2025 Men's World 10-Ball Championship, Sept. 20-28 -- General Comments Thread

[jbart65]

that's a pity. especially wiktor, chua. but i'm thinking the 64 players will make a tough field anyway

didn't they use to have 96 player fields?

The field is 96. Eighty picks are named in the link above. Then there is a qualifier stage in which 16 others will get added to the main event.

 

[jax_joe]

Tyler Styer is also missing.

On the other hand, some WPA invitees include Hunter Lombardo and Lukas Fracasso-Verner from the US. And Juan Carlos Expósito and José Alberto Delgado from Spain. They are not the best those countries can offer, obviously.

Lukas Fracasso-Verner got the invite and expenses for winning that BCA US National event in Quincy in July.

 

[skogstokig]

The field is 96. Eighty picks are named in the link above. Then there is a qualifier stage in which 16 others will get added to the main event.

ok, i went by panozzo's number. 96 sounds better for a WC

 

[sjm]

Sad to see that we've yet to reach the moment where we can get the best possible fields at pool's majors. Maybe next year.

 

[Straightpool_99]

The whole shootout idea just misses the mark. The shootout itself may be interesting and even exciting to a certain extent. It's what the shootout replaces -- a potential HILL - HILL rack that's nuts. If these types of racks aren't the most exciting spectacle in all of cue sports than what is?

Yes -- a cosmo break and run for a title may only be a 6 out of 10 on the excitement meter, while a competive drill may in some world peg a 7. The problem is, an epic final rack that ends in a clearance after a prolonged safety battle is a 10. Eliminating even the possibility of an epic hill-hill battle for a championship in favor of a drill is insane to me.

Truer words were never spoken. Shootout is a joke which in my opinion does not belong in the sport.

 

[AtLarge]

Yes! So 7 pro men's pool events of significance, all in Asia, in the next 7 weeks. I hope they have enough energy left to make it to Florida for the International starting on Nov. 14.

I just remembered that Emily Frazer announced during the US Open a couple weeks ago that the World Pool Masters will be in early November (specific dates not announced).

And we shouldn't forget the Qatar World Cup 10-Ball, with the biggest purse in 10-Ball, on Oct. 23-Nov. 2, which overlaps the Philippines Open.

And the All Japan Championship, Nov. 17-23, which overlaps the International Open.

 

[skip100]

Thanks for the info. Seems the system isn't working. A sanctioned World Championship should not omit any of the most elite players, and Chua, FSR, and Roda are all very elite.

In fact, FSR won a WPA sanctioned world championship just two years ago. If he wasn't invited, something is very wrong. One can only wonder what the invitation criteria really are.

Imagine if the Masters champion from 2024 failed to receive an invite to the US Open in 2026. Laughable.

 

[jbart65]

Imagine if the Masters champion from 2024 failed to receive an invite to the US Open in 2026. Laughable.

Doesn’t sound as bad as I thought listening to Panazzo on Doggin It. The federations had 32 picks or some such. The top 32 or so in WPA rankings got invites. Predator had 16 wildcards. They gave all former champions an auto if they wanted it. That allowed Ko Pin Yi and Eklent Kaci to get invites they otherwise probably wouldn’t.

Predator likely gave wild cards to SVB, Shaw, perhaps Yapp, but they had very few to hand out.

Residue of last year’s dispute, clearly. It seems Predator tried to get all the big names it could, but the WPA, the federations and Predator also had to reward the players who abided by their rules.

FSR was likely the main source of Panazzo for much of his info, reading between the lines. Sounds like he was invited to the qualifiers, but turned it down. He hasn’t played a lot of WPA events the past year. Players will have to play more in WPA events to get invited in the future.

Well within reason for Predator-WPA to expect that. Just like players have to attend lots of WNT events to get spots for invitationals such as Reyes, Mosconi, PLP, WPM, etc.