Break Stats -- 2023 World Cup of Pool (9-Ball), June/July 2023

A

AtLarge

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
Here are some aggregate stats from the World Cup of Pool played June 27 - July 2, 2022 at Pazo De Feiras E Congresos De Lugo in Lugo, Spain. Team Philippines (Johann Chua and James Aranas) won the event, defeating Team Germany (Joshua Filler and Moritiz Neuhausen) in the final match.

This was a 6-day, single-elimination event with 32 2-person teams from 31 countries (2 teams were from host Spain) playing scotch doubles. An afternoon and an evening session (Spain time) were played each day. Six matches were played on each of the first 4 days, reducing the field to 8 teams. The quarterfinals were played on Day 5, and the semifinal and final matches were played on Day 6.

Pay-per-view streaming was provided in the USA by DAZN. The commentators were Phil Yates, Michael McMullan, Jeremy Jones, and Karl Boyes. The referees were Marcel Eckardt, Desislava Bozhilova, and Ben Taylor-Fuente. The main announcer/interviewer was Hannah Wilkes; the MC was David Gutierrez.

I watched 19 of the 31 matches, skipping the first session on each of the first 4 days. So the stats shown here are for those 19 matches (230 games), which represented 61% of the total of 31 matches played and 65% of the total of 355 games played.

Conditions -- the conditions for this event included the following:
- Rasson OX 9-foot table with 4" corner pockets;​
- shark grey Simonis 860 cloth;​
- Aramith Tournament Black balls with a black-spots cue ball;​
- Magic Ball Rack template;​
- referee racks with the 9-ball on the foot spot (2-ball not necessarily in back location);​
- winner breaks from behind the head string in a box approximately 8" to either side of the long string;​
- no 3-point illegal-break rule, but a forceful break is required (determined by referee);​
- 30-sec. shot clock (60 sec. after the break), with one 30-sec. extension per team per game;​
- foul on all balls;​
- 3-foul rule in effect;​
- jump cues allowed;​
- all slop counts; and​
- lag for the break in each match.​

The 19 matches tracked were as follows, shown in the order in which they were played.

Tues. June 27, 2023
1. Great Britain ( J. Shaw, E. Sanderson) d. Qatar (A. Obaidli, B. Hussein) 7-0​
2. Albania (E. Kaçi, B. Spahiu) d. Peru (G. Martinez, C. Tevez) 7-3​
3. Austria (A. Ouschan, M. He) d. Australia (J. Sajich, J. Georgiadis) 7-6​

Wed. June 28
4. Germany (J. Filler, M. Neuhausen) d. New Zealand (M. Edwards, S. Clark) 7-2​
5. Bosnia & Herzegovina (S. Pehlivanovic, A. Piknjac) d. Hungary (O. Szolnocki, A. Bezdan) 7-1​
6. Spain B (J.A. Delgado, J. Souto) d. Saudi Arabia (Khalid Alghamadi, Mohannad Hamoud Alghumayz) 7-1​

Thurs. June 29
7. USA (S. Van Boening, S. Woodward) d. South Korea (S. Seoa, K. Lee) 7-1​
8. Poland (W. Zielinski, K. Juszczyszyn) d. Albania 7-3​
9. Austria d. Bosnia & Herzegovina 7-3​

Fri. June 30
10. Great Britain d. Vietnam (Duong QH, Nguyen AT) 7-6​
11. Germany d. Canada (A. Pagulayan, J. Morra) 7-4​
12. Japan (N. Oi, M. Yoshioka) d. USA 7-5​

Sat. July 1 (all Quarterfinal matches)
13. Philippines (J. Chua, J. Aranas) d. Chinese Taipei (Ko PY, Ko PC) 9-8​
14. Germany d. Poland 9-7​
15. Austria d. Great Britain 9-4​
16. China (Wu J, Wang C) d. Japan 9-5​

Sun. July 2
17. Philippines d. Austria 9-8 (Semifinal)​
18. Germany d. China 9-7 (Semifinal)​
19. Philippines d. Germany 11-7 (Final)​

Overall results

Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Match winners -- 80% (109 of 136)​
Match losers -- 78% (73 of 94)​
Total -- 79% (182 of 230)​

Breaking side won the game:
Match winners -- 69% (94 of 136)​
Match losers -- 41% (39 of 94)​
Total -- 58% (133 of 230)​

Break-and-run games on all breaks:
Match winners -- 27% (37 of 136)​
Match losers -- 23% (22 of 94)​
Total -- 26% (59 of 230)​

Break-and-run games on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Match winners -- 34% (37 of 109)​
Match losers -- 30% (22 of 73)​
Total -- 32% (59 of 182)​

Here's a breakdown of the 230 games (for match winners and losers combined).

