2023 World Cup of Pool (WCOP) 27June-2July, Spain (Winner $60K per team)

[spartan]

Scotch doubles event WCOP starts in 3 weeks in Spain right after new inaugural major Spanish Open with 32 teams (16 seeded and 16 unseeded). Star studded strong field comprising 23 FR800+ about same number as any of pool's major events
The brilliant Wu is back (probably temporarily). Philippines sending relatively weak team of Chua/Aranas. Biado has higher ranking but he is not playing?
Surprised that Melling left out of Team UK even though he is ranked higher than Sanderson. Maybe because of his disastrous outing with Shaw couple of years ago.
Only female player is Predator 10 ball ranking event winner Seo Seoa from South Korea. Defending champion Spain being the host will have 2 teams.
Philippines and China are unseeded so early rounds could see some big matchups.
Teams

Prizemoney ($250K)

 

[pt109]

Nice to see Wu back
…and if Bezdan Attila becomes a star…guess what his nick-name will be

 

[rharm]

I wonder how many fewer people are watching these events after the price hike and change in cancellation policy for DAZN

 

[skogstokig]

pretty wild how many countries there are with good pool players. philippines, china, hong kong, finland are unseeded

 

[Blue]

Nice to see Wu back
…and if Bezdan Attila becomes a star…guess what his nick-name will be

Hunny?

 

[8cree]

Been looking for this thread. Can anyone find a bracket?

 

[AtLarge]

Been looking for this thread. Can anyone find a bracket?

Last year Emily Frazer did the draw about 2 weeks in advance of the event, so maybe this year's draw will be coming soon.

 

[skogstokig]

Surprised that Melling left out of Team UK even though he is ranked higher than Sanderson. Maybe because of his disastrous outing with Shaw couple of years ago.

i wonder what the qualifying system is, because neither sanderson nor soufi's teammate are highly ranked. is it high ranked player + teammate of his choosing?

GB isn't what it once was, anyway. mike panozzo did a 180 and argued for gary wilson to be on the team. was quite funny. either way they're not favorites over most of the unseeded teams. kinda funny also that their second best player may be the guy in the commentary booth

 

[Poolmanis]

i wonder what the qualifying system is, because neither sanderson nor soufi's teammate are highly ranked. is it high ranked player + teammate of his choosing?

I believe it is just as you said. Not 100% sure. I think Matchroom then need to agree.

 

[abbassi]

Many teams can win , loaded with talent.
Emily should draw with an orange crayon.

 

[Vahmurka]

Interesting to have Seo Seoa playing. Wonder if Matchroom is trying to get a "Fallon Sharrock" effect? Even if so, one female out of 64 players might be not enough. Or is there lack of gifted players in Republic of Korea now, so that they have to call their currently best female player?
(By the way, where is Kim Gayoung?)
EDIT: as per info found at OnePocket.org forums, Kim must be enjoying three-cushion instead of pool now.

 

[spartan]

i wonder what the qualifying system is, because neither sanderson nor soufi's teammate are highly ranked. is it high ranked player + teammate of his choosing?

GB isn't what it once was, anyway. mike panozzo did a 180 and argued for gary wilson to be on the team. was quite funny. either way they're not favorites over most of the unseeded teams. kinda funny also that their second best player may be the guy in the commentary booth

Probably yes something like that where the big name player has some say. This is after all a non-ranking event (since there is not enough doubles event to have a double ranking and we know using individual ranking to rank doubles pairs is bit of crapshoot)

GB best pairing was Shaw/Melling but my guess is there was some friction after Melling collapse in disastrous key match 2 years ago. Last year they were in separate GB teams and met and we know what happened

BTW Matchroom releasing this week all last years WCOP videos on Youtube (which was not stream on Youtube last year)
Appleton /Boyes is better pairing than Shaw/Sanderson. Love their entertaining underdog expendables dream run to final 2 years ago

 

[sjm]

Scotch doubles event WCOP starts in 3 weeks in Spain right after new inaugural major Spanish Open with 32 teams (16 seeded and 16 unseeded). Star studded strong field comprising 23 FR800+ about same number as any of pool's major events
The brilliant Wu is back (probably temporarily). Philippines sending relatively weak team of Chua/Aranas. Biado has higher ranking but he is not playing?
Surprised that Melling left out of Team UK even though he is ranked higher than Sanderson. Maybe because of his disastrous outing with Shaw couple of years ago.
Only female player is Predator 10 ball ranking event winner Seo Seoa from South Korea. Defending champion Spain being the host will have 2 teams.
Philippines and China are unseeded so early rounds could see some big matchups.

It should be quite an event, and several "lesser" teams have a chance to make a deep run.

Josh Filler and Mortiz Neuhausen might be a very strong team. Moritz is coming along nicely in his game and his pedigree is building before our very eyes.

 

[spartan]

After the entertaining inaugural Spanish Open, Spain continues its fiesta of pool day after tomorrow 27 June with the popular World Cup of Pool.
As expected with some big teams being unseeded, big teams are bound to match up . Yes the big kahuna match in Round 1 is defending Champion Spain v Philippines.

 

[spartan]

Seeds

As usual odds underrate some big teams like Philippines, China, Holland

 

[MrEleganza]

Seeds


As usual odds underrate some big teams like Philippines, China, Holland

Poland seems underrated too. Will be betting Philippines, China, Poland, and a tiny bit on Peru and Myanmar.

 

[skogstokig]

Poland seems underrated too. Will be betting Philippines, China, Poland, and a tiny bit on Peru and Myanmar.

the myanmar duo recently beat philippines in the SEA games so that's a dark horse, unless they're jet lagged. peru is also better than a slew of teams rated above them. the top 5 looks accurate enough, except for GB. taiwan is of course better than both GB and greece.

obviously some of the teams don't have their most in form players. dang, uski, loukatos aren't playing. also GB would do better with imran than with sanderson.

 

[Vahmurka]

peru is also better than a slew of teams rated above them

Martinez has had several big runs at the US events recently, and Tevez has been around for a long time. It all depends on how they match together, but I expect them to make Albania work hard, and even Peru to win their opening clash. May very well overcome Poland in the next round

Looking at the draw I call three teams to get the cup this time, they are Taipei/ China/ Germany.
Current World Cup holders might get kicked in the very first round by Chua/DD team

 

[westcoast]

How are the participants determined?

I’m surprised Orcollo and Biado aren’t representing the Philippines

 

[MrEleganza]

After the entertaining inaugural Spanish Open, Spain continues its fiesta of pool day after tomorrow 27 June with the popular World Cup of Pool.
As expected with some big teams being unseeded, big teams are bound to match up . Yes the big kahuna match in Round 1 is defending Champion Spain v Philippines.

View attachment 705465

Good move: making Spain and Spain B an early-round matchup provided they beat their first round opponents.
Horrible move: Spain vs. Philippines in Round 1.

Tomorrow's matches:
1PM local/7AM Eastern US:
Spain-Philippines
Greece-Singapore
Myanmar (Burma)-Canada

7PM local/1PM Eastern US:
Great Britain-Qatar
Albania-Peru
Austria-Australia

I don't see table assignments, but if I had to guess, these matches will prove to be in order tables 1-3. In order words, for Americans, ESP-PHI and GBR-QAT on DAZN, GRE-SGP and ALB-PER on Matchroom Multisport Youtube, and SOL for MYA-CAN and AUT-AUS.