no but he shouted pre-maturely when he played shane and thought he had made a successful combo on the 9. it hung.
Spanish Open, June 2023, from Matchroom
- Thread starter Bob Jewett
- Start date
no but he shouted pre-maturely when he played shane and thought he had made a successful combo on the 9. it hung.
It seems that the tournament finishes each day at a reasonable hour. Quite unusual. I think they were done by about 7PM local time.
Yeah like something made in a lab...
Last 64 Draw is out but not up on PRP scoring site yet https://nineball.prpbilliards.com/matches/2
Some snippets of draw
FSR v Oliver Szolnoki
Wu Jiaqing v James Aranas
Eklent Kaci v Niels Feijen
Aloysius Yapp v Joshua Filler
Mario He v Gary Wilson
FSR and Wu have opponents that they are favorite over though at this stage there are really no easy opponents
Kaci v Niels- think it is rematch of recent match
Yapp will be tough for Filler
Mario He will have chance to take revenge on Gary Wilson who sent him to losers side in Stage 1
Some snippets of draw
FSR v Oliver Szolnoki
Wu Jiaqing v James Aranas
Eklent Kaci v Niels Feijen
Aloysius Yapp v Joshua Filler
Mario He v Gary Wilson
FSR and Wu have opponents that they are favorite over though at this stage there are really no easy opponents
Kaci v Niels- think it is rematch of recent match
Yapp will be tough for Filler
Mario He will have chance to take revenge on Gary Wilson who sent him to losers side in Stage 1
First 3 days double elimination stage is tea party and they are just getting started
Real party starts tomorrow and they will party late
He's good enough to play in pro opens.....but like 90% of the field, he's becoming a bracket filler.
Looks like Shane and Skyler are on a collision course.
I've been musing on this format. It's pretty clear the seeding structure is highly effective. The stage 1 is basically a double elimination 256 player qualification pro-am. And stage 2 is a single elimination 64 player professional event.
The seeding in stage 1 almost guarantees who will make it into stage 2. Sure there are some upsets but it's really structured so that on the winner's side there's a block of 2 top players and 6 weak players. The weak players lose quickly and get to have fun against each other on the losers side. The top players meet up at winner's qualification. The winner goes on. The loser gets to beat whatever weak player made it to the losers qualification match from a block somewhere else in the bracket. And the only real times they lost over there was because their initial 8-player block only actually had 1 top player and it wasn't them.
In the end, you didn't need stage 1. You could have had a 64 player event (seeded) and pretty much get the same stage 2. Again, a couple upsets but not many. Yet stage 1 was valuable in other ways. It drives up the prize structure with entry fees. It's a warm-up for the pros so they're not cold when the real tournament starts.
Maybe this was already pretty apparent. It's just somehow this event mostly stuck to the script. Even Filler losing to Chua 9-1 was fun. And Clark testing him was intriguing. But from that original 8 player block, Chua and Filler are still both through. And had it played out differently, maybe Yapp wouldn't be facing Filler right away. But that didn't break the bracket.
Now we have new blocks of 8 players you can make predictions on what showdowns could occur when you get to last 16:
1. FSR vs. Wu
2. Konrad vs. Wiktor
3. Albin vs. Riku
4. Fedor vs. Shaw
5. SVB vs. Little Kaci
6. Big Ko vs. Oi
7. Big Kaci vs. Little Ko
8. Fortunski vs. Filler
If it goes even a little bit like that, none of the brackets are lopsided without upsets. This could easily lead to...
1. FSR vs. Fedor
2. Big Ko vs. Little Ko
or
1. Wu vs. Shaw
2. Little Kaci vs. Big Kaci
or
1. FSR vs. Albin
2. SVB vs. Filler
Any number of ways this plays out, I'm getting a little excited.
The seeding in stage 1 almost guarantees who will make it into stage 2. Sure there are some upsets but it's really structured so that on the winner's side there's a block of 2 top players and 6 weak players. The weak players lose quickly and get to have fun against each other on the losers side. The top players meet up at winner's qualification. The winