After some thought I thought I should submit a serious reply to Wayne's question about how we would set up our own IPT if we had the money. As much as I enjoyed the sarcasm in that thread here's my serious answer...
Summary
In summary I think that the IPT is fantastic, I have been calling for 8 ball on 9ft tables to be the "game of choice" for quite some time. The IPT have done a fantastic job with the events and venue so far, and as a web developer myself I think the website is probably their biggest triumph to date.
Tour Format
I would have 256 players on my tour because I don't think a tour of 150 players is big enough to accommodate all the greatest players in the world. Both the Euro tour and the US Open for example cope quite well with 256 player fields and given this is supposed to be a WORLD tour I think 256 players in the right number. However of course something has to give with regards to the tournament format given a field of this size if I want to fit all the games into the same 1 week tournament period. I like the round robin format but I would tweak this slightly to something similar to the WPC. I would have 32 groups of 8 players with the top half (4 players) in each group advancing to a 128 double elimination stage with longer races. The draw for the second stage would be based on group performance, with the best performers playing the worse performers. I believe this system would reduce the chances of players throwing matches which despite the win/loss index could still be a major issue at the latter stages of a tournament if both players are easily in the top 100 and 1 player has no chance of advancing from the group (given the sums of money towards the end of the tournament are so large). I also think that having a 2 player "final" makes better TV and is easier for the audience to follow, I would (if possible) make this a long race.
Selection Process
This is probably the IPT biggest failure, you only have to compare to current qualifying fields to the 150 selected members to realize this. I would have selected 128 players based on world rankings; hall of famers, TV ratings, but all would have a proven achievement and paid their dues. This would form half of the field, the other half I would open up as follows: I would have 3 qualifiers, 1 is Asia, 1 in Europe and 1 in the USA. Entry would be $1000 on a first come first served basis with a 256 limited field. The Top 32 from each of the 3 regional qualifiers would be on the tour. Finally in each venue throughout the year I would hold a qualifier in the week before the event, giving the locals and other players that missed the cut a chance to play in an IPT event, 32 spots, 1 qualifier in each of the 32 groups of 8. So in Summary:
1st Event
I love the idea of the KOTH and I understand that he needed a top money earner to kick the tour off. However I don't believe he chose wisely in his selected two. I would have chosen the following 4 players:
I would have paid whatever I had to too make sure these 4 players where invited to the first event as they are all world champions and it would have added extra legitimacy not to mention a fantastic event in itself. The winner of this mini tournament to launch the IPT would be KOTH.
KOTH
After the first event I would have sent 128 golden invites to my chosen 128 players, players that had paid there dues and earnt the right to be involved in the first IPT tournament proper. This invite would contain a DVD of the 1st event, and details of the 13k + 100k guaranteed money and the IPT vision. Each player would have 14 days to accept the invitation or forfeit his/her spot and I would invite somebody else. I would hold the 3 regional qualifiers after the invites had gone out.
First Year Events
I would have an Asian, European, and American Event in the first year plus the World Championship and KOTH events. At the end of the year the bottom 128 ranked players would have to re-qualify to keep their cards.
Conclusion
In summary I agree with much of what KT has done, what I would change would be the selection process and the tournament numbers and format.
So to conclude if I was KT:
Summary
In summary I think that the IPT is fantastic, I have been calling for 8 ball on 9ft tables to be the "game of choice" for quite some time. The IPT have done a fantastic job with the events and venue so far, and as a web developer myself I think the website is probably their biggest triumph to date.
