CONGRATULATIONS SVB!!!!! on Becoming the PLP Champion.

[Jaden]

Shane dominated for the majority of the week winning 13 out of 14 matches. He then struggled at the end but managed to make it to the final 4 and once again came in clutch winning 7-3 and 7-4 against the Ko brothers to take the championship. There was a chance for the Ko brothers to face off in the final but Shane managed to beat them both to win.

Great way to push through and earn that championship in the end.

Congrats Shane and keep those championships coming.

Jaden

 

[SBC]

He played well.
He's got alot more winning to do.

 

[9BallKY]

Someone will be along soon to remind us that there really wasn’t that many good players in the event and that it was only a race to 5.

Pretty strong showing for a guy that’s past his prime.

 

[PoolBum]

Haven't you heard? He's a has been!

 

[Cuebuddy]

Shane was able to gather his focus for the last two events. Focus seems to happen more when you are hungry. I have got 25 years on him and now and then I can bring it. I am very happy for him. I was able to watch the free stream and DAZN at the same time so I am thrilled to have seen Shane and the other players play so incredibly strong.

 

[Magyar19]

Someone will be along soon to remind us that there really wasn’t that many good players in the event and that it was only a race to 5.

Pretty strong showing for a guy that’s past his prime.

Yes and his username starts with "s" and and ends with "m"

 

[Rocket354]

Shane played a lot of matches and a lot of racks against the very best. This was a great accomplishment. Congratulations to Shane!

 

[sjm]

No surprise here. I attended the first two days and Shane was playing beautifully. As I posted in the thread on this event, this round robin event is almost guaranteed to produce a super-elite champion, and this year was no different. Sadly, I did not see the last six days of this event, but it was a nice event to attend with a small but incredibly elite field.

As I've so often said, fans love a race to five and as I say every year before the Mosconi Cup, a long series of races to five is more than enough to ensure producing a very worthy and deserving champion. The PLP is a marathon. Simply put, this event is not made for a Cinderella story. In fact, in the four years in which this event has been played, nobody other than a former World 9-ball Champion has won it.

I've always wished that American event producers would have invitationals like Matchroom's PLP, World Pool Masters, and World Cup of Pool in which the players who've earned it get what amounts to a free roll with no entry fees and last place paying a couple of thousand dollars.

Well-played, Shane! Thanks to Matchroom for bringing this fine event to America for the first time.

 

[jbart65]

Shane was great the first four and a half days. Then he lost focus later on Friday thru Saturday and Sunday. He lost two matches in which he was up 4-2 and made a handful of poor safeties that cost him a few other matches.

I started to wonder if his age or, more likely, his constant practice was wearing him down. He was practicing almost the whole time he wasn't playing.

On the weekend, he seemed to dial back practice a bit. He also went easy his last match when he knew his spot in the final four. He didn't waste energy in a final round-robin loss to Ko Ping Chung.

But it really took a mistake or two by Chung to give SVB an edge - what I saw as mental exhaustion on Ko's part.

At that point, I wondered if Shane's excessive practice was what allowed him to power thru the mental fatigue, oddly enough. He suddenly seemed energized and refocused, as if he smelled blood.

Then his killer instinct took over. He went for a 2-9 combo that at first neither he nor the commentators spotted (even though it was obvious). That took down Ko.

He took an even more aggressive rip at a 9 combo to put him on the hill against Ko Ping Yi.

On the flip side, Joshua Filler. Hard to say this. He is the best player alive. But he still falters a little too much in big matches.

Filler still needs to develop a tougher mental edge or the stamina to see him thru an event like this, IMO, to be the best player ever.

He still has plenty of time since he is so young, and I think he has what it takes.

One thing he really needs to do is embrace fitness in the same way as SVB, Niels Feijin and Albin Ouschan, among others.

 

[mattydrva]

SVB is on fire! Prior to this he absolutely dominated the "US Open" events at Griffs in Vegas. I watched a lot of that and was extremely impressed with his Bank Pool game there, in particular. No one is playing better than him right now. Plenty of gas left in the tank for SVB; is great to see. Living Legend!!

 

[nmh2008]

Shane was great the first four and a half days. Then he lost focus later on Friday thru Saturday and Sunday. He lost two matches in which he was up 4-2 and made a handful of poor safeties that cost him a few other matches.

I started to wonder if his age or, more likely, his constant practice was wearing him down. He was practicing almost the whole time he wasn't playing.

On the weekend, he seemed to dial back practice a bit. He also went easy his last match when he knew his spot in the final four. He didn't waste energy in a final round-robin loss to Ko Ping Chung.

But it really took a mistake or two by Chung to give SVB an edge - what I saw as mental exhaustion on Ko's part.

At that point, I wondered if Shane's excessive practice was what allowed him to power thru the mental fatigue, oddly enough. He suddenly seemed energized and refocused, as if he smelled blood.

Then his killer instinct took over. He went for a 2-9 combo that at first neither he nor the commentators spotted (even though it was obvious). That took down Ko.

He took an even more aggressive rip at a 9 combo to put him on the hill against Ko Ping Yi.

On the flip side, Joshua Filler. Hard to say this. He is the best player alive. But he still falters a little too much in big matches.

Filler still needs to develop a tougher mental edge or the stamina to see him thru an event like this, IMO, to be the best player ever.

He still has plenty of time since he is so young, and I think he has what it takes.

One thing he really needs to do is embrace fitness in the same way as SVB, Niels Feijin and Albin Ouschan, among others.

I'm no Filler fan, but I have to disagree with the idea that he needs to improve his mental game. Filler is an absolute monster and is clearly the best 9-ball player in the world right now. That said, he's only a slight favorite against the top 10-15 players in the world, so he's going to lose his fair share.

Shane is reminding everyone that while he may not be as good as he once was, when he is in stroke and focused he’s absolutely still a top 3-5 player in the world and can win anything. It has been fun watching him play these last few weeks, would love to see him snap off a couple more big events this year.

 

[sjm]

Shane was great the first four and a half days. Then he lost focus later on Friday thru Saturday and Sunday. He lost two matches in which he was up 4-2 and made a handful of poor safeties that cost him a few other matches.

....

On the flip side, Joshua Filler. Hard to say this. He is the best player alive. But he still falters a little too much in big matches.

Filler still needs to develop a tougher mental edge or the stamina to see him thru an event like this, IMO, to be the best player ever.

He still has plenty of time since he is so young, and I think he has what it takes.

One thing he really needs to do is embrace fitness in the same way as SVB, Niels Feijin and Albin Ouschan, among others.

LOL. At the 2024 Derby City Classic, Filler had more stamina than all of them and played nine days of the best pool I've ever seen. At the 2023 Derby City Classic, by his own account. SVB ran out of gas in the last few matches of the 9ball. Possibly excepting Fedor, nobody has more stamina at the table than Josh Filler.

What you said about Filler is true, however. He is the best, but not by that much. The top guys (Filler, Gorst, FSR, SVB, Kaci, Biado and the Ko brothers) can all beat each other in the biggest spots, and that's why winning at the majors, in which you have to outlast a field of either 128 or 256, is more difficult than it ever has been.

Even so, over the past five years, Josh has won the US Open, the World Pool Championship, the UK Open, the Qatar Open, the China Open and the Derby City 9ball, six of the toughest big-field events to win on the pool calendar. He has also won the last four Euro-tour events he has entered, and those events feature fields of 256.

Not only does he have as much stamina as anybody, but I'd suggest that Filler is also the strongest mental player in the world.

 

[JAM]

Shane is on a roll in recent months. That's for sure!

 

[sjm]

I'm no Filler fan, but I have to disagree with the idea that he needs to improve his mental game. Filler is an absolute monster and is clearly the best 9-ball player in the world right now. That said, he's only a slight favorite against the top 10-15 players in the world, so he's going to lose his fair share.

Shane is reminding everyone that while he may not be as good as he once was, when he is in stroke and focused he’s absolutely still a top 3-5 player in the world and can win anything. It has been fun watching him play these last few weeks, would love to see him snap off a couple more big events this year.

