WNT, WPA and 2026

A great investment in the future would be introducing pool at the high school level. Every major HS has a room that could hold a few tables. Treat it like every other sport and it's minimal $$$ compared to others (speaking as a hockey player).
 
mikepage said:
Tyler Styer had 2000 games in FargoRate before his first game on a 9-foot table. It was at the Super Billiards expo in 2024 when his 9-foot games (5,000 then) reached his 7-foot games (5,000 also).

You referred to Hayden Ernst as "a 9-foot player." In his record, though, the 9-foot games are from national-level junior tournaments like BEF, etc. The league games in his record and the vast majority of tournament games in the system are on 7-foot tables.
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This is recorded games in Fargo, but it's difficult to get Fargo-rated games on 9ft tables unless one is a pro. Most leagues and most amateur tournaments--that is, most Fargo-rated games--are on 7ft. I, for example, have the majority of my play on my home 9ft table. Any time I go out to play and have a choice, I choose a 9ft table. I've done many sets for money on 9' tables. However, 100% of my Fargo-rated games are on 7ft because I am not a pro, and so all league and tournament play is on 7s.
 
Rocket354 said:
This is recorded games in Fargo, but it's difficult to get Fargo-rated games on 9ft tables unless one is a pro. Most leagues and most amateur tournaments--that is, most Fargo-rated games--are on 7ft. I, for example, have the majority of my play on my home 9ft table. Any time I go out to play and have a choice, I choose a 9ft table. I've done many sets for money on 9' tables. However, 100% of my Fargo-rated games are on 7ft because I am not a pro, and so all league and tournament play is on 7s.
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Yes, agreed.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Does pool in the US need to change in any way to make the US more competitive? How can that change happen?
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It, imo, is hard to ignore that
18-year-old phenom from Sweden (Walter Laikre, 753) has 1670 games in FargoRate against opponents 750 or higher
18-year-old phenom from Minnesota (Hank Leinen, 707) has 248 games in FargoRate against opponents 750 or higher

a 7-to-1 ratio
 
mikepage said:
Here there is a bar-pool culture and a pool-hall culture without a clean overlap between them. There is not only table-size difference. But the pool hall is playing on, e.g., simonis and good balls, while the bars more likely have heavy cueballs and slower cloth. Significantly, the strong players in the pool halls don't tend to be people who "graduated" from the bar scene; they are more often players who grew up in the pool hall. The better bar-pool players (say 550 speed) may not even be able to name the 650s in their area. Even though the most serious players here are "9-foot" players, these areas don't tend to produce as many good players.
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is that per "capita", meaning that the overall number of players are included in that assessment?
 
Rocket354 said:
This is recorded games in Fargo, but it's difficult to get Fargo-rated games on 9ft tables unless one is a pro. Most leagues and most amateur tournaments--that is, most Fargo-rated games--are on 7ft. I, for example, have the majority of my play on my home 9ft table. Any time I go out to play and have a choice, I choose a 9ft table. I've done many sets for money on 9' tables. However, 100% of my Fargo-rated games are on 7ft because I am not a pro, and so all league and tournament play is on 7s.
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It depends on where you live. Here in TX almost all fargo games are played on 8 foot or 9 foot tables. Only time I ever played on bar tables was at BCA state or BCA Nationals.
 
Predator heating up its competition with Matchroom. As mentioned previously, Predator has created a new "all star" event to take place at year end in Jacksonville, Fla, the location of the company's headquarters.

The top 16 men - shades of the World Pool Masters - and top 16 women will face off in separate men's and women's singles matches. Plus there will be doubles men, doubles women, and mixed doubles events.

The top 12 players of each sex will be based on WPA rankings, with four wild cards. Again, shades of Matchroom.

The events are 10 ball, though.

Total prize fund is $50,000 for both the men and women's events, with the winner getting $17,000. The money appears spread around to give a little something to everyone. Doubles events have a $25,000 price fund. Total payment for the Jacksonville event is $175,000.

Predator said it plans to make the All-star matches a permanent year-end event. Obviously it's answer to the Mosconi and Reyes, and an attempt to create a tour or season of sorts.

"This is PBS All Stars. Witness history. Where legends are forged. "

 
I wonder if Predator creating this all-star event put pressure on Matchroom to bring World Pool Masters back. Predator outlined this all-star event some months ago, but not the details.

Predator has also created their own, bigger version of the World Cup of Pool to take advantage of that event disappearing for the past few years.

Not sure Matchroom will bring the WCP back. Predator has really stolen its thunder.

Whatever the case, competition in general is good. Hope it pushes both “tours, of a sort, to new heights.
 
The top 12 men in WPA rankings, in order, are as follows. Keep in mind Predator has three more events to go before the Allstar event. So there will be changes.

Wojciech Szewczyk,
Daniel Maciol
Joshua Filler
Carlo Biado
Wiktor Zielinski
Albin Ouschan
Fedor Gorst
FSR
Nayoyuki Oi
Aloysius Yapp
Alexander Kazakis
Szymon Kural


SVB is No. 28, Shaw 38, Neuhausen 42, Eklent Kaci 43, among other notable players.

