Dude's a trip. Got a lotta short circuits and logic leaps coming from between his ears.
The Reyes Cup
- Thread starter jay helfert
- Start date
biado is steady eddie. i would assume efren also picks ko
Teams should be picked for a variety of reasons, not simply the "best" five players. Though it would be nice if the U.S. had a lot of choices for the best five players.
Little Ko is better, but Duong can flat out play. Apparently SVB is one of his idols, and he beat SVB twice in 2023.
Won the Scottish Open this year with a nice comeback vs Oscar. Very strong field that included the Ko brothers. Duong knocked out big Ko in the tourney.
Be interesting to see if he lets a little personality out. He is pretty quiet and stoic.
Little Ko is better, but Duong can flat out play. Apparently SVB is one of his idols, and he beat SVB twice in 2023.
Won the Scottish Open this year with a nice comeback vs Oscar. Very strong field that included the Ko brothers. Duong knocked out big Ko in the tourney.
Be interesting to see if he lets a little personality out. He is pretty quiet and stoic.
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disagree, they should maximize their chances to win. i like wildcards to be very close to rankings. and ko is just better than hoang right now.
i like hoang personally though, he's a very complete player. kind of shocked me when he hit the main stage a couple of years ago. he's shown that he can beat anyone, but to my knowledge he's never been in the one TV table setup - like chua has, or ko for that matter.
the vietnam argument doesn't convince me either. they would watch anyway. they even re-stream low rate european events and with viet commentary, they'll watch anything pool related
Badpenguin
Well-known member
Am I the only one that thinks the Reyes Cup Asian team ought to be _all_ Filipinos? It should be Filipinos vs the world?
He also doesn't speak English
IMO, I put Duong as a pick-em with anyone on the Asian list. I don't think he's an underdog to about anyone in the world outside of Filler.
one is automatic.. and i don't see why not, they're both top 5 or top 10 in the world
Agree. This is more likely wild card pick by MR rather than Efren to get a big audience boost from Vietnam for the 1st year. Also Europe has "newbie" in Krause so a "newbie" (in terms of WNT experience) Duong balances both teams.
So Asia has all 5x800+ Fargo while Europe has 4x800+ and 1X800- in Krause (785). Diff between lowest -Asia (Duong) 811 higher than Europe (Krause) by 26 points. Diff between highest Europe (Filler) 12 points higher than Asia (Ko)
On paper, Asia is very slight favorite but the difference is insignificant
Comes down:
-Experience in this team format (i.e. Mosconi Cup) definitely favors Europe. Europe will be better in strategy tactics lineups gamesmanship mental game under pressure in this format. The Asia players have played WCOP , World Teams but not this long high pressure format.
-Home ground advantage favors Asia. Though can be disadvantage for Filipino players as local Filipino crowd can be demanding. Efren as captain may be added pressure for Asia as they will be expected to win Efren his own inaugural Cup
-Luck.
Overall IMHO Europe is slight favorite maybe 52% favorite But really either side can win it. Look forward to a great event
Duong is slow starter but great comeback clutch player. He may not be ready in race to 5 but am sure he can adapt
In theory you should pick the best players at the time based on ranking/Fargo or something like that. However, there is a reason for having wild cards. I am not a big fan of them, but it is what it is. Good arguments can be made that wild card picks can be used to promote/grow the sport and Duong is a prime example of this.
Duong is 30th best in the world based on Fargo, and for me, that sounds about right.
No major titles, yet you think he's as good as those who have mass-produced majors including, apparently, Fedor Gorst and SVB.
Flakeandrun
Well-known member
yus
I’ve watched Duong a lot since he knocked SVB out of the World Championship 9-ball last year. I’d put him outside the top 15, in with the group of players ranked 16 to 40.
He’s a top potter with a fine stroke and excellent positional play. Sneaky strong, too. Plays fairly fast and instinctive, but he’s a thinker also.
Duong does lack the consistency of the top 10-15 players, however. Very good but not elite breaker. Safety game needs a little more work. Prone to a few more mistakes than the players I see above him. Not often I see him come up with a dramatic or bold shot in a big moment like, say, Chua.
if I were picking with no consideration of the Vietnamese market, little Ko would have been my pick. But outside of Ko, Duong is in the mix with the other top Asian players like Oi, Jin Yu, Raga, Lin and so forth.
if I wanted to add personality to the team, Oi would have been a great pick, too.
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