'World Nine-ball Tour'............Matchroom announcement
- Thread starter garczar
- Start date
So do most pizza chains.
The US has a different approach. Deprivation.
Many of the 9-Ball events in Cuescore are small local club/league events for amateurs and many are handicapped. When you get to the larger events with more top players, 10-Ball becomes more prominent. In the last several days, we've put into FargoRate Barcelona (10-Ball) pool tour, Belgian Pool tour 10-Ball events, regional championship 10-Ball events in Netherlands, 10-Ball events in Luxembourg, Swedish Pool Tour elite event 10-Ball...
9-Ball can be a good game for top players when the equipment is sufficiently challenging. For typical tables used in most billiard clubs and tournaments and even championship events, 9-Ball is a bit too easy at the high level, and 10-Ball does a better job teasing out the skill differences.
I agree with you, Stu, in that it's time for the WPA to modernize it's organization. But there are issues on both sides of this. We shouldn't forget that the WPA did bring many big international events to players over the years with large prize funds. Those contracts were not easy to negotiate. The WPA also insured that the choosing of the players was the fairest way possible for all countries.
Matchroom, on the other hand, is a sports production company, looking to maximize their production value, thus hand-picking players at times to be included in their events. Wild cards are good for that purpose, and each organizer gets their share, however, going beyond a reasonable limit starts to affect the integrity of an event.
If Matchroom wants to go legit now, and it seems like they do, then they will have to make some compromises regarding manipulating events for production value.
I think the move now for the WPA is with UNITY. It should choose a location and call a meeting with all the WPA contracted event organizers and Matchroom. Everything should be up front and on the table for discussion. I think by talking it out with all the organizers, a solution can be found that works for everyone.
agree 100%. WPA is a bunch of broke-dick bureaucrat stuffed shirts. no one needs or wants them.
Does your data show more upsets (based on Fargo Rate) in 9 ball over 10 ball? I think you have a video somewhere explaining why a Fargo rating is a good predictor regardless of the game.
I think I just hadn't yet found this link to the schedule.
matchroompool.com
Schedule - Matchroom Pool
matchroompool.com
Thanks for your well-reasoned and well-presented response, Fran. I think we are eye to eye on the extent of the contributions to the sport that the WPA has made over the years.
Like you, I think a solution is possible but it's hard not to get the feeling that WPA is becoming a bit too contentious, choosing what has the feel of vigilance over a path of unity in our sport.
I think we want the same exact things in our sport. Let's see if we can get there.
Here's my attempt to parse this. EDIT: I cleaned up some parsing errors and updated the images to be more accurate.
Last edited:
for transparency it should be noted that mike and fargorate are involved in the predator 10-ball tour.
And here's another way to see them all.
Anybody know which of these events are truly new?
Anybody know which of these events are truly new?
i'm curious of this wild west approach. does it mean i'm a world champion since i set up a world championship in my basement? WPA may be incompetent but nevertheless all sports need governing bodies. barry hearn may be a genius in many ways but this move wasn't a genius move
i guess the new ones of significance are the asia open and the spanish open
This version is color coded because I wanted to see when the “tour” jumped continents or get a sense what pros would attend vs. skip. And what would the US second tier folks attend to get some ranking points without likely facing too many international contenders.
I saw a report of Mike Zuglan being surprised that Turning Stone was a Matchroom ranking event. Anyone know what the story there is?
Wow, Mosconi Cup prize money is $375,000? That seems way higher than the past.
I remember reading that myself, that must have been at recent Turning Stone Classic XXXVI. But having browsed through the reports in the Stories section, I can not find it mentioned, let alone the exact quote.
To add some confusing contrast, here's an extract from The Billiard Buzz, October 2022 issue:
Weird that as the event unfolded, Mike was not just surprised, but perhaps infuriated about TS being associated with Matchroom rankings.
EDIT: oh well, I discovered I was so amazed back in January that I kept this intriguing part:
[...] Zuglan’s rant at the players meeting.
He said he was never approached regarding TS being a ranking event for MR. He made it abundantly clear he’s not affiliated with what MR is doing. He mocked the MC as being only $30k for the winners and how players could spend that just to try to be on it, just for what, to want to be on TV.
He rebukes the sentiment it would make his tournament any better, citing how over half the field for this event filled up on site at the last event and then sold out within 3 days.
Last edited:
THIS
What Francesca said.First, WPA gladly welcome Matchroom back into pool business, basically selling them the 9-Ball Worlds forever. Most of you remember good old times of Cardiff, Wales, with those beautiful events (with round robin stages, mind you).
Next, Matchroom introduce their own ranking system. Then, to quote Barry Hearn, they wanted to have more skin there. And overrule the WPA with their own system. Looks very much like a riot. Instead of trying to cooperate, they did a Matchroom. "You are either with us or we are going to step over you. Oh, and by the way, here's your money. Please keep silent".
Trying to fight a structure of the sport (its integrity, I'd say) was a poor move by Matchroom. As much as throwing pool games other than 9-ball out.
WPA had to react. I don't quite get though why they decided to leave 9-ball whatsoever, as it seems for now.
21 minutes into this video Zuglan goes on an epic rant. As you can hear the player’s meeting over the PA. He’s commenting on people pressuring him to adopt the Matchroom break rules. At one point in the rant he says nobody asked him to be a ranking event, they just did it. He goes into a some weird places through the rant.
Link to video