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Well said. While I did not agree with the decision, it was nevertheless a joy to be able to capture part of the event live to see some of the best players in the world play. On top of that, they were putting on some stellar performances. I guess the takeaway is to have more rules in tact before...

I'm pretty sure players paid to enter. When talking to the Taiwanese players they were complaining that they had a "mandatory" one hour lesson daily AND they had to pay an entry. Not to mention most of these players spent thousands on the trip.

And that is why the Taiwanese players don't like to come to the US to play. The language barrier makes them easy to manipulate. On the other hand, most of the Asian countries treat the Taiwanese players like celebrities when they go play in their country.

When you play better players, you focus more, and is much stronger mentally as you have "nothing to lose." Better players also tend to brake better, leave easier shots, or better position when they miss. When you play inferior players, you have much more to lose. If you lose a game, it would...

I agree. Orcullo has has a complete game in terms of both skills and mental toughness. He has the patience to grind it out. Chang Jung Lin's safety and kicking game is definitely superior to Ko's. He is much more risk averse and plays the percentages well. However, I would take Ko's offensive...

Hsia Hui Kai comes to mind. At his peak he was easily a top 15, if not top 10 player in the world. He retired out of nowhere and took an actual office job. He had a family to take care of and pool isn't secure enough.

For me, Yang did not have the mental toughness off the table. While he is a tough player that enjoys making big shots, he was tired of pool and lost interest in it. Of course, the money isn't that good either. I wouldn't call him antisocial, but he is also a very reserved individual which may...

You're welcome Jay. The only weakness I would say about Ko is his safety and kicking game. He excels during near-perfect equipment and conditions, but when the racks get sloppy, some of the Filipino players have an edge. Too often, like many Taiwanese players, he lives and dies by the jump cue.

Wu Yu Lun switched to snooker to play for the Taiwanese team in the Asian Games//World Games. If you win a medal in one of those, the government will pay you on top of your prize money. I am not sure what exactly happened to him, but I don't beleive I've seen his name in the Taiwanese circuit...

Can't confirm it 100%, but one of my buddies heard it from Hohmann. If so, it would be interesting to see how that plays out if Ralf really did get paid 3rd place money.

I believe Shane himself also showed "extra signs" of sportsmanship during and after the finals match as well.

Just heard rumors on that Ralf took the 3rd place check before he left for the airport.

Pool has already been on a steady decline starting the early 2000s. You can kind of compare it to the housing bubble in America in the late 2000s. When pool got really big in Taiwan in the 90s (thanks to Chao and Yang), hundreds of pool halls appeared out of nowhere. In my city of Kahsiung (~1.5...

I highly doubt there is a age limit, but I am too lazy to look up the actual rules. Wu entered the pool scene a little earlier than when the Ko brothers started. He was however, Ko Pin Yi's classmate at Fu Xing high school in Taipei. They all had similar stories in that their family owned a pool...

I believe the 25% was chosen for resource constraints. There were only two tables and the scheduled matches were from 11am-7pm. On top of that, there was only one referee at a time for two matches, of some which deemed somewhat unprofessional. There were two "practice tables" for this match, but...

#3 is quite disturbing if it was actually communicated in that tone. I will verify that with the Taiwanese guys. EDIT: Confirmed with the Taiwanese rep and he said that it did in fact happen. Also other players from the tournament seemed to be cheering for Ko in the finals because of this.

What they told you simply aren't true but it makes for a good story just like how some may say that Pin-Chung is better than his older brother. On any given day a player may be better than the other, but there's no way Pin-Han (youngest brother) is better than Pin-Yi and I am sure you know that...

Congrats. After your first one, many more are to come as you broke through that psychological barrier.

My biggest complaint with how it was ran was the fact that they used a single ref to rack for two matches. This caused quite a lot of delay in the 10 ball event when I was watching live. On top of that, a couple of the refs were using their cell phones to the point that they were playing on it...

Ko Pin Yi is how it would be said in mandarin, but I believe the article was just trying to keep everyone's name in uniform therefore typing Pin Yi, Ko.