Filler Slump?

sjm said:
Agreed, some cooperation from the pool gods is nearly always an ingredient in the recipe for sustained excellence.

Still, it cuts both ways. Look at the 2022 UK Open. FSR, after an early loss, beat a who's who of pool to reach the semis and he then beat SVB 11-4 to reach the final. He was playing the best pool I'd ever seen him play. FSR then played near perfect pool to take a 6-0 lead over Filler and seemed to be cruising to a major title. Then came the best hour and a half of pool that Filler played in all of 2022 and it was Josh who lifted the trophy. Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time, but here FSR was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The ebbs and flows of both performance and luck are what keep people like you and I coming back for more, but the guys at the top have all earned their place among the elite.
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Oh no doubt he produced great pool and earned some huge wins. That one vs Filler it was his turn to watch another world class player show us why this game is not difficult enough to really have any sort of big favorite. Too many guys just get out all the time and play good tactical games. For anything dealing with shorter races and short term statistically insignificant sample sizes (like 6-10 matches in a tournament, or a stretch of 10 tournaments for that matter), there will be a lot of variance in the results. I'm not faulting FSR for being the beneficiary of some positive variance, just saying that positive variance is required for any of the top guys to reel off so many wins in a year.
 
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Filler is still in the top 20 for money won in 2023. I think that is still an accomplishment even though that is just a little over $11000. We will see as the year progresses.
 
Just watched Filler, Kaci Predator match and another.
He appears slimmer, less buff.
Has some tentative niss, coming up short on typical shape shots more often than before.
He needs to Up his all around training.... move on and smooth out.
 
Everyone has been eclipsed by Gorst...and FSR. But Filler doesn't travel as much as either. He's every bit as talented, probably more
 
"Pure talent", yes, Filler has the most natural ability I have ever seen.
But unfortunately you need more than that to win on the biggest stages. Mental strength is key. Filler gets rattled when things aren't going his way. Once he learns how to overcome that, he could end up with as many titles as Gorst or FSR over the next few decades.
Zielinski of Poland is another massively "pure talented" young player imo. Just needs more mental tuffness and his potential for World titles is strong too.
 
Fillers Demeanor feels different.
He's maturing, going thru the paces and brutal travel schedule.
Years on the road affect us all.
Is it time for family?
 
Island Drive said:
Just watched Filler, Kaci Predator match and another.
He appears slimmer, less buff.
Has some tentative niss, coming up short on typical shape shots more often than before.
He needs to Up his all around training.... move on and smooth out.
Click to expand...
That's what I saw too. He looked a little less confident and sometimes even uncertain. Not quite the same demeanor as when he was crucifying everyone in his path, at all games! He is still a great player (third place in this strong field!) but now he is beatable. Perhaps the emergence of Gorst, who surpassed him, put some doubt in his mind. I don't think he is done by any means though. Just needs some time to regroup and figure out a way to play a little better against the emerging group of very strong players. This guy is too talented not to win again, and again. You could say he is in a mini-slump that most other players would be happy with.
 
Every young player who first comes on the scene with a superlatively high skillset has an air of invincibility. The subconscience is a powerful tool and belief that you are invincible provides a powerful subconscious weapon. However, there comes a time in every young players career where they realize they aren't going to win every time and they lose that subconscious perception of invincibility.

Some never recover from that, a couple can fully recover at least temporarily and most settle somewhere in between where they started and where they slumped.

This may be Filler battling that realization. If it is, then any recovery whatsoever should loft him back up to a SVBesque career. It'll be a wait and see.

It's funny because I was just remarking to my friend about this very thing with Filler. Hopefully, when he does recover, he'll lose a bit of his arrogance that makes his personality a tad douchey and it will make more people want to root FOR him instead of against him. The humility of the above realization tends to do that to people

Jaden
 
I think that Filler struggles psychologically with two things: elite players who are his age or younger (Gorst, Kaci), and players who are slower and more methodical, while also playing just as good as him (Gorst and Kaci again, as well as Albin Ouschan).

On the flip side, I think he has zero fear of guys like SVB, Shaw, Chang, etc. They are older than him and in his eyes, he does everything they do, but better. He seems to relish beating those guys.

But as Jaden said, I could see his edge starting to diminish a bit as he ages. First from the realization that he's not invincible, and second from losing the "boy wonder" aura. Filler is an old man compared to Gorst's 22 years of age. But the Filler/Kaci/Gorst crop of young elite players isn't the last, and it won't be long until they're late 20s/early 30s facing off against kids in their teens/early 20s who play just as good, if not better, than them.

I think the current crop of young players grew up being influenced by SVB (who along with Earl and Efren was the game's first internet/YouTube celebrity), and soon we will see a crop of players influenced by the likes of Filler, Kaci, and Gorst.
 
can't really criticize him this time. he had a great tournament, up until the semi he hadn't won a match with less than double the score. some donuts too i believe. kaci shut him out pretty effectively in the semi, but on another day it would've been the other way around
 
Island Drive said:
Just watched Filler, Kaci Predator match and another.
He appears slimmer, less buff.
Has some tentative niss, coming up short on typical shape shots more often than before.
He needs to Up his all around training.... move on and smooth out.
Click to expand...
I think it's mostly due to the slow-ass Predator cloth and probably not being adjusted to the cf shaft yet too.
Physically, I believe he's fine.
 
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