Just asked him via twitter, and he confirmed that he'll be in Qatar in a few days.
Mike Dechaine playing in W9B
- Thread starter Keith Jawahir
- Start date
Does he have to play in the qualifying stage? Any idea how many places will be filled by qualifiers, and how many players will be trying to qualify?
Good for him. If Dechaine starts making an effort to regularly play in the big international events that is going to help take his game to the next level.
There is nowhere much left to go for him sticking around the USA playing only those events, he needs to get out there and test himself against those international fields and fight his way as high as he can go.
If he commits to playing all of those events he will become a WAY more dangerous opponent than he already is back in the USA.
There is nowhere much left to go for him sticking around the USA playing only those events, he needs to get out there and test himself against those international fields and fight his way as high as he can go.
If he commits to playing all of those events he will become a WAY more dangerous opponent than he already is back in the USA.
NYC cue dude
Banned
I just had a similar discussion with Thorsten about this yesterday, regarding Hunter Lombardo. There's easily a dozen US players above him, but he'll be playing in Qatar, without playing in the qualifiers. Apparently, the BCA does its dillegence and does invite the top players to participate. Of course, all expenses are on the player. So few of the players ever except. So, after so many refusals, the BCA winds up giving spots away to players who would never earn their way there. Mike D of course would've been invited, based on US performance, but one has to consider tha Hunter, specifically, plays in every major tournament, regardless of where it is in the world. That alone gets him an invite.
Sounds like you are saying Dechaine does not have to go through the qualifying stage, right?
NYC cue dude
Banned
I'm ASSUMING. I'm just now learning that he's going. But the explanation I got was that the US actually sends far fewer players than eligible spots, and because of that, none of the known US players will play in the quals.
MD is not in top 24 now and would need to win US Open ( the 9ft Barry one) to get into top 24 http://www.wpa-pool.com/web/rankings
Alternative is to get wild card invite (which he unlikely to get) or get invite by country association. If he is playing he must not have to go thru qualifiers
Last years qualifiers was probably toughest of any tourney -i mean Warren Kiamco did not make it thru qualifiers and only went thru after some qualified player withdrew :grin-square:
Johann Chua was ranked 26th before last year's w9b, but he had to go through the qualifying stages. He's been a consistent player in w9b, all-Japan and China Open.
right now, mike dechaine is ranked 60th and he does not participate that much in WPA-sanctioned events. my guess is that he will have to go through the very tough qualifying stages.
I agree. Also, a lot from the qualifiers did well and made it to the last-64 - Chua, Naoyuki Oi, Faraon, Majid, Gallego. Elmer Haya (whom a lot have never heard of) made it to the semis. It will be good for Mike D to go through the qualifiers. If he gets through it, he can easily get far on this tournament.
Dechaine shouldn't have to go through a qualifier at all. According to the WPA site the BCA is allotted 7 automatic slots for the tournament. He should be one of those, unless he didn't give his plans/acceptance in time. I would find it hard to believe with his ego, and the expense, that he would be going over there without having an automatic slot.
The question is who was offered and accepted the 7 slots? SVB, Morra, and Klatt would all fall under the top 24 allocation. So that still leaves 7 others...
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CW called, and Mike will be put through "Wink, Wink"
can you post the link to this info?
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This would seem to cover it: http://www.wpa-pool.com/pdf/web/2015_W9BC_info_website.pdf
Note the stage 2 reference to "continental associations" and the quotas on the first page, with 7 entries allocated to the BCA.
Those WPA rankings are horrible for anyone outside of Europe and Asian areas, only 3 of the 14 events are in the US. They need to have way more events to have a World ranking or have an organization and tour that will send the pro players to as many events as they want to play in, instead of what they can afford for travel.
I'm sure if they have 14 events, where all pro players can play in at will, the rankings will be different.
Shane is the only US player listed till Mike D is at 60, and Shane only has 4 events in the ranking.
It's like having a ranking of snow man makers and having all the events held in Alaska and Siberia. Not a lot of people from Maine would be ranked there either.
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This is a great point here and one that should be addressed by the WPA.
If they were serious about making a true global ranking system, the point you made would have to be addressed right away.
Yeah, you're right. we should just move all of them to the USA. Let the competition come to us. 3/14 works out to roughly 20%, which sounds a little generous to be giving one single country, don't you think?
Nope not what I am saying at all. Just that it needs to be either ranked by how you finish in the events you play in not in how many events you play or that it needs to be a true world tour. If you play in 4 events and finish 1,1, 3, 5 you should be ranked as high or higher than someone that played in 8 events but finished in worse positions and just got points due to quantity. I was ranked very high in MVP points in my league for several seasons and was top in at least one season, but because they rank not just how good you play (win/loss %) but also how MUCH you play, I got ranked higher than some people that had more wins or more racks won vs lost than me. Not fair to those guys, I just happened to play in more sets.
If that happens I would bet that the US would have players ranked a lot higher and a lot more of them.
Just going by the WPA ratings to figure out who is better than who or who should be qualified to play where, without noting that fact that there is no pro tour for pool so some players just can't afford to play in events is a disservice to not just the players, but it's misleading the fans.
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