It can't be cheap to eat/stay at that Casino either. Pretty big nut to fade. I'm surprised so many foreign players are there. I know there are other events coming up for them also but still. Do their national pool assoc. help with these costs? With airfare and all other assoc. costs their overhead must be brutal.
Predator Wisconsin 10 Ball
- Thread starter Joe_Jaguar
- Start date
I believe a lot of the top players are playing in the Matchroom event starting February 14. Maybe Matchroom has a stronger hold on them.
What's the solution to the "super top-heavy payout structure?" I don't see a problem with it. The best should get paid.
I spend about $5,000 each year at a two weeks Grand American trapshooting tournament each year in Sparta, Illinois. The chance of me winning anything major there is MUCH less than 1%. About, 2,000 shooters show up each year that are in my position. We are fully aware that the top All Americans will win all the major trophies but yet we will not miss that tournament.
Frankly, I think the Predator/CSI series is doing quite well for the size of the tournament.
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From what I have heard, it has to do with comments made by Predator leadership about certain players, trying to force their patch on people (last year's PLP), creating conflicts for players with multiple sponsors (Predator and Diamond are now like oil and water), and doing low-class things like covering non-predator player patches in photos, and not providing non-predator players with the same level of media coverage, also not allowing external photographers to cover the events. This is just what I have been told, but when I look at the press release image they sent out today and the cover of AZB, its Kaci (Predator), whom Gorst (non-Predator) defeated handily.
I can dispute this one. There were three external photographers that I saw in Arizona, taking tons of pics. Two of them have already sent me photos.
Mike
Matchroom business model tends to represent the game/sport and play.
Predator is more of a dramatic/shootout show, which to me does not represent the sport.
I can tell from your post, you haven't been attending large pool events for over 40 yrs.
Pool players in general are broke and don't enjoy getting fleeced.
I've never heard of a 1% er in pool, competing and spending $5k just to have fun.
VVP
Your dollar demographics/perceptions of this game are quite different than pool players.
Looks like you know what you are saying. Yes, trap shooters are generally more well off than pool players because it is an expensive sport.
My point is those pool players who decide to play pool for a living must make a true assessment of their capabilities and maybe should get full-time jobs to back them up. Watering down the payout might hurt everyone because the good guys that draw the crowd might not show up and the tournaments will fail.
I believe you have to confirm things for yourself before you bye into to things people post on this site. I have seen a podcast where Predator CEO debunked the crap 9ballhasbeen posted. Of course he HEARD what he posted also.
Then on the other hand you got Fedor traveling from Russia coming and beating ass at the Predator events for his Cuetec sponsor and SVB is sitting ice fishing (and throwing the fish back). The top four or five Americans need to get over themselves. They can't bitch about a top heavy payout. Other second tiers, sure.
Mr. Howerton good to hear from you, my information regarding photographers was based on last year, do you have any insight on my other points?
Probably all wrong too. Didn't see a Predator patch on Fedor at the AZ event as he smoked them
Speaking of Fedor, looks like he got knocked off by Dimitris Loukatos.
Anyone know of him?
Anyone know of him?
I'd give her the same right now too.
Well Gorst did beat him 7-4 in games. LMAO
Today's stream coming up in a little over a hour....
11:00 Grabe vs J Ouschan
1:00 Laboutis vs Yapp
3:00 Garcia vs Capito
6:00 He vs Olson
8:00 tbd
10:00 tbd
11:00 Grabe vs J Ouschan
1:00 Laboutis vs Yapp
3:00 Garcia vs Capito
6:00 He vs Olson
8:00 tbd
10:00 tbd
Happens in pro tennis all the time. No big deal. Its sets not games.
StraitishShoote
Dad's Rack Boy
I drove over to watch this. It was my first time watching pros in real life besides when I went to Tin Man's MN Pool Boot Camp. I was there from 11 am to 4:45. I feel a little weird about it because while it was awesome to watch the last set of the Gorst vs. Kaci match all the other matches I watched were subpar compared to watching the super elite on youtube.
They were good matches but I was surprised by the amount of misses I saw. There was a game during the Appleton vs. Konrad J. match where it took 5 shots on the 10 ball before it went it. None of them were safes.
One other thing that I saw that won't show up on the stream happened during the last break of the Kaci/Gorst match. While the players were sitting there in the middle waiting to start the final rack a lady walked up behind Kaci and poked him in the shoulder. He ignored her. She poked him again and asked him to sign a cue with a marker. You could tell he was annoyed but just said "Later." and turned back around. She walked over to Gorst after the match for him to sign the same cue. Before he signed it he talked to her about how she should not have went up to Kaci like she did during the match. Kaci did eventually sign the cue for her.
I will definitely be going to a pro event again in the future but may look at the field ahead of time to pick which one I go to. It was interesting watching players only a few feet away deal with the ups and downs of the matches which isn't always apparent on video.
They were good matches but I was surprised by the amount of misses I saw. There was a game during the Appleton vs. Konrad J. match where it took 5 shots on the 10 ball before it went it. None of them were safes.
One other thing that I saw that won't show up on the stream happened during the last break of the Kaci/Gorst match. While the players were sitting there in the middle waiting to start the final rack a lady walked up behind Kaci and poked him in the shoulder. He ignored her. She poked him again and asked him to sign a cue with a marker. You could tell he was annoyed but just said "Later." and turned back around. She walked over to Gorst after the match for him to sign the same cue. Before he signed it he talked to her about how she should not have went up to Kaci like she did during the match. Kaci did eventually sign the cue for her.
I will definitely be going to a pro event again in the future but may look at the field ahead of time to pick which one I go to. It was interesting watching players only a few feet away deal with the ups and downs of the matches which isn't always apparent on video.
the euros bunk and travel together to minimize costs + most have sponsors. many of them are sponsored by predator but i don't know what to believe there, seems to be a lot of bs. fedor and mario are not predator sponsored and they're playing.
overall i think that many american players don't play the sponsor game as good as the euros. dress well, behave well, be active on social media and always represent your sponsor. look at tyler styer, he is (obviously) doing it right.