Breaker made at least one ball and did not foul:​
Breaking side won the game: 117 (51% of the 230 games)​
Breaking side lost the game: 65 (28%)​
​
Breaker fouled on the break:​
Breaking side won the game: 3 (1%)​
Breaking side lost the game: 11 (5%)​
​
Breaker broke dry (without fouling):​
Breaking side won the game: 13 (6%)​
Breaking side lost the game: 21 (9%)​
​
Therefore, whereas the breaking side won 58% (133 of 230) of all games,​
It won 64% (117 of 182) of the games in which the break was successful (made at least one ball and did not foul).​
It won 33% (16 of 48) of the games in which the break was unsuccessful (fouled or dry).​

9-Balls on the break -- 3 game-winning 9-balls were made on the break, 1.3% of all 230 breaks. In addition, one 9-ball was made on a fouled break.
 
Miscellany from the 19 matches I tracked:

• The most balls made on a single break was 3, done 7 times -- 4 times on games won by the breaking team (2 by B&R) and 3 times on games lost by the breaking team.

• The 59 break-and-run games consisted of 1 5-pack (by Albania), 3 3-packs (1 by Germany and 2 by Philippines), 6 2-packs, and 33 singles.

• The most B&Rs by one team in a match was 5, by Albania.

• The loser won an average of 2.9 games in the 12 races to 7 and 6.5 games in the 6 races to 9.

• The average minutes per game was 6.7, including commercial beaks. But commercial breaks were significant in these matches, generally occurring after every 3 games in a match, and lasting about 3 minutes each. An estimate for the minutes per game excluding commercial breaks is 6.2 minutes.

• One or more safeties were played in about 48% of all games and 65% of games that were not B&Rs.
 
Looks like it is about time to issue a special prize. For the breaker who manages to down 5 balls under this break format. (Cue ball scratch does not count, lol)
 
Here's a comparison of a few stats for this year's World Cup of Pool event vs. last year's event.

Equipment and rules that differed:
2023 -- template rack, 9-ball racked on the foot spot, break from a fairly narrow central box​
2022 -- triangle rack, 1-ball racked on the foot spot, break from anywhere behind the line​

The stats for each year are for 19 of the 31 matches in the event. The 12 matches not included each year are those in the 1 pm local session each of the first 4 days, i.e., 9 of the Round 1 matches and 3 of the Round 2 (Last 16) matches. The 19 tracked matches totaled 230 games in 2023 and 218 games in 2022. The stats are shown for 2023 first, then 2022.

Successful breaks -- 79%, 85%
Breaking side won the game -- 58%, 61%
B&R on all breaks -- 26%, 26%
B&R on successful breaks -- 32%, 31%
One-inning games -- 43%, 46%
Games with safeties, of all games -- 48%, 49%
Games with safeties, of games that were not B&Rs -- 65%, 66%
Average minutes* per match for the 12 races to 7 -- 67, 68
Average minutes* per match for the 6 races to 9 -- 105, 94
Average minutes* per game (includes Final) -- 6.7, 6.9

*Includes commercial breaks.
 
Last edited:
Hmmm, that's interesting. B&R's and one-inning games / games with safeties are almost equal between these two years with very different format.

Avg mpg is a wonderful lil piece here, proving the known fact that in scotch doubles the pace of play is a bit slower than in singles ;)


* Magic Rack Ball template - whether it is an official brand name, or just used as a common type to indicate it was not a triangle rack?
I mean, the template looked pretty much like Accu-Rack, though the picture quality (at a portable device) did not allow me to study it closer.
 
Vahmurka said:
...
* Magic Rack Ball template - whether it is an official brand name, or just used as a common type to indicate it was not a triangle rack?
I mean, the template looked pretty much like Accu-Rack, though the picture quality (at a portable device) did not allow me to study it closer.
Click to expand...
Yes, Magic Ball Rack is a brand name. Matchroom is using one that is called the "Matchroom Edition." It is just for 9-Ball, whereas one of the other Magic Ball Rack templates can be used for either 9-Ball or 10-Ball. The Matchroom Edition is a little thinner than the other Magic Ball Racks and the color is "Shark Grey Black" to coordinate with the cloth Matchroom is using. https://www.magicballrack.com/

The Accu-Rack templates are a different brand name, and are made by Outsville, Inc.
 
Last edited:
AtLarge said:
Here's a comparison of a few stats for this year's World Cup of Pool event vs. last year's event.

