European dominance in the world championships

C

Cameron Smith

is kind of hungry...
Silver Member
I just noticed, Europe holds just about every world championships in cue-sports at the moment.

World 9 ball Champion - Daryl Peach UK
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souqet Germany
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen Holland
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton UK
World Snooker Champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan UK
World Professional (English) Billiards Champion - Mike Russell UK

World Three Cushion Billiards Champion - Ryuuji Umeda Japan

Next week is the 2008 world 3 cushion championships so we will see if europe can complete a clean sweep.

I just thought it was interesting.
 
in the parlance of every banger i've ever played... "even a blind squirrel finds a nut" :p
 
Most impressive! Still, many fail to give these phenomenal Europeans their due. They keep winning the toughest titles against the toughest fields, and have much to be proud of.

...... and, of course, Europe's domination is even more pronounced in the world of women's pool, as Europe has produced every WPBA player of the year since 1996, and will produce another this year, most likely Kelly Fisher.
 
It was the u.s. for a long time, then the phillipines and now it looks like japan,taiwan.... (lets just say asia) and the uk are battling for dominance.
 
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sjm said:
Most impressive! Still, many fail to give these phenomenal Europeans their due. They keep winning the toughest titles against the toughest fields, and have much to be proud of.

...... and, of course, Europe's domination is even more pronounced in the world of women's pool, as Europe has produced every WPBA player of the year since 1996, and will produce another this year, most likely Kelly Fisher.
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Exactly what I was thinking. I hear about the superiority of Taiwanese and Phillipino players but rarely the Europeans.

Not to say that the phillipino and Tairwanese players are not phenomenal. Just that at least this year, Europe has displayed almost complete dominance at the highest level.
 
All those finals won by European players were very close except Niels' win over Bustamante. It wasn't domination.
Could have gone either way. Could have been all Asia win, and if it were then we'd have 30+ page threads discussing superiority of Filipino/Taiwan players.
Snooker is a different animal. I can think of maybe 2 or 3 non UK guys who have a very slight chance to win the title, and only one of them is non english speaker.
Carom? I'm surprised Europe doesn't hold a title in that discipline.
 
the european might not have win with big numbers,
but if you check how many made it into the last 16 of the WC's, you'll see the dominance.

To bad we have to travel abroad to become a pro, because if you only play in europe u'll have a very hard time becoming a pro.
 
Cameron Smith said:
I just noticed, Europe holds just about every world championships in cue-sports at the moment.

World 9 ball Champion - Daryl Peach UK
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souqet Germany
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen Holland
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton UK
World Snooker Champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan UK
World Professional (English) Billiards Champion - Mike Russell UK

World Three Cushion Billiards Champion - Ryuuji Umeda Japan

Next week is the 2008 world 3 cushion championships so we will see if europe can complete a clean sweep.

I just thought it was interesting.
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you can cross out the snooker, English Billiards, and 3C. those games are mostly played and entered by Europeans, so it's obvious that a European would certainly bag those events.

if the number of other participants from America and Asia grow interested in those games or the competition has been leveled by a significant number of participants, then we could safely say that Europe is really dominating those games. as far as I know, the only participants in those departments are Chinese and Koreans and there are only a few of them in the pro circuit or let's say in the professional level.


as far as the first 4 games are concerned, I say Yes, Europe has been dominant this year.
 
Don't forget:

Derby City Classic 9-ball 2008 - Ralf Souquet
Predator 10 Ball International Open 2008 - Tony Drago
 
Hail Mary Shot said:
you can cross out the snooker, English Billiards, and 3C. those games are mostly played and entered by Europeans, so it's obvious that a European would certainly bag those events.

if the number of other participants from America and Asia grow interested in those games or the competition has been leveled by a significant number of participants, then we could safely say that Europe is really dominating those games. as far as I know, the only participants in those departments are Chinese and Koreans and there are only a few of them in the pro circuit or let's say in the professional level.


as far as the first 4 games are concerned, I say Yes, Europe has been dominant this year.
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I added those games to illustrate dominance in cuesports in general, not simply pool.
 
Cameron Smith said:
I just noticed, Europe holds just about every world championships in cue-sports at the moment.

World 9 ball Champion - Daryl Peach UK
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souqet Germany
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen Holland
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton UK
World Snooker Champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan UK
World Professional (English) Billiards Champion - Mike Russell UK

World Three Cushion Billiards Champion - Ryuuji Umeda Japan

Next week is the 2008 world 3 cushion championships so we will see if europe can complete a clean sweep.

I just thought it was interesting.
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Well 6 out of 7 is a good start. ;) I'm glad to see Europe doing good.


Seriously this dosent suprise me at all. I spent 6 months in Germany in the past 2 years and saw the interest people in Europe have in pool, there is a more people interested in pool, so there are more talented players as a result. Combind that with the infulence of snooker(they deliver the cue so good) on the pool players combined with the level of interest and your gonna have a solid base of champions. In America pool is dead so we have the same guys not new hungry players, it the PI they are on strike from some tournments(not helping in the numbers game of championships) So the Eurpoeans are cleaning up with big tourny wins.

This will be the case until the PI's stop the boycotts and unless America gets a sudden interest in pool were gonna be in 3rd place for along time behind Europe and the PI. Thinking about it were gonna be in last place-well perhaps ahead of Austrilia and New Zeland-do they even have pool tables there???.
 
Fatboy said:
In America pool is dead so we have the same guys not new hungry players, it the PI they are on strike from some tournments(not helping in the numbers game of championships) So the Eurpoeans are cleaning up with big tourny wins.

This will be the case until the PI's stop the boycotts and unless America gets a sudden interest in pool were gonna be in 3rd place for along time behind Europe and the PI.
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For your information, the top Filipinos have only chosen not to play in ONE of these events, and that is the World Ten Ball Championship organised by the RAT, ehh, I meant RAYA Sports.

Francisco Bustamante finished 3rd in the Derby City Classic 9-ball, 2nd in the World Straight Pool Championships and 2nd in the Predator International 10-ball Championships. (Yes, I know this is about World Championships, but I listed DCC and PI10-ball too)

Dennis Orcullo and Ronato Alcano finished second and third in the World 8-ball Championship.

Roberto Gomez finished 2nd in the World 9-ball Championship.

And to add some more tournaments they chose to play in within the last year, Ronato Alcano finished 2nd in the US Open, Dennis Orcullo won the Qatar World 9-ball Open and finished 2nd in the Challenge of Champions while Alex Pagulayan is the World Pool Master.

The Filipinos will not "boycott" other major tournaments, as long as Raya Sport isn't organising them. Don't worry about the top Filipinos not being present at majors in the future! (Or perhaps that is exactly what Americans should do, worry about them being present giving the yankees lesser chance to win :D)
 
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Fatboy said:
...I spent 6 months in Germany in the past 2 years and saw the interest people in Europe have in pool, there is a more people interested in pool, so there are more talented players as a result.....
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Not sure if everyone else understands what you're saying here Fatboy, but I freely admit to struggling with it.

When you say "there is more people interested in pool" do you mean there is a higher percentage of the European population interested in pool than the equivalently interested percentage of population in USA or do you just mean there are more people in total in the whole of Europe interested in pool than there are in the whole of the USA?

The reasonable validity of the conclusion you draw about there being more talented players "as a result" might in part depend on the answer to that question.

On the general subject of sheer numbers being a crucial factor in determining how many talented players emerge how would you reconcile Uk producing two current world champions when the entire Uk nation has less regular American style pool players than just about any single USA state and when one of those world champions has only been playing American pool for 5 minutes? (gross exaggeration but you know what I mean lol).
 
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Roy Steffensen said:
(Or perhaps that is exactly what Americans should do, worry about them being present giving the yankees lesser chance to win :D)
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Shane and Rodney - didn't worry!!! - :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Cameron Smith said:
I just noticed, Europe holds just about every world championships in cue-sports at the moment.

World 9 ball Champion - Daryl Peach UK
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souqet Germany
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen Holland
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton UK
World Snooker Champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan UK
World Professional (English) Billiards Champion - Mike Russell UK

World Three Cushion Billiards Champion - Ryuuji Umeda Japan

Next week is the 2008 world 3 cushion championships so we will see if europe can complete a clean sweep.

I just thought it was interesting.
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Europe finished the clean sweep last week. Marco Zanetti of Italy won the world 3 cushion title.

World 9 ball Champion - Daryl Peach UK
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souqet Germany
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen Holland
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton UK
World Snooker Champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan UK
World Professional (English) Billiards Champion - Mike Russell UK
World Three Cushion Billiards Champion - Marco Zanetti - Italy
 
It is such an honor for a lowly country like the Philippines being compared to a continent like Europe
with like 50 or so countries and with a pool of 731,000,000 prospective pool players to choose from!
 
Cameron Smith said:
I just noticed, Europe holds just about every world championships in cue-sports at the moment.

World 9 ball Champion - Daryl Peach UK
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souqet Germany
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen Holland
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton UK
World Snooker Champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan UK
World Professional (English) Billiards Champion - Mike Russell UK

World Three Cushion Billiards Champion - Ryuuji Umeda Japan

Next week is the 2008 world 3 cushion championships so we will see if europe can complete a clean sweep.

I just thought it was interesting.
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Well, let's stick to the games that are played widely across the globe but are the games America has dominated until the last decade or so. The story isn't pretty. Not only has Europe won each of the last six events having a deep internationally diverse field, but in every case, a Filipino (or Taiwanese) player came second.

World 9 ball Championship - Daryl Peach over Roberto Gomez
Derby City 9 ball Championship - Ralf Souquet over Francisco Bustamante
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souquet over Ronnie Alcano
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen over Francisco Bustamante
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton over Chia-Ching Wu
US Open 9-ball - Mika Immonen over Ronnie Alcano

No American has even reached the final in any of these, and while many of us who live here in America like to live in denial, the conclusion that America's most elite have been passed by the superstars of Europe and Asia is very hard to argue with.
 
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sjm said:
Well, let's stick to the games that are played widely across the globe but are the games America has dominated until the last decade or so. The story isn't pretty. Not only has Europe won each of the last six events having a deep internationally diverse field, but in every case, a Filipino came second.

World 9 ball Championship - Daryl Peach over Roberto Gomez
Derby City 9 ball Championship - Ralf Souquet over Francisco Bustamante
World 8 ball Champion - Ralf Souquet over Ronnie Alcano
World 14.1 ball Champion - Niels Feijen over Francisco Bustamante
World 10 ball Champion - Darren Appelton over Chia-Ching Wu
US Open 9-ball - Mika Immonen over Ronnie Alcano

No American has even reached the final in any of these, and while many of us who live here in America like to live in denial, the conclusion that America's most elite have been passed by the superstars of Europe and Asia is very hard to argue with.
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Europe is playing extra strong this year...but the second place finishes of the filipinos are something to ponder too (although Wu is Taiwanese).
 
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