Mosconi Cup Team - USA

Year after year the "nominate Earl for the team" discussion returns and in my eyes this is just another indication, that US pool was in a downward spiral for the past 15 years.
That said, I hope guys like Styer are a promise for the future and I think there are many young US players, who have a lot of potential.

But if you look at the Europeans, no one would think about bringing back Souquet , who is, like Earl, still a great player, but, also like Earl, well past his prime.

Souquet, is closing in on retirement in style...just let Earl do the same.
Nobody is pining for Earl to come back. We all know what he is. But we might have to bring his ass back! We are desperate for top gear pool players on our Mosconi Cup team. Unfortunately, our talent pool is so depleted that Earl keeps making the discussion.

Your example of Ralph Souqet makes perfect sense for the European team…but if Ralph were American, he’d be the 5th highest FargoRate (792) in the US! And two of the four people above him (Dechaine and Bergman) are basically retired.

We’d be begging Souqet to play if he was American!

So yah…we all wish the Earl conversation would die…but until our talent level rises in the US or his talent level finally depletes…we have to keep talking about it as a serious consideration.
 
When can a woman be selected for the Mosconi cup?
Hopefully not until they have earned it through merit by being one of five best choices. This is first and foremost supposed to be about pool ability and people shouldn't be getting handed things that others are more qualified for just because they have a vagina or a certain skin color.
 
The Mosconi Team is comparable to an astronaut team. Its political, sometimes nation cooperation is important and sometimes gender participation is important. How fans fight for there favorite champions is a metric of progress.
 
The Mosconi Team is comparable to an astronaut team. Its political, sometimes nation cooperation is important and sometimes gender participation is important. How fans fight for there favorite champions is a metric of progress.
What a load a horse sh!t. The Mosconi Cup is first and foremost about putting forth the best talent possible to try to win, along with some additional considerations such as that they will conduct themselves in a way so as to be a decent representative for their country rather than an embarrassment etc. Things like pool ability are merit. Conduct is merit. Ability to get along with teammates is merit, etc. As is the case with most other things as well, what isn't merit is having a vagina or a certain skin color, and giving handouts based on racist and sexist things like that is the exact opposite of progress. Progress would be people always getting what they've earned based on merit, and sex organs and skin colors are never merit.
 
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What a load a horse sh!t. The Mosconi Cup is first and foremost about putting forth the best talent possible to try to win, along with some additional considerations such as that they will conduct themselves in a way so as to be a decent representative for their country rather than an embarrassment etc. Things like pool ability are merit. Conduct is merit. Ability to get along with teammates is merit, etc. As is the case with most other things as well, what isn't merit is having a vagina or a certain skin color, and giving handouts based on racist and sexist things like that is the opposite of progress. Progress is people getting what they've earned based on merit.

You favor one standard for all, that argument holds no water because the existence of the WPBA. There is a reason men are not allowed to compete in womens events.
 
You favor one standard for all, that argument holds no water because the existence of the WPBA. There is a reason men are not allowed to compete in womens events.
And I would have no problem with it if they want to have an all women's Mosconi Cup just like they have the all women's WPBA.

But for the Mosconi Cup where one of the primary goals is fielding the five person team from your country/continent that gives you the best chance of winning, as this one is about, then what sex organ or skin color you have is immaterial and clearly not "merit" and therefore shouldn't be any part of the consideration.
 
And I would have no problem with it if they want to have an all women's Mosconi Cup just like they have the all women's WPBA.

But for the Mosconi Cup where one of the primary goals is fielding the best five person team from your country/continent that gives you the best chance of winning, as is the case with this one, then what sex organ or skin color you have is immaterial and clearly not "merit" and therefore shouldn't be part of the consideration.

How matchroom and the WPBA decide to establish this groundbreaking policy is not known. Your definition of merit is based in Matchrooms. Let the WPBA and Matchroom decide how consideration for a women is made.

Until that point your just talking about what ifs you have no control over.

As a fan of all pool players, I hope a women is chosen for the team in the future.
 
How matchroom and the WPBA decide to establish this groundbreaking policy is not known. Your definition of merit is based in Matchrooms. Let the WPBA and Matchroom decide how consideration for a women is made.

Until that point your just talking about what ifs you have no control over.

As a fan of all pool players, I hope a women is chosen for the team in the future.
Are you really trying to claim that trying to put forth the best teams to win along with having the most appeal for spectators haven't been the two main goals all along? For the record both of those things require the level of skill to be among the highest, and women just aren't there yet based on merit.

As a fan of all pool players I hope one day some women will be able to make the team based on merit.

Also, there is nothing "groundbreaking" about being a sexist or a racist and discriminating based on sex or race rather than just using merit. Its quite despicable actually.
 
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How matchroom and the WPBA decide to establish this groundbreaking policy is not known. Your definition of merit is based in Matchrooms. Let the WPBA and Matchroom decide how consideration for a women is made.

Until that point your just talking about what ifs you have no control over.

As a fan of all pool players, I hope a women is chosen for the team in the future.
The following changes to Mosconi would make the event so much more interesting:
- Team North America, Team Europe, and Team Asia, two teams compete each year. Loser sits out the following year and licks their wounds. Adding in Canada and Mexico puts Alex and Morra in the discussion. North America‘s 500 million still draws from a smaller population than Europe’s 748+ million and Asia’s 2+ billion, but oh well.
- 1 or 2 women minimum on a team of 6-10.
- Include additional disciplines beyond 9-ball on a 9-foot table. Include 8-ball on bar box, 10-ball on 10-footer, 15-ball, banks, 14.1, one-pocket, snooker, and possibly 3-cushion. Singles and scotch on applicable disciplines. If so many games is too complicated, each continent competing in a given year selects two disciplines.

Would be a better all-around test of a continent’s cuesports abilities.
 
The following changes to Mosconi would make the event so much more interesting:
- Team North America, Team Europe, and Team Asia, two teams compete each year. Loser sits out the following year and licks their wounds. Adding in Canada and Mexico puts Alex and Morra in the discussion. North America‘s 500 million still draws from a smaller population than Europe’s 748+ million and Asia’s 2+ billion, but oh well.
- 1 or 2 women minimum on a team of 6-10.
- Include additional disciplines beyond 9-ball on a 9-foot table. Include 8-ball on bar box, 10-ball on 10-footer, 15-ball, banks, 14.1, one-pocket, snooker, and possibly 3-cushion. Singles and scotch on applicable disciplines. If so many games is too complicated, each continent competing in a given year selects two disciplines.

Would be a better all-around test of a continent’s cuesports abilities.

Great point that means Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, PI, Japan would have to conform to a Matchroom event format.

Team Asia is too broad. Having a minimum inclusion for women will help promote the development of pro women players.

Great ideas.
 
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Styer picked for Team USA.
 
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Shaw picked for Team Europe. This didn’t exactly surprise me, but I’d say it was based more on leadership/experience than results this year.

Every year there has to be at least 10 guys that wonder they have to do to make Team Europe. Even when they play good enough they still can’t make it.
 
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Shaw picked for Team Europe. This didn’t exactly surprise me, but I’d say it was based more on leadership/experience than results this year.

Every year there has to be at least 10 guys that wonder they have to do to make Team Europe. Even when they play good enough they still can’t make it.
As he's the MVP of the last two Mosconi Cups, the Shaw pick made sense.

Szewczyk, on the other hand, has a Fargo of 813 and is the reigning World 10-ball champion and he's probably not even under consideration, as there's nobody anywhere that would rate him over Fedor Gorst.
 
Well done. Tyler clearly belongs on the team based on his 2022 form. Wishing him the best of luck.
Going way out on a dead limb here, but I predict Steyr will be the Mosconi Cup 2022 MVP. Just have a feeling about it for some reason.
 
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