I just got home from ten days at the Rio.
This is not an easy thread for me because I am forced to take a dim view of the actions of two good friends who are two of the jewels in our sport. They are two gentlemen who must still be judged on their full bodies of work, which are outstanding. I would do just about anything to support Mark Griffin and Ralf Souquet who, despite the truly disturbing events at the just completed CSI 8-ball event, remain two of the great men of our sport. That said, the events of July 25 at the Rio in the CSI 8-ball invitational merit comment, if only for the prospect of the betterment of our sport.
Though there were others involved on the periphery, the players in this melodrama were Ralf Souquet, Ko Pin-Yi, Shane Van Boening and Mark Griffin.
Ralf Souquet is one of my all-time favorite players and one of the most professional in his behavior among all the pros I've ever seen, but he acted with a complete lack of professionalism here, and without naming names, some of his fellow pros with whom I spoke are quite offended by the way he handled this, which compromised the event itself.
Similarly, Mark Griffin is my favorite American promoter, the very model of excellence in event production in America and a great visionary in our sport. The pro events he put together at the Rio brought most of the greats of Europe, North America and Asia together, producing a breathtaking lineup of superstars that delighted all who had the honor of watching the matches. I don't recall ever disagreeing with any of Mark's actions, but today's the day, for he allowed an already eliminated player to re-enter a tournament and strong-armed a player who had earned his spot in the semifinal into playing a semifinal against a player who had not earned the right to play.
Who was most at fault in what happened here? That's a close call, but it's probably Souquet.
Plenty of Notice Concerning the Match Schedule
The fact that the second of the pro events would end on the evening of July 25 was known months ago. The exact match schedule was known on Wednesday, July 16, almost a week before the 8-ball event even began. Ralf, therefore, knew that a potential conflict existed and that he would be unavailable to play in the 8-ball event if he was one of the last four. My view is that it was Ralf's duty to inform CSI of the situation immediately. Ralf was not blindsided with regard to the tournament schedule.
Did Ralf Fear He'd Not Be Permitted to Play?
Now I'll speculate, for I don't know whether this is so, but I'd guess that Ralf feared that he might be replaced if he advised CSI ahead of the event that he'd be unavailable to play should he be one of the last four. There were, indeed, some other top pros present at the Rio, Oscar Dominguez and Jason Klatt among them, so replacing Ralf was certainly easily accomplished if CSI wished to do so. One must presume that either Dominguez or Klatt would have been delighted to play.
By not advising CSI as he should have, Ralf did great damage to the CSI 8-ball event, and his unprofessional conduct put Mark Griffin in a difficult spot, one that, sadly, Mark handled as poorly as was humanly possible.
Bringing an already eliminated player back into a tournament is not something I'd seen even once in my 38 years of travelling to hundreds of pro pool tournaments, and it really rubbed me the wrong way. I was so upset, I chose not to even watch the final, despite the fact that I had purchased a ringside seat for the entire ten days of pro pool, the first nine of which were nothing less than glorious, and I will recount them in a trip report thread soon. But then came the tenth day, when the CSI 8-ball event became, in my view, a complete sham.
The Sham Itself
The event had reached the single elimination stage so if a player doesn't show up for a match, that's a forfeit. Ko Pin-Yi should have advanced to the final when Souquet, who chose to make his flight to Asia instead, didn't show. Yes, we'd have yet another Ko vs. Ko final, but they earned it. Taiwan's players were simply phenomenal and dominant, with both Ko's reaching the 10-ball final and JL Chang running 6 racks and out to beat Orcullo in their 9-ball challenge match. Taiwan was going to win the 8-ball, too, having the last two players remaining in the field, until Mark Griffin decided that an already eliminated player would get a second life and compete in the semifinals, a terrible decision and one that smelled.
Assuring the pay-per-view purchasers a match should not have even been a consideration. If he felt guilty, then after the Ko vs. Ko final, perhaps Mark could have had Shane play a short challenge match against Darren Appleton or Mike Dechaine, both of whom, like Shane, had gone 2-1 but had been eliminated. Although none of these three should have ever been considered for the life-after-death treatment that Van Boening was ultimately given, Mike and Darren were every bit as worthy of a semifinal spot as Shane.
Ko Pin-Yi
We must now include Ko Pin-YI in the conversation of who is the world's best player. Perhaps he is the best. His composure was truly remarkable all week but Mark Griffin found a way to break it by asking him to play a semifinal against an already eliminated player. Ko, greatly to his credit, refused. Why would he have done otherwise? It was only when he was strong-armed, arguably blackmailed, with the threat of non-payment of his prize money, that he chose to play. In short, they made him an offer he couldn't refuse. One can only imagine what kind of mood he was in once forced to play, and Van Boening's win against the greatly agitated, and arguably furious, Ko was a joke. Let's hope that Ko Pin-YI is not so demoralized that he chooses not to play in America, for surely this looked like American favoritism to him and his fellow Taiwanese pros.
Shane Van Boening
It was a lost week for Shane, who'd lost his challenge match to Ko Pin-YI, lost to Ko Pin-YI in the match that determined who would advance to the 10-ball semifinal, and was eliminated in the round robin stage of the 8-ball event. I'm sure he found the unexpected invitation to come back from the dead a godsend, but, in my opinion, he should have declined the invitation or dumped to ensure the success of the deserving. Still, I'm inclined to give him a free pass here for it wasn't easy to do the right thing. Shane's a great player, but he doesn't seem to get it done when all the top Asians are in an event in which he participates, and while his blindly devoted fans will find a way to defend his right to have come back from the dead in the event, this was a serious miscarriage of justice, and it's a safe bet that Shane knew it as well as anyone.
Conclusion
What happened was disgraceful but I'm not a zero tolerance kind of guy. To me, both Ralf Souquet and Mark Griffin botched this badly, but I have to blame Ralf more than Mark for this sad episode, because it was Ralf that placed Mark in this difficult position. These guys, who remain two of our sport's most valued people, will learn from what happened on July 25 at the Rio, and will come out of it wiser.
As for me, it's the first time in my life that I walked out during a final. I hope it's the last.
