker referee, I think.
He has always been the referee for the past few years at least.


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JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yes, Marcel Eckardt. Fine snooker referee, youngest ever to referee a World Snooker Championship Final, this years 2020 event.
Thanks for the info. I have been watching snooker more in recent years, and truth be told, I just never noticed him at the Mosconi Cup before.
 

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
That's understandable, Jay, and to me, it's perfectly acceptable.. What these ten players have in common is that they've been denied an opportunity to earn a living in their profession this year.

The Mosconi, in most other years, brings us players that have been successful in competition in the year leading up to the event. Not so this year, for nearly every tournament since March has been cancelled. Hence, the $30,000 pot of gold at the end of the Mosconi rainbow will mean more to each of these players than it ever has before.

Yes, they're all out for blood, and the camaraderie may be far less than in a year in which the event brought us players that had solid years in competition, but I think that's OK, for there's nothing normal about the 2020 Mosconi. Through day one, the event has been forgettable, but like you, I think it may prove memorable before the smoke clears.
I agree with this thought. The global pandemic really has affected an industry that was already suffering due to societal changes. The smoking ban did hurt a lot of pool rooms, as an example, but now that I'm a non-smoker, I support the bans. One cannot realize how much smoking inside sucks unless you're a non-smoker.

Business has also diminished in USA for pool rooms due to high rents. Truth be told, we are a very small culture, we pool people in USA. There's just not the popularity here that there is, say, in Asian countries.

European players do travel the world and attend events more than the Americans, what few American players we have that are willing to travel.

For me, this year's Mosconi Cup is not the lackluster performance it usually is, through no fault of Matchroom. They are doing everything possible to make this a success, and they could have just said no Mosconi Cup this year, but they didn't. For that, I am grateful and appreciative.

The background noise in the place is distracting, but I'm more sensitive to audio sounds, especially background noise, than others due to my job.

I give Matchroom 10 stars for the quality of the production. The players' performances and personas shared, well, let's just hope Day 2 is more professional caliber and exciting at the same time. :cool:
 

fiftyyardline

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Their explanation makes zero sense to anyone! If you have to switch from orange to pink, so be it, but do it for the 5-ball and keep the 4-ball purple!
Yes - exactly my thinking too. Changing the five ball from orange to pink would have been fine and leave the four ball their slightly different shade of purple. I would not buy this ball set - I also don’t like the black ring on all the stripes.
 

Catalin

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yes - exactly my thinking too. Changing the five ball from orange to pink would have been fine and leave the four ball their slightly different shade of purple. I would not buy this ball set - I also don’t like the black ring on all the stripes.
That set has both options, the stripes come in either white or black your choice. Matchroom decided to use the black version for the 9 ball for the first time last year. Since there is only one stripe on the table I don't think it's an issue and it makes the money ball stand out more for the general public. It also makes it impossible to confuse it with the 1, which happens a lot when I watch pool on YouTube with certain camera angles and lighting.

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surlytempo

Member
Some of ya'll are a bunch of nits. Crying about the color of balls? Jesus fuck, get over yourselves. They're not even that bad.
 

JAM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I guess we all know about sponsors and product. The sponsor is promoting these balls via Mosconi Cup.

Back in 2005, I think it was, at the Glass City Open in Toledo, I was allowed in the players meeting before the semifinals. Hillbilly won the event, and Kid Delicious came in second. Each player was offered money if they'd play in the semifinals, which was televised, BTW, with these balls. All of them said, "No, thank you." Look at Troy Frank looking at the black cue ball. Yuck! Pat Fleming had difficulty containing his laughter, as did Corey.
 

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S.Vaskovskyi

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
So as the starting match of day 2 is a fan's choice ...well I have a feeling that a rematch of the last match of MC 2019 might get the most votes...
At least this match got my vote and if it happens it's going to be a very important one for the session and the winning side getting the momentum and some confidence.
Baring in mind all the curcumstances race to 5 between these players.... it's gonna be interesting and quite difficult to predict = I'm looking forward to watch it if my feeling does not fail)... I believe if JF wins it could become the start of the end for the opposite team. Anyway it is a huge point for both teams but especially for team USA so not letting team Europe to get that boost in their confidence...
 
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pt109

WO double hemlock
Silver Member
Corey is having trouble spinning on new cloth with new balls..whitey is slipping off his tip.
....I bet he hit a lot of balls as soon as he got the chance.
Squirt is magnified with new balls and new cloth.
 

jay helfert

Shoot Pool, not people
Gold Member
Silver Member
Corey is having trouble spinning on new cloth with new balls..whitey is slipping off his tip.
....I bet he hit a lot of balls as soon as he got the chance.
Squirt is magnified with new balls and new cloth.
Agree. I saw several shots where the english just didn't take off the rail. The cue ball kind of died coming off and the player lost the position he was trying to achieve. For most of the day it looked like the players were trying to find a way to get around the table, with only limited success.
 

trob

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
MattPoland I agree. The 4 and the 5 are horrible colors. I'm not a fan of the black 9 ball either.
I’m really not a fan of that.. I would never buy the black set because of that. It’s terrible. No one needed help knowing which ball was the 9
 

surlytempo

Member
I’m a nit then....how would you like the color coding changed on electric wires...or traffic lights?
re: traffic lights, there are actually very good reasons backed by sound research for why traffic lights are the colors that they are. the same isn't true in billiards. just a bunch of old fucking goats who are too used to something being a certain way for no real reason other than tradition, looking for the first opportunity to complain. when the standard color of tournament cloth was changed from green to blue, people cried. ball color change? people cry. when rules change? people cry. material tech improvements in equipment? still crying. Pool is full of cry babies.
 
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