Equipment and rules that differed:
2023 -- template rack, 9-ball racked on the foot spot, break from a fairly narrow central box​
2022 -- triangle rack, 1-ball racked on the foot spot, break from anywhere behind the line​

The stats for each year are for 19 of the 31 matches in the event. The 12 matches not included each year are those in the 1 pm local session each of the first 4 days, i.e., 9 of the Round 1 matches and 3 of the Round 2 (Last 16) matches. The 19 tracked matches totaled 230 games in 2023 and 218 games in 2022. The stats are shown for 2023 first, then 2022.

Successful breaks -- 79%, 85%
Breaking side won the game -- 58%, 61%
B&R on all breaks -- 26%, 26%
B&R on successful breaks -- 32%, 31%
One-inning games -- 43%, 46%
Games with safeties, of all games -- 48%, 49%
Games with safeties, of games that were not B&Rs -- 65%, 66%
Average minutes* per match for the 12 races to 7 -- 67, 68
Average minutes* per match for the 6 races to 9 -- 105, 94
Average minutes* per game (includes Final) -- 6.7, 6.9

*Includes commercial breaks.
Click to expand...
It's surprising how little difference the break rules made. Successful breaks went down 6 points, and the races to 9 took 10 more minutes. All the rest of the differences seem insignificant. I guess the pros are figuring out the new break rules pretty well. It may have just been the matches I've watched, far fewer than you, but watching a match a few months back, there seemed to be more tough layouts after the break with the new break rules. It seemed like there was a lot of pushing out and safties. Do you have a stat on how many games the first shot after the break was an offensive shot, a safety, or a push?
 
AtLarge said:
Yes, Magic Ball Rack is a brand name. Matchroom is using one that is called the "Matchroom Edition." It is just for 9-Ball, whereas one of the other Magic Ball Rack templates can be used for either 9-Ball or 10-Ball. The Matchroom Edition is a little thinner than the other Magic Ball Racks and the color is "Shark Grey Black" to coordinate with the cloth Matchroom is using. https://www.magicballrack.com/

The Accu-Rack templates are a different brand name, and are made by Outsville, Inc.
Click to expand...
I used this rack on Spanish Open and it was very good IMO. Also how They marked rack placement was brilliant. 1-ball-spot and 2 balls under 9 were marked with big marker pen so marks were exactly same size as rack holes. Very easy to put rack same position every time.
 
tomatoshooter said:
It's surprising how little difference the break rules made. Successful breaks went down 6 points, and the races to 9 took 10 more minutes. All the rest of the differences seem insignificant. I guess the pros are figuring out the new break rules pretty well. It may have just been the matches I've watched, far fewer than you, but watching a match a few months back, there seemed to be more tough layouts after the break with the new break rules. It seemed like there was a lot of pushing out and safties. Do you have a stat on how many games the first shot after the break was an offensive shot, a safety, or a push?
Click to expand...
Yes, it is a bit surprising, and I agree with your other observations. I'll try to compare first shots after the break a little later.
 
First shot after the break
(following up on tomatoshooter's post #9)

To get a feeling for whether Matchroom's "new" break rules produce more tough layouts after the break than did the prior rules, I looked at the 19 matches I tracked in the World Cup of Pool for this year and last year. A reminder of the equipment and rules that differed:
2023 -- template rack, 9-ball racked on the foot spot, break from a fairly narrow central box​
2022 -- triangle rack, 1-ball racked on the foot spot, break from anywhere behind the line​

I counted offensive shots, push outs, and safeties on the first shot after the break for successful breaks, fouled breaks, and dry breaks. The total number of games was 227 in 2023 and 215 in 2022 (excludes the 3 games each year in which the 9-ball was pocketed on the break). Here are the counts, for 2023 first, then 2022.

After successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul)
Took an offensive shot -- 109 (48% of the 227 games), 121 (56% of the 215 games)​
Pushed out -- 25 (11%), 21 (10%)​
Played safe -- 45 (20%), 40 (19%)​
Total -- 179 (79%), 182 (85%)​

After fouled breaks
Took an offensive shot -- 14 (6%), 14 (7%)​
Pushed out -- 0, 0​
Played safe -- 0, 0​
Total -- 14 (6%), 14 (7%)​

After dry breaks (without fouling)
Took an offensive shot -- 22 (10%), 9 (4%)​
Pushed out -- 5 (2%), 3 (1%)​
Played safe -- 7 (3%), 7 (3%)​
Total -- 34 (15%), 19 (8%)​
​
After total breaks (227, 215)
Took an offensive shot -- 145 (64%), 144 (67%)​
Pushed out -- 30 (13%), 24 (11%)​
Played safe -- 52 (23%), 47 (22%)​
​
If we look at all of the breaks combined, the frequency of offensive first shots after the break was just 3 percentage points lower (64%) under the "new" rules than under the old rules (67%). For the successful-breaks category alone, offensive shots were 61% (109 of 179) in 2023 vs. 66% (121 of 182) in 2022. For the dry breaks category alone, offensive shots were 65% (22 of 34) in 2023 vs. 47% (9 of 19) in 2022, but this category was quite small, especially in 2022.

