Longish comments on the CBSA Beijing China Miyun 9-ball International Championship in progress now. (Monday morning)
---format
---status of US players Styer/Van Boening/Deuel/Thorpe
---no European participation?
---Philippines vs Taiwan?
---any dark horses?
---follow along
FORMAT
I’m describing the men’s event here. The women’s event is similar but half the size. Like the China Open in September and like World 9-Ball, this event has three segments: qualifiers, group, and elimination.
Qualifiers is called stage1. Group and elimination together are called stage2. Working backwards, a 32-player single elimination segment leads to a champion. Those 32 players are culled from the 64 in the group segment. Eight groups, A-H, of 8 players each play a double elimination bracket down to 4 players who advance from each group to the 32-player elimination. Of the 64 available spots in stage2, 48 of the players are invited directly. The remaining 16 positions are reserved for the first (qualifier) segment, also known as stage1.
The qualifiers took place on three days last week. On the first day, 128 players faced off in a single elimination format and played five rounds down to four players who qualified to stage2. The second day was a repeat and led to another four qualifiers. The third and final day qualified eight players; that is, only four rounds were played. Players who failed to qualify on day 1 or 2 could reenter the next day.
STATUS OF US PLAYERS
Four US players were invited directly into stage2 and made the trip: Tyler Styer, Shane Van Boening, Corey Deuel, and Billy Thorpe. Advancing to the elimination segment in this stellar field is, to understate it, challenging. Each at this point has played one match in the group stage. Advancing requires two wins before two losses, so either WW or WLW or LWW.
Tyler had a 9-7 win over 51-year-old Taiwanese player Lee Kun Fang, a player who has not been on our radar lately but who we remember from 2007 and earlier. Lee Kun Fang beat out Warren Kiamco (who failed to qualify) to come in through the qualifiers. Tyler faces Liu Haitao (CHN,808) to advance.
Corey Deuel lost 9-7 to Patrick Gonzales, a Filipino player who qualified through stage1. Corey will face Mohammed Ali Pordel from Iran, and if he wins must face either Ping Han Ko (baby Ko), TPE or Shane to advance.
Shane lost 9-5 to Duong Quoc Huong (VIE, 787) and, as just mentioned, must beat baby Ko to maybe get a chance to play Corey to advance.
Billy Thorpe beat Qiu Yuxuan, a Chinese player unknown to us, 9-6 and next faces Jung Lin Chang (TPE, 818) to advance.
NO EUROPEAN PARTICIPATION?
Other than Jasmin Ouschan and Kelly Fisher in the women’s field, there were no European players in either stage1 or stage2. Does anybody have insight here?
PHILIPPINES VS TAIWAN?
These are two small places—islands or collections of islands—with modest populations. Even if we combine the populations –130 million people—we’re not much more than a third the US population, not much more than one sixth the population of Europe, and about a tenth the population of China. And yet, in this tournament, the top 5 Taiwanese players average 812 and the top 5 Filipino players average 809 with all ten being over 800.
Though both lost their first match in the group stage, we are excited to see Anton Raga (PHI, 823) and Jerico Banares (PHI, 806). Both players came in through stage1 qualifiers. We recall in the China Open in September that Banares failed to advance from the qualifiers despite performing over 800 speed. And once again despite impressive overall performance, he came up a little short the first two days here. Then on his third and final try, he sailed through with 9-1, 9-0, 9-1, and 9-0 wins.
ANY DARK HORSES?
There could be. There are a handful of players we don’t know. Take, for example Xue Zhenqi (CHN). He does not have an established Fargo Rating because he doesn’t have 200 games. And he likely is not on people’s radar. But it may be he’s only not on people’s radar because of one game. He lost first round of the elimination segment 10-11 to Joshua Filler last month in the China Open. Getting there he beat Lo Li Wen 9-5, Roland Garcia 9-2, Thorsten Hohmann 9-3, Yu Hsuan Cheng 9-7, Ping Han Ko 9-8 and Xihe Zhu 9-4. His other loss was to Mieszko Fortunski 3-9.
