2023 China Open 9 Ball (7-10 September), Shanghai. Winner $40K

I watched one of the finals links this morning for a few min. It looked like someone was pointing a streaming camera to their iPhone. I saw the phone in their hand and they flipped it around. I gave up after a couple minutes. I wonder what the original quality was like for viewers within China.
 
Gotta say 1 on the spot with a template rack and no break box is just absolutely revolting pool to me. That controlled break is every bit of an abomination as Corey's original soft break. I don't fault the players but I do fault the event organizers. Even the exhibition match between James Aranas and Siming Chen showcased that a bit. He had a 50% break and run percentage and she had 0% because it seems the women haven't taken the time to learn how to exploit that break like the men have. Given their FargoRatings, what's the odds of him having a 15-5 outcome against her in a normal less broken/exploited format.
 
MattPoland said:
Gotta say 1 on the spot with a template rack and no break box is just absolutely revolting pool to me. That controlled break is every bit of an abomination as Corey's original soft break. I don't fault the players but I do fault the event organizers. Even the exhibition match between James Aranas and Siming Chen showcased that a bit. He had a 50% break and run percentage and she had 0% because it seems the women haven't taken the time to learn how to exploit that break like the men have. Given their FargoRatings, what's the odds of him having a 15-5 outcome against her in a normal less broken/exploited format.
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yep, it was made very obvious how broken that break format is. i saw ko soft break, corner ball wired, one ball dollied up in the same position every single rack. the tight pockets got him one or two times, other than that it was painfully predictable. can't blame the players ofc.
 
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MattPoland said:
Gotta say 1 on the spot with a template rack and no break box is just absolutely revolting pool to me. That controlled break is every bit of an abomination as Corey's original soft break. I don't fault the players but I do fault the event organizers. Even the exhibition match between James Aranas and Siming Chen showcased that a bit. He had a 50% break and run percentage and she had 0% because it seems the women haven't taken the time to learn how to exploit that break like the men have. Given their FargoRatings, what's the odds of him having a 15-5 outcome against her in a normal less broken/exploited format.
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What match are you referring to? I haven’t seen it. I saw most of the one with SVB, and her break stats were quite good.
 
skogstokig said:
yep, it was made very obvious how broken that break format is. i saw ko soft break, corner ball wired, one ball dollied up in the same position every single rack. the tight pockets got him one or two times, other than that it was painfully predictable. can't blame the players ofc.
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Anton was doing that break in the final. I did say I don't blame the players but I will admit he had some bad luck with it whether the ref loose racked the template, he hit it a little soft, missed the wing ball, violated the 3 point rule, or got hooked by the uptable ball and I took joy in his pain.
And honestly Josh knows how to exploit it too but differently. Instead of sending the 1-ball softly under the side pocket to lay up one-rail in front of the opposite corner pocket, Josh was sending the 1-ball more firmly on a two-rail track above the side pocket, toward the center of the top rail and layed up in front of the other side pocket (maybe up the long rail a little). It's almost just as controlled but at least he is whacking it a bit firmer and getting more balls moving.
 
Jimmorrison said:
W

What match are you referring to? I haven’t seen it. I saw most of the one with SVB, and her break stats were quite good.
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Her break stats were bad here. I assume because she saw James doing the controlled break and knew she couldn't win without serving it right back to him. But he's one of the best in the world at it (like Ko Pin Yi, Anton Raga, Wojciech Szewczyk, and a few others) and she couldn't get the cueball under control to make it work right.
 
This was my spreadsheet tracking the action of that match. It was lame they couldn't put the score on screen.

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MattPoland said:
Yeah, on Windows Open a while back. They were asking about his upcoming schedule and he cited that as why he wouldn't fly all the way to China.
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China and Russia support each other. Is it possible PRC officials would deport Fedor back to Russia?
 
skogstokig said:
i think it was fedor that said he wouldn't bother going to 1 on the spot tournaments
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And right after winning the recent Turning Stone event Gorst said he might not enter the next one because of the break rules (not doing it Matchroom's way in a Matchroom ranking event).
 
iusedtoberich said:
I watched one of the finals links this morning for a few min. It looked like someone was pointing a streaming camera to their iPhone. I saw the phone in their hand and they flipped it around. I gave up after a couple minutes. I wonder what the original quality was like for viewers within China.
Click to expand...
I argued several years back, that I felt 1 on the spot with a template rack, could deliver skewed Fargo ratings, as it's a much more binary game. You either have that break figured out or you don't. I'm surprised to hear Siming didn't have that break working because I'm pretty sure she had it pretty well calibrated going back a few years.

I like Marchroom's break rules, but I fear they will need to stay ahead of the players on this. Otherwise, we'll wake up and all of a sudden all the players will have their setup perfectly figured out. Unfortunately, 9 Ball just isn't as timeless as snooker and it will need to be continually updated to keep it properly competitive. The trick will be tweaking the game just so, while not confusing the growing fan base.

I'm with you on not watching 1 on the spot template rack pool.

***Quoted wrong post but oh well***
 
BasementDweller said:
I'm surprised to hear Siming didn't have that break working because I'm pretty sure she had it pretty well calibrated going back a few years.
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it seems siming is a full time chinese 8-ball player now. this event was probably a rare exception, i doubt we will see her playing rotation games much
 
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