Filler, just as you indicate, is the best but there are many who can beat him. Still, his title haul in the past five years is just mind-blowing.

As you note, Shane is still a very elite player, top five for sure, and congratulations to him on topping a field featuring most of the world's ten best players this week. We're not meant to think less of Shane because he isn't quite the player he was in 2011-15. The Matchroom majors for 2024 (UK Open, European Open, US Open, Hanoi Open and World Pool Championship) are coming soon and it would be a great story if Shane can snap one of them off. Perhaps the PLP will prove a springboard for a great year for Shane. Wishing him the best.

 

[JusticeNJ]

I really wanna see Shane snap off another US Open. I think 6 US Opens would be the record for a long long time. The fields are too stacked with monster talent for someone to win 6 or 7 IMO in today's game.

 

[jbart65]

All good points, sjm.

Honestly, I can't put my finger on it, but there is something that Filler needs more of. I am just not sure what it is.

Two years ago, I thought his kicking and safety game needed work. He did it. His banking, already good, then became topnotch. Now it's hard to find any flaws in his game.

Maybe I am using big MR or other events too much as a basis to judge him. I look at the recent streak of FSR and wonder why Filler hasn't done the same.

Yes, he was great at the Derby. Being a young man, he showed a lot of stamina. But it wasn't exactly a strong field like a typical MR event or the Premier league. Nor were there the bright TV lights and all the pressure of a big MR production.

Looking at the last 16 months, here are Fillers' results in big MR events:

In 2023, he missed the Premier League of Pool due to a scheduling conflict. He also missed the Hanoi Open. A bit odd.

He got knocked out in the final 16 by Ko Ping Chung in the US Open 10-5.

He got knocked out in the semis of the European Open by Anthon Raga, 11-9.

He got knocked out in the final 32 of the Spanish Open by Emil-Andre Gangflot 10-9.

He got dominated by Eklent Kaci in the UK final 13-4, and I thought Kaci psyched him out a bit with pregame comments. Perhaps that is where the seed was planted in my mind that he needed to get ... something.

World Pool Masters he got knocked out in the first round by Niels Feijin.

World Pool championship he got knocked out by Pagulayan in the final 64.

After being, IMO, the best player in the 2024 Premier league, he went down a bit too easy vs Ko Ping Yi in the semis.

***

Does Filler have the best mental game? I don't think so. His youth has been a big shield on the mental side. As he gets older he will feel the pressure more. I already think he does.

Is he not winning more big titles due to such intense competition? Sure. But again, how does that explain FSR's recent run.

 

[Kentucky Rack Man]

I am as big a fan as any for SVB. Matchroom has changed the Professional Nine Ball image and level of competition and offering more opportunities. The elite players will always rise to the top. Great run in Vegas and now in Connecticut. Wishing him the best. There will always be the element of luck in the game too. Sometimes you just don’t catch a break or get the opportunity. Keep on grinding

 

[9BallKY]

Yes and his username starts with "s" and and ends with "m"

I wasn’t making a reference to anyone I was just saying that in these days when someone does well there will always be someone who tries to make it seem like a less of an accomplishment. It’s in every sport known to man not just pool.

 

[jokrswylde]

There will always be the element of luck in the game too. Sometimes you just don’t catch a break or get the opportunity. Keep on grinding

Yep. I feel this way about Sky. He has been our 2nd best player for years. He has the talent to win a major based on multiple quarter and semifinal appearances and MC MVP's. It is not a big leap at all to imagine a world where Sky never wins a major.

Much like the Super Bowl title remained out of reach for Marino, one of the best to ever play the game, or how Phil Mickelson failed to win Augusta for so many years...The stars have to align in order to bring it home.

 

[Badpenguin]

Yep. I feel this way about Sky. He has been our 2nd best player for years. He has the talent to win a major based on multiple quarter and semifinal appearances and MC MVP's. It is not a big leap at all to imagine a world where Sky never wins a major.

I don't get the impression that Sky cares much any more. He certainly does not seem to have the work ethic required to be a winner in these fields.