10 best players in the world

mikepage said:
What I have here is performance for all games over the last 12 months with everybody who has 1000+ games during that time. (So Ko's are excluded). Importantly these numbers ignore the player's Fargo Rating. So no veteran is buoyed by past success and no rising star is held down by earlier play. These in general are less accurate than Fargo Ratings but they are responsive to recent play.

For fun, I've put JBart's top 10 in blue and I've put his 2nd 10 in red. Green are players not in his top 20.

Guess who the top two are here.

And then guess who the next two are (in the 840s).
View attachment 890742
Click to expand...

filler 1st, biado 2nd?

who's the best green one?
 
mikepage said:
What I have here is performance for all games over the last 12 months with everybody who has 1000+ games during that time. (So Ko's are excluded). Importantly these numbers ignore the player's Fargo Rating. So no veteran is buoyed by past success and no rising star is held down by earlier play. These in general are less accurate than Fargo Ratings but they are responsive to recent play.

For fun, I've put JBart's top 10 in blue and I've put his 2nd 10 in red. Green are players not in his top 20.

Guess who the top two are here.

And then guess who the next two are (in the 840s).
View attachment 890742
Click to expand...

Didn’t you hint at Maciol and Chua? I would have guessed Yapp and SVB.
 
mikepage said:
What I have here is performance for all games over the last 12 months with everybody who has 1000+ games during that time. (So Ko's are excluded). Importantly these numbers ignore the player's Fargo Rating. So no veteran is buoyed by past success and no rising star is held down by earlier play. These in general are less accurate than Fargo Ratings but they are responsive to recent play.

For fun, I've put JBart's top 10 in blue and I've put his 2nd 10 in red. Green are players not in his top 20.

Guess who the top two are here.

And then guess who the next two are (in the 840s).
View attachment 890742
Click to expand...
Looking at my list again, I had a couple of choices that even I consider questionable.

Ouschan was a reach at 19, in my eyes, given the past 2 1/2 years. He did win the 8 ball title last year, but he is far from his peak.

I was going to put Wiktor in his spot. Yet Zielinski just can’t get over the hump. He’s not won any event since 2024 and hasn’t matched the promise he showed by winning a pair of Las Vegas opens in 2022-23.

Labutis, at 10, got there by winning the Hanoi Open and being a pretty consistent player. I think he has a lower ceiling than other top players , though.

Here’s what my list would look like if I based it on my evaluation of sheer talent, tactical acumen and performance, with the eye test playing a big role. I make 12 picks since the status of the Ko brothers is unclear.

1. Joshua Filler
2. Fedor Gorst
3. Aloysius Yapp
4. Ko Ping Chung
5. Johann Chua
6. Shane Van Boening
7. Carlo Biado
8. Ko Pin Yi
9. Moritz Neuhausen
10. Duong Quoc Hoang
11. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz
12. Wojciech Szewczyk
 
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jbart65 said:
Looking at my list again, I had a couple of choices that even I consider questionable.

Ouschan was a reach at 19, in my eyes, given the past 2 1/2 years. He did win the 8 ball title last year, but he is far from his peak.

I was going to put Wiktor in his spot. Yet Zielinski just can’t get over the hump. He’s not won any event since 2024 and hasn’t matched the promise he showed by winning a pair of Las Vegas opens in 2022-23.

Labutis, at 10, got there by winning the Hanoi Open and being a pretty consistent player. I think he has a lower ceiling than other top players , though.

Here’s what my list would look like if I based it on my evaluation of sheer talent, tactical acumen and performance, with the eye test playing a big role. I make 12 picks since the status of the Ko brothers is unclear.

1. Joshua Filler
2. Fedor Gorst
3. Aloysius Yapp
4. Ko Ping Chung
5. Johann Chua
6. Shane Van Boening
7. Carlo Biado
8. Moritz Neuhausen
9. Duong Quoc Hoang
10. Francisco Sanchez Ruiz
11. Wojciech Szewczyk
12. Wiktor Zielinski
Click to expand...
Excellent list, but I rate Maciol above Zielinski among the Polish players. Ko Ping Chung is just plain awesome, and I'm glad to see you rate him so high. Big Ko has a sightly better break and just a bit more power in his stroke but, to use your terminology, Ko Ping Chung is the tidier player of the two. Szewczyk, as your list indicates, it the best Polish player. We'll know a lot more when this pool year is in the books. Over nine months to go. Wishing the best of luck to all these fine players as they navigate 2026.
 
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jbart65 said:
Didn’t you hint at Maciol and Chua? I would have guessed Yapp and SVB.
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1773884770545.png
 
sjm said:
Excellent list, but I rate Maciol above Zielinski among the Polish players. Ko Ping Chung is just plain awesome, and I'm glad to see you rate him so high. Big Ko has a sightly better break and just a bit more power in his stroke but, to use your terminology, Ko Ping Chung is the tidier player of the two. Szewczyk, as your list indicates, it the best Polish player. We'll know a lot more when this pool year is in the books. Over nine months to go. Wishing the best of luck to all these fine players as they navigate 2026.
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I accidentally left big Ko off my list! He’s No. 8. Everyone else shifts down and Zielinski gets dropped.

I think Wiktor has more pure talent than Maciol, but Maciol is mentally stronger and a better decision maker. Such a smooth player. Both of them should be winning more big majors, though.

Ko Ping Chung is as good as it gets at pattern play and runouts. Exquisite player. Yapp only surpassed him on my list due to his high performance last year.

There are only three players who I look at and say, who the hell is going beat them? Filler, Gorst and Ko Ping Chung. I can see any other player losing.
 
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jbart65 said:
I think Wiktor has more pure talent than Maciol, but Maciol is mentally stronger and a better decision maker. Such a smooth player. Both of them should be winning more big majors, though.
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Just how I see it. Wiktor is the greater talent, but Maciol is much stronger mentally. Maciol also has the better break at both 9ball and 10ball. Wiktor, who can get very negative at the table, may have the weakest mental game of any elite player in the world.
jbart65 said:
Ko Ping Chung is as good as it gets at pattern play and runouts. Exquisite player. Yapp only surpassed him on my list due to his high performance last year.
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Yes, Yapp belongs above KPC for now. Sadly, they may not compete against each other any time soon.
 
sjm said:
Yes, Yapp belongs above KPC for now. Sadly, they may not compete against each other any time soon.
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Last year the Ko brothers played in a bunch of big WPA/WNT events. If they stick to all the major Duya Chinese 9-ball tour events this year, however, the US Open appears to be the only major 9- or 10-ball event that is free and clear of any conflict.

The Ko's could even skip the WPC, even with its $250,000 top prize. A concurrent Duya event pays even more.

Speaking of China, I was wondering why Mickey Krause did not play in the European Open being a former champion. Turns out he just reached the semifinals of a big heyball event in China with a huge top prize. He's been in Asia for a while now.
 
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