Most Europeans didn't come because of the WPA sanctioning that was gone. It's the only way for most to get reimbursed from their federation because they play a federal event.
Also, the prize money (but that's the same thing since WPA sanctioning was lost partially due to "low" prize money), and proximity of the World Cup of Pool.
Thorsten, Mika and Stephan are the only three players to play both events back to back. Let's see if it does them great :smile:
The European dominance could be due to the fact that all countries still carry a national 14/1 championship, and we also play it in the European Championship and Teams Championships. I think that the average European plays more competitive straight pool than an American, but I could be wrong.
It's a shame that the tournament suffered from some players not showing up and WPA sanctioning gone, because if Dragon was to stop the event, there simply would not be any 14/1 world event left. Kudos to Dragon for hanging on, I hope they find an arrangement with WPA to put it back on track as the "official" World title in 2010.
