Predator One Pool 10x4 Exhibition to be Streamed on CSI YouTube Channel, Sep 12

While you miss out on the player interaction in the form of safety battles etc, I think this format could have some highlights of its own such as increased offense and tough shot making etc.

Unless I didn't think it out well, one big drawback I see is that it is a disadvantage to go first, and the further down you are in the rotation (going last would be best) the more advantage you have, so random draw for the shooting order (particularly if it doesn't get redrawn or otherwise rotated for each additional round) wouldn't be the most equitable. The guy going last knows how everybody else has done, and so he knows whether he should take that ball in hand after the break or whether he really just needs to go ahead and risk it go for that pretty tough shot on the first ball without taking ball in hand because he knows he needs 15 points because the 10 points just wouldn't cut it considering the point standings. Going last also lets you know when you get to a tough shot in the rack that would also require tough positional play to get to the next ball, whether you should just try and cinch the shot and make sure you get that one more point knowing as a consequence you greatly decrease your chances of being able to continue the run because that one additional point is all you really needed because of your lead etc, or whether you should try a circus shot in an attempt for position on the next ball knowing it greatly decreases your chances for making even this ball and getting this point but you don't really have much choice, etc.

Granted, we will probably be seeing mostly 10 and 15 points per rack from this level of player, but these kinds of things will still be a factor at times, especially on whether to take ball in hand after the break or not when faced with a makeable but tough shot.

The obvious solution would be that each person would have to take their turn before they could find out how everyone else did, but that isn't compatible with live streaming so obviously couldn't be used here. Another option that would be compatible and would probably be most fair, is to allow skill to determine the order for each round with a lag or something along those lines.

Then there are other things that are not perfect and don't totally eliminate these advantages but would help minimize it to some extent that could also be done. One would be to have a number of rounds that is equal to a multiple of the number of competitors (if there are 4 competitors then there would be 4, 8, or 12 rounds etc), and then make sure each person gets to go in the same orders as all the others, conceptually similar to rotating the order in a ring game. So with say 4 players and 8 rounds, each person would go first twice, second twice, third twice, and fourth twice, but this format would require that whoever led in points at the end of the stated number of rounds would be the winner rather than going to a pre-set point total. It would also require determining who should start in the first round as well as the rest of the rotation for that first round etc.

Or you could dispense with an ideal for equity altogether and opt for something like whoever leads after the last round goes first in the next round and whoever was in last place after last round goes last in the next round if your goal is to have tighter matches and/or to give a little more advantage to lesser players or those who are trailing. Conversely, you could have the leader after the last round go last in the next round and whoever was in last place after the last round goes first in the next round which would give some advantage to the better or leading players and would conceptually be similar in purpose to the seeding format used in some tournaments. Neither addresses what to do in cases where players are tied though, which there will presumably be a lot of (and they will always be tied at 0 points before the start of the first round) and so for cases of those ties another method such as a lag or random draw would have to be used.

There are other ways these things could be addressed as well. Is the fact that a player has an advantage when their turn happens later in a round something that CSI has taken into consideration, and if so, what format is being used to address it?