And now Gorst is also out at the hands of Szewzcyk.
By the way Chang Jun-Lin faced Hijikata at Stage 1 and also lost (yet on double hill), so no surprises he got beat by the same opponent again.
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Predator WPA World 8 Ball Championship 2023 (17-22 Oct 2023), Austria, Winner $75K
- Thread starter spartan
- Start date
By the way Chang Jun-Lin faced Hijikata at Stage 1 and also lost (yet on double hill), so no surprises he got beat by the same opponent again.
Agreed, but that's not what I meant. Yes, some of the best cueists everywhere are taking a shot at the huge prize money offered by Chinese 8-ball.
What I'm wondering is whether the game will become popular with European and American fans and whether we'll see the game played much in Europe and America anytime soon.
coin flip. a slug rack here, a dry break there. filler could've won, lechner could've won. i jumped between the two matches and i don't think i saw anyone miss an open ball
Ah, probably never. As we know, cue sports have regional preference. Pyramid in ex-USSR, pool in the US and the Philippines and Taiwan, carom in continental Europe and Latin America (US past years), snooker on the island. The mix is always there but never moving the game of preference from the top. And as long as Chinese 8-Ball is an artificially made novelty, I bet is stays only with the Chinese people. You must have seen pool halls with dozens of tables there, all busy. They are having a bug, but the game is theirs
They need to play by biker-bar rules.
There's something to this. Maybe whoever wins the lag gets to introduce one arcane bar rule for the match. Like the eight has to bank, or go into the same pocket as your last ball.
Filler didn't miss any open shots, but Lechner missed twice. Both of them fouled once. 6 B&Rs for Filler, 5 for Lechner.
IMO never. Even if China had a 1MM added event every month, I don't think the game would pick up at all in the USA. It's like Snooker, the tables are just too different. Half the shots are impossible due to the rounds of the pockets. It would also require clubs to buy new tables, a large capital expense. The only thing I see possibly happening is a handful of pros going to China once a year, then the rest of the year playing 9 ball as they enjoy. Which is basically what they are doing now.
Actually, that's the same as what's happening with this 8-ball event. There is one tournament per year, this 8-ball WC (when it's held, of course), and then zero the rest of the year. No pro is practicing 8 ball for fun. I even doubt they practiced it before this event. Probably even during the IPT days the pros were practicing 9 ball most of the time
Americans like the CB to zing around the table, see tough shots, see high speed shots, etc. That's 9 ball. Even straight pool has more of those shots than 8 ball, because the player is going into the rack a lot.
Believe it or not, the Chinese players make those kind of shots. And good observers of the game like SVB for example can duplicate that too. Several players I know have just returned from one of the invitationals, been talking to them a little.
Yeah, the break and runs are coming awful easy for the top guys. Based on a remark made by a commentator, there was a seven pack and three six packs in Stage 1 alone.
Filler's errors were occasional and were with the cue ball. He did have an opportunity in one rack to play the eight ball via a carom but chose to play safe instead and lost the rack. He also tried to break open a cluster at the bottom of the table and missed it completely, leading to a scratch. I feel the play was about even, as the double hill score suggests.
I checked out a couple of matches today. A run-fest is unique and sometimes engaging.
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Thanks, that's a plausible explanation. If so, he had a miss. I thought he was only trying to draw into Lechner's ball.
I agree with Stu (and Ouschan) that it was a safety. The strike on the 8-ball was nowhere near hard enough to get to the pocket, and the 15-ball was in the way. He was just trying to make the 12-ball with the cue ball and leave it tough for Lechner.
But note that in Accu-Stats' terms (even though they don't do TPAs for 8-Ball), Filler would have been charged here with a position error because he pocketed balls, did not not have a preplanned safety, and lost the game.
Agreed. Shane really puts on a clinic. It was a very educational match to watch. If someone wants to learn how to look at and evaluate the table and play patterns in 8-ball then watch Shane. Even against other top pros, he stands apart as someone who really understands the deeper nuances of the game.
You’ve already probably had enough perspectives on this but, I’ve always felt like Chinese 8 ball was a poor man’s snooker. I know some people will vehemently disagree but it lacks the creativity in shotmaking/position play and safety play of American pool while also foregoing the challenge and break building of snooker. I just feel like it lacks it’s own identity.
So for those reasons I can’t seeing it supplant American Pool or Snooker. If you want drawn out tactics and break building, you’ve got snooker. If you want a quick and aggressive game you’ve got 9 ball (or American pool). I’ve never understood what HeyBall brings to the *ahem* table
That's pretty much how I see it.
Is Gareth Potts still the face of Chinese 8 ball? Or have they moved on from him?
Actually, the table did not bother him at all. It was just the idea of how to play the cueball was what was throwing him off.