Tour Format
I would have 256 players on my tour because I don't think a tour of 150 players is big enough to accommodate all the greatest players in the world. Both the Euro tour and the US Open for example cope quite well with 256 player fields and given this is supposed to be a WORLD tour I think 256 players in the right number. However of course something has to give with regards to the tournament format given a field of this size if I want to fit all the games into the same 1 week tournament period. I like the round robin format but I would tweak this slightly to something similar to the WPC. I would have 32 groups of 8 players with the top half (4 players) in each group advancing to a 128 double elimination stage with longer races. The draw for the second stage would be based on group performance, with the best performers playing the worse performers. I believe this system would reduce the chances of players throwing matches which despite the win/loss index could still be a major issue at the latter stages of a tournament if both players are easily in the top 100 and 1 player has no chance of advancing from the group (given the sums of money towards the end of the tournament are so large). I also think that having a 2 player "final" makes better TV and is easier for the audience to follow, I would (if possible) make this a long race.
Selection Process
This is probably the IPT biggest failure, you only have to compare to current qualifying fields to the 150 selected members to realize this. I would have selected 128 players based on world rankings; hall of famers, TV ratings, but all would have a proven achievement and paid their dues. This would form half of the field, the other half I would open up as follows: I would have 3 qualifiers, 1 is Asia, 1 in Europe and 1 in the USA. Entry would be $1000 on a first come first served basis with a 256 limited field. The Top 32 from each of the 3 regional qualifiers would be on the tour. Finally in each venue throughout the year I would hold a qualifier in the week before the event, giving the locals and other players that missed the cut a chance to play in an IPT event, 32 spots, 1 qualifier in each of the 32 groups of 8. So in Summary:
- 128 Invited Players based on Rankings/Achievements
- 32 European Qualifiers
- 32 Asian Qualifiers
- 32 American Qualifiers
- 32 Open spots for each IPT event
1st Event
I love the idea of the KOTH and I understand that he needed a top money earner to kick the tour off. However I don't believe he chose wisely in his selected two. I would have chosen the following 4 players:
- Efren Reyes (current 8 ball WPC at the time)
- Wu (Current 9 ball WPC at the time)
- Ronnie O Sullivan (World Snooker No1)
- Allison Fisher (Women’s World Number1)
I would have paid whatever I had to too make sure these 4 players where invited to the first event as they are all world champions and it would have added extra legitimacy not to mention a fantastic event in itself. The winner of this mini tournament to launch the IPT would be KOTH.
KOTH
After the first event I would have sent 128 golden invites to my chosen 128 players, players that had paid there dues and earnt the right to be involved in the first IPT tournament proper. This invite would contain a DVD of the 1st event, and details of the 13k + 100k guaranteed money and the IPT vision. Each player would have 14 days to accept the invitation or forfeit his/her spot and I would invite somebody else. I would hold the 3 regional qualifiers after the invites had gone out.
First Year Events
I would have an Asian, European, and American Event in the first year plus the World Championship and KOTH events. At the end of the year the bottom 128 ranked players would have to re-qualify to keep their cards.
Conclusion
In summary I agree with much of what KT has done, what I would change would be the selection process and the tournament numbers and format.
So to conclude if I was KT:
- More players would get the chance to play on the IPT stage.
- Every single player on the tour would have earnt the right to be there.
- Every player in the world would have a chance to stake their claim.
- Qualifiers would be reasonably priced with a 1 in 8 chance of winning a spot.
- 32 spots would be available at every IPT event to give anyone who hasn’t made the cut a chance to experience the IPT. These qualifiers would also provide cover for "no shows" to ensure a full field at every event.
- The first event would have pitted the current worlds best from different cue sports together for the right to be called IPT KOTH.
- The current 8 ball and 9 ball WPC would not have to qualify and possibly miss out on the tour altogether!
- 50% of the players would be invited and 50% would be qualifiers.
- 50% of every event would be double elimination and 50% round robin.
- 50% of the players would have to qualify at the end of the year
Yes SJM and I, well anyone who is either not already on the IPT or is just looking at it from a fans perspectice can see that the IPT could have done better. Yes eventually, in several years time we will get there if the system stays the same. The point I make and I will continue to make is why wait? Lets open the ALL the qualifiers up and make it fairer on the players, less events, more spots, less money! 