 
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jbart65 said:
I wonder if Predator creating this all-star event put pressure on Matchroom to bring World Pool Masters back. Predator outlined this all-star event some months ago, but not the details.

Predator has also created their own, bigger version of the World Cup of Pool to take advantage of that event disappearing for the past few years.

Not sure Matchroom will bring the WCP back. Predator has really stolen its thunder.

Whatever the case, competition in general is good. Hope it pushes both “tours, of a sort, to new heights.
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More like a downsizing from last year's events. Being about 10 minutes aways from the venue I'm happy the Pro event is still being held but the format is a drop off from the scale of last year, especially on the Women's side.
 
jbart65 said:
The top 16 men - shades of the World Pool Masters - and top 16 women will face off in separate men's and women's singles matches. Plus there will be doubles men, doubles women, and mixed doubles events.

The top 12 players of each sex will be based on WPA rankings, with four wild cards. Again, shades of Matchroom.
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I like everything about your post except this part.

We can't insinuate Predator is copying Matchroom/WNT just because they might be more popular or tenured when it comes to tournaments.

The Top 16 format has been used in a plethora of other sports, whether invitational or not. It's not a brand new thing that only Matchroom uses or created. They do it in darts, Tennis, Chess, eSports, golf (top 30), etc.

The selection process with rankings and wildcards that Matchroom uses is also....shades of the Ryder Cup.

Both tours bring innovation and something different to the sport, I just don't find the comparing and contrasting useful. Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Apple copies Samsung every year, but if I tell my iPhone friends that I'm just wasting my breath 🤣

If anything, I think if Predator and WNT somehow found a way to join forces, I think that could fix pro pool. Highly improbable though.

I am enjoying the healthy competition though, and I think it's good for the game. I don't even care if Predator straight up copies the MC and call it the Revo Cup, that just means more money for the players and more pool for the fans and we all win.
 
jbart65 said:
Predator heating up its competition with Matchroom. As mentioned previously, Predator has created a new "all star" event to take place at year end in Jacksonville, Fla, the location of the company's headquarters.

The top 16 men - shades of the World Pool Masters - and top 16 women will face off in separate men's and women's singles matches. Plus there will be doubles men, doubles women, and mixed doubles events.

The top 12 players of each sex will be based on WPA rankings, with four wild cards. Again, shades of Matchroom.

The events are 10 ball, though.

Total prize fund is $50,000 for both the men and women's events, with the winner getting $17,000. The money appears spread around to give a little something to everyone. Doubles events have a $25,000 price fund. Total payment for the Jacksonville event is $175,000.

Predator said it plans to make the All-star matches a permanent year-end event. Obviously it's answer to the Mosconi and Reyes, and an attempt to create a tour or season of sorts.

"This is PBS All Stars. Witness history. Where legends are forged. "

Click to expand...
I want to see someone stage an Invitational where the top 16 women play the top 16 men. I know, I know, the women don't have a chance. Maybe so, but people will watch! Just like the MC. The U.S. has no chance but everyone loves it anyway.

I would predict in head to head matches there would be the occasional upset.
 
jay helfert said:
I want to see someone stage an Invitational where the top 16 women play the top 16 men. I know, I know, the women don't have a chance. Maybe so, but people will watch! Just like the MC. The U.S. has no chance but everyone loves it anyway.

I would predict in head to head matches there would be the occasional upset.
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That would be fun, Jay. Would the women go for it? I bet they would. The men, on the other hand, ... (-:
 
jbart65 said:
The top 12 men in WPA rankings, in order, are as follows. Keep in mind Predator has three more events to go before the Allstar event. So there will be changes.

Wojciech Szewczyk,
Daniel Maciol, Daniel
Joshua Filler
Carlo Biado
Wiktor Zielinski
Albin Ouschan
Fedor Gorst
FSR
Nayoyuki Oi
Aloysius Yapp
Szymon Kural


SVB is No. 28, Shaw 38, Neuhausen 42, Eklent Kaci 43, among other notable players.

Click to expand...
It's worth noting that in the absence of a World 9ball Championship in 2026, the WNT regulars have missed one of the biggeest opportunities to accumulate WPA ranking points. Yapp and FSR, first and second in the World 8ball, are probably on this list chiefly because of that event. Josh, of course, won the Las Vegas Open 10ball and Fedor won the China Open 9ball, both majors on the WPA calendar, so they qualify easily.
 
Top 12 women

Pia Filler
Tsu-Chien Wei
Jasmin Ouschan
Kristina Tkach
Chieh-Yu Chou
Kelly Fisher
Seo Seoa
Margarita Fefilova-Styer
Chezka Centeno
Kristina Zlateva
Savannah Easton
Chihiro Kawahara

Other notables:

15 Sofia Mast
17 Amit Rubilen
59 Alison Fisher (quiet this year)
 
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