Stevie Beats Mike Davis 11-3 in Finals

very weird to see someone going through all those mental steps... but whatever works for him I guess.

What I find weird is someone looking for and pinching non-existent lint, picking up imaginary microbes, seeing floaters in your eyes and thinking it's something on the table, and brushing off dust particles that got through the atmosphere from Mars before every shot taken.

When the table layout was pretty obvious with no complex routes to get to the next balls, Stevie plays damn fast and just rips those balls in like there's no chance of missing. Impressive display of shooting accuracy as far as I'm concerned.

Just sayin'

skip100 said:

very weird to see someone going through all those mental steps... but whatever works for him I guess.

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Huh? Did you watch the whole match, or just his first break?

Funny, what I saw was a great player in dead punch. Lining up, getting down on the shot, one or two stroking the shot, making the ball, and getting perfect shape for the next one.

People will look for (and find) what they think is happening, instead of what is really going on in front of them. This is just another case of confirmation bias. Folks read about all the "steps" involved with CTE, when in reality, this method of aiming is so seamless and automatic at Moore's level that there are no steps at all. Lock in, drop down, and fire. If anything, it was Davis who was much more deliberate than Stevie in this match.

Sloppy Pockets said:

Huh? Did you watch the whole match, or just his first break?

Funny, what I saw was a great player in dead punch. Lining up, getting down on the shot, one or two stroking the shot, making the ball, and getting perfect shape for the next one.

People will look for (and find) what they think is happening, instead of what is really going on in front of them. This is just another case of confirmation bias. Folks read about all the "steps" involved with CTE, when in reality, this method of aiming is so seamless and automatic at Moore's level that there are no steps at all. Lock in, drop down, and fire. If anything, it was Davis who was much more deliberate than Stevie in this match.

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Great observation and couldn't have been stated more articulately.

I'm waiting for the next "confirmation biased" one to post, "He wasn't even using CTE...he couldn't have been using CTE because he played far to fast and loose."

Just because he is moving quickly and making shots doesn't mean his preshot routine doesn't look forced or unnatural - because it clearly does. But like I said, that's what seems to work for him. Of course, his web site says he was winning tournaments at age 13 and became world bar table champion at age 21 so lots of different routines and systems would work for someone that talented.

skip100 said:

Just because he is moving quickly and making shots doesn't mean his preshot routine doesn't look forced or unnatural - because it clearly does. But like I said, that's what seems to work for him. Of course, his web site says he was winning tournaments at age 13 and became world bar table champion at age 21 so lots of different routines and systems would work for someone that talented.

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Agree. He does look like he's working hard, but it works well for him. I watched the first break and thought I'd never get through this match, but he did pick up his pace quite a bit and played very well. The table played very funny, didn't it? I thought so, at least.

He seems to use a visual pivot and then move straight in from quite a distance. It's a very interesting way to use CTE, I think, and one that would be ideally suited for someone used to go straight into the shot, instead of twisting.

skip100 said:

very weird to see someone going through all those mental steps... but whatever works for him I guess.

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You must have seen something different.

I saw a player who was focused and playing at a great pace. I couldn't read his mind but it didn't seem to me that he was going through any excessive amount of mental steps.

CTE is literally a super fast decision for practiced users. Takes most or even all of the indecision or fretting out of the aiming and getting down on the shot proces.

Maybe you could post some time stamp links to the parts where you saw these "mental steps"?

Most of Stevie's shots were taken in 15 seconds or less from what I counted.

Come on now, let's be honest, even the CTE/Pro One guys must admit that Stevie has a little bit of a unique approach when using it. During his earlier times with Pro One he would bend really low to find the visuals, spend a few seconds looking, then swoop in from that position. Now he does something from behind the cue ball, pivots/sweeps his eyes/body into position, and comes in straight into the newly determined shot line.

There is nothing wrong with this, it's just certainly his own unique approach which is what I think the previous poster was mentioning. It looks mechanical to people unfamiliar with pivot-based aiming systems. The opening break was odd too, but after that he didn't spend nearly as much time lining up the break. He just has his own unique execution of the steps, certainly Stan, Landon, Matt Krah, etc. don't look like this when executing the visuals and sweeps, it doesn't have to be that mechanical, it's just the way Stevie has found it works for him. Would love to hear more details directly from him.


He is definitely talented, I'm sure he played lights out before Pro One as well. He is clearly confident in his current Pro One approach and execution and was in dead punch during the match, very impressive.

Scott