Philippine Open

apparently a 40+ year old pool room owner, hardly a pro player. not finding any history that he has been, either. he wore a world pool masters shirt though

Looks like he might have problems if he has to play under a shot clock.
I must say that MR put some really good matches on its YouTube channel so far. Far more interesting than what I saw for the Vietnam Open where the locals are not in the same league as the Filipinos.
 
Bizarre. First time a major is SE format inconsistent with other WNT majors that are DE+SE.
"Goalpost designer" MR again making it up as they go.
They are minoring the "major" cos almost every big event organized by them is a major while other strong events like International is ranking event. More majors in WNT Tour than Lee's family.

well another time emily labelled the world pool masters as a major, so i take that with a grain of salt. small field invitational cannot be considered a major. in my book it's about field size and prize money, and international is a major.

i think this event is a bit experimental, but i like what i'm seeing so far. the venue adds a variance with the close quarters and the crowd buzz. maybe that makes it uniquely filipino.. that you have to fade some disturbances? it's kind of in the spirit of the filipino money matches. no chickens yet though
 
Very strange. I see 22 matches actually played and 19 forfeits. 23 more matches, theoretically, in round 1.
 
.... while other strong events like International is ranking event. ...
Edit: My mistake... The "calendar" on the scoring site does not actually show all upcoming WNT events under "Upcoming Events".
 
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Jay Helfert has suggested that there are 100 Filipinos 18 years old or younger that play to a Fargo 750 level or better. Fargo can only track those who play in tournaments that report results to Fargo. I'd guess that many of the entrants in the Philippines Open have never played in a Fargo-tracked event.

There are
40 Filipinos in the field with an established rating
14 more with a preliminary rating, and
16 not on our radar at all

Of the 16 Filipino entrants not on our radar at all, six have played 1st round matches at this point.
4 were eliminated and 2 advanced with hill-hill wins.
 
There are
40 Filipinos in the field with an established rating
14 more with a preliminary rating, and
16 not on our radar at all

Of the 16 Filipino entrants not on our radar at all, six have played 1st round matches at this point.
4 were eliminated and 2 advanced with hill-hill wins.
Thanks, Mike. This kind of event is a fan's delight, for there are always a few champions that swim beneath the game's surface, and it's always fun to see a few of them come out of the woodwork.
 
If there really are only 8 tables, single elimination is the only way to do it. What’s the big deal?

As far as local no-shows, I doubt it’s because who they drew. When they signed up they knew they would be playing international champions.

My “guess” is the money perhaps wasn’t collected up front. Perhaps the infrastructure wasn’t there in the Philippines to do that. Similar to local events in the USA, the players that said they were coming, stayed home instead, for 1000 different reasons.
 
Most double elimination events are not true double elimination anyway and become a single elimination at the last 64 or 32 which is not fair for those on the winner side as they don't get the second chance as others did.
I would like to see tournaments that transition from DE to SE use what I'd like to call an "adaptive race" in the SE stage, where the race length changes if an undefeated player matches up with a player already with a loss. For example, if both players are undefeated or both players have one loss, then the race will go to 10 for both players. However, if an undefeated player matches up with a player with one loss, then the race will be to 8 only if the undefeated player makes it to 8 first. Otherwise, if the one-loss player hits 8 first, then it becomes a race to 10 for both players. At least this way the undefeated player has some advantage over the player that has already lost a match. But it's not a tremendous advantage since there is no scenario where the winner actually loses more racks than the loser.

Seems like a common sense thing to do, and I doubt I'm the first to imagine such a modified format. Anyone hear of such a thing ever being implemented in a tournament?
 
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To simplify races to five best 2 outta three sets winner breaks. If it it's tied a set a piece, then lag. Sudden death.
Race to 3.
 
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probably a smart move. he's been playing like a maniac for over a year. wonder if he'll play the international
Yes, he will defend his title...

  • Following the win, Yapp will take a break, skipping the Philippines Open to rest and spend time with family before defending his International Open title in November.

 
Tournaments are not about being fair. They are about growing the game, making a tournament fun to watch, and getting done on time. True double elimination takes forever. There is no climax. "Is this the final?", "I'm not sure", "NOW it's REALLY the final".
Fairness is right at the most important thing in any sport, because the whole point is to find the most deserving winner. If you desire to grow your fan base, which is typically the case, and certainly the case here, then entertainment value is just as important. Because both are of considerable importance, the key is that you can't give up too much of either one or there comes a point where you will start to lose fan interest.

As I already alluded to, I do think you can give up some of either one for a better payoff somewhere else, and I mentioned the single race finals in an otherwise double elimination event as one of the examples where the trade off seems within the sphere of reasonable to me.

I don't see that we have much disagreement other than your blanket statement of tournaments not being about being fair, as if fairness just isn't a consideration. Of course fairness always has to be a big consideration along with several other things, and you have to find the right balance that doesn't give up too much of any of them.
 
[...]

As I already alluded to, I do think you can give up some of either one for a better payoff somewhere else, and I mentioned the single race finals in an otherwise double elimination event as one of the examples where the trade off seems within the sphere of reasonable to me.
[...]
Don't even need to look at it as a tradeoff

If we see a double elimination to single elimination event as being a "fair" two stage event, say

256 DE--> 64SE, or
128DE -->16SE

We can view a one-race finals of a 128DE event merely as
128DE -->2SE

In other words the whole function of the DE portion is to funnel to which two players contest in the separate Final contest.

Then it's "fair."
 
apparently a 40+ year old pool room owner, hardly a pro player. not finding any history that he has been, either. he wore a world pool masters shirt though
I've been in several Manila area poolrooms over the years and played the room owner. Usually they are fairly good players.
On another note I was glad to see the Philippine refs being used. These guys have lots of experience and don't feel the need to follow the shooter around the table and stand behind them. Every time I saw a ref running around the table to get into "position," it looked like a dog and pony show. Just totally unneccessary.
 
Very strange. I see 22 matches actually played and 19 forfeits. 23 more matches, theoretically, in round 1.
No shows are probably guys who couldn't get a backer to put up their entry fee. I'm guessing it was $100-$200 here (5700P to 11,400P). The equivalent here would be a $500-$1,000 entry fee.
 
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