FOLLOW ALONG
The next matches are at 9am 10-22 Bejing time, which is 8pm this evening US east coast time.
http://www.my2019.cc/mindex.htm
---format
---status of US players Styer/Van Boening/Deuel/Thorpe
---no European participation?
---Philippines vs Taiwan?
---any dark horses?
---follow along
FORMAT
I’m describing the men’s event here. The women’s event is similar but half the size. Like the China Open in September and like World 9-Ball, this event has three segments: qualifiers, group, and elimination.
Qualifiers is called stage1. Group and elimination together are called stage2. Working backwards, a 32-player single elimination segment leads to a champion. Those 32 players are culled from the 64 in the group segment. Eight groups, A-H, of 8 players each play a double elimination bracket down to 4 players who advance from each group to the 32-player elimination. Of the 64 available spots in stage2, 48 of the players are invited directly. The remaining 16 positions are reserved for the first (qualifier) segment, also known as stage1.
The qualifiers took place on three days last week. On the first day, 128 players faced off in a single elimination format and played five rounds down to four players who qualified to stage2. The second day was a repeat and led to another four qualifiers. The third and final day qualified eight players; that is, only four rounds were played. Players who failed to qualify on day 1 or 2 could reenter the next day.
STATUS OF US PLAYERS
Four US players were invited directly into stage2 and made the trip: Tyler Styer, Shane Van Boening, Corey Deuel, and Billy Thorpe. Advancing to the elimination segment in this stellar field is, to understate it, challenging. Each at this point has played one match in the group stage. Advancing requires two wins before two losses, so either WW or WLW or LWW.
Tyler had a 9-7 win over 51-year-old Taiwanese player Lee Kun Fang, a player who has not been on our radar lately but who we remember from 2007 and earlier. Lee Kun Fang beat out Warren Kiamco (who failed to qualify) to come in through the qualifiers. Tyler faces Liu Haitao (CHN,808) to advance.
Corey Deuel lost 9-7 to Patrick Gonzales, a Filipino player who qualified through stage1. Corey will face Mohammed Ali Pordel from Iran, and if he wins must face either Ping Han Ko (baby Ko), TPE or Shane to advance.
Shane lost 9-5 to Duong Quoc Huong (VIE, 787) and, as just mentioned, must beat baby Ko to maybe get a chance to play Corey to advance.
Billy Thorpe beat Qiu Yuxuan, a Chinese player unknown to us, 9-6 and next faces Jung Lin Chang (TPE, 818) to advance.
NO EUROPEAN PARTICIPATION?
Other than Jasmin Ouschan and Kelly Fisher in the women’s field, there were no European players in either stage1 or stage2. Does anybody have insight here?
PHILIPPINES VS TAIWAN?
These are two small places—islands or collections of islands—with modest populations. Even if we combine the populations –130 million people—we’re not much more than a third the US population, not much more than one sixth the population of Europe, and about a tenth the population of China. And yet, in this tournament, the top 5 Taiwanese players average 812 and the top 5 Filipino players average 809 with all ten being over 800.
Though both lost their first match in the group stage, we are excited to see Anton Raga (PHI, 823) and Jerico Banares (PHI, 806). Both players came in through stage1 qualifiers. We recall in the China Open in September that Banares failed to advance from the qualifiers despite performing over 800 speed. And once again despite impressive overall performance, he came up a little short the first two days here. Then on his third and final try, he sailed through with 9-1, 9-0, 9-1, and 9-0 wins.
ANY DARK HORSES?
There could be. There are a handful of players we don’t know. Take, for example Xue Zhenqi (CHN). He does not have an established Fargo Rating because he doesn’t have 200 games. And he likely is not on people’s radar. But it may be he’s only not on people’s radar because of one game. He lost first round of the elimination segment 10-11 to Joshua Filler last month in the China Open. Getting there he beat Lo Li Wen 9-5, Roland Garcia 9-2, Thorsten Hohmann 9-3, Yu Hsuan Cheng 9-7, Ping Han Ko 9-8 and Xihe Zhu 9-4. His other loss was to Mieszko Fortunski 3-9.
FOLLOW ALONG
The next matches are at 9am 10-22 Bejing time, which is 8pm this evening US east coast time.
http://www.my2019.cc/mindex.htm