Of course, it is possible that the comparison using this one event is not representative of what we would see if we looked at many events or a lot more games. But there are not many events where just about everything was the same from one year to the next except for Matchroom's "new" rules. The World Pool Masters, however, changed only those rules for this year; the equipment, including triangle racks, was the same in both 2023 and 2022. So maybe I'll also take a look at that event for a comparison of first shots after the break.
 
Last edited:
It does look like there were more pushouts and safeties under the old break rules. Not a huge difference, but, depending on your thoughts of statistics, borderline significant.
 
tomatoshooter said:
It does look like there were more pushouts and safeties under the old break rules. Not a huge difference, but, depending on your thoughts of statistics, borderline significant.
Click to expand...
Did you mean "new" instead of "old"? Pushouts and safeties were played in 82 of the 227 games (36%) under the new rules (2023) versus 71 in 215 games (33%) under the old rules (2022). But I'd say that's not much of a difference.
 
For the 38 matches I watched in the 2023 and 2022 World Cup of Pool events --

When the first shot after the break was offensive*, it was missed about 19% of the time!​
​
*excludes BIH shots after fouled breaks​
 
AtLarge said:
Did you mean "new" instead of "old"? Pushouts and safeties were played in 82 of the 227 games (36%) under the new rules (2023) versus 71 in 215 games (33%) under the old rules (2022). But I'd say that's not much of a difference.
Click to expand...
Yeah, proofreading failure.
 
AtLarge said:
First shot after the break ...

If we look at all of the breaks combined, the frequency of offensive first shots after the break was just 3 percentage points lower (64%) under the "new" rules than under the old rules (67%). For the successful-breaks category alone, offensive shots were 61% (109 of 179) in 2023 vs. 66% (121 of 182) in 2022. For the dry breaks category alone, offensive shots were 65% (22 of 34) in 2023 vs. 47% (9 of 19) in 2022, but this category was quite small, especially in 2022.

Of course, it is possible that the comparison using this one event is not representative of what we would see if we looked at many events or a lot more games. But there are not many events where just about everything was the same from one year to the next except for Matchroom's "new" rules. The World Pool Masters, however, changed only those rules for this year; the equipment, including triangle racks, was the same in both 2023 and 2022. So maybe I'll also take a look at that event for a comparison of first shots after the break.
Click to expand...
I took a look at the 2023 and 2022 numbers today for the World Pool Masters to see whether the results for first shots after the break were similar to what is in Post #14 above for the World Cup. If we ignore first shots after fouled breaks, because they are rarely defensive, we have this for offensive first shots after successful breaks and dry breaks combined:

World Cup​
62% for 2023, 65% for 2022​
World Pool Masters​
69% for 2023, 71% for 2022​

The percentages for the Masters were higher than for the Cup in both years, but the change in going from the old break rules to the "new" break rules (i.e., from 2022 to 2023) was pretty much the same for both events, just 2 or 3 percentage points. So, if the change to the "new" breaking rules is producing more tough layouts, these numbers for these two events haven't gone very far in demonstrating that effect.
​
 
AtLarge said:
I took a look at the 2023 and 2022 numbers today for the World Pool Masters to see whether the results for first shots after the break were similar to what is in Post #14 above for the World Cup. If we ignore first shots after fouled breaks, because they are rarely defensive, we have this for offensive first shots after successful breaks and dry breaks combined:

World Cup​
62% for 2023, 65% for 2022​
World Pool Masters​
69% for 2023, 71% for 2022​

The percentages for the Masters were higher than for the Cup in both years, but the change in going from the old break rules to the "new" break rules (i.e., from 2022 to 2023) was pretty much the same for both events, just 2 or 3 percentage points. So, if the change to the "new" breaking rules is producing more tough layouts, these numbers for these two events haven't gone very far in demonstrating that effect.
​
Click to expand...
Again, my sample size is much smaller than yours, and memory is imperfect. I'm not trying to make you mine all the data either, I appreciate you putting these statistics together.

3 percentage points, that's not one rack in a race to 11. It does seem like more of the racks had a couple of tough shots. It could also be that I've watched a bunch of older matches, watching champions in the finals play on large pockets, compared to all of the rounds in a tournament with tight pockets is probably biasing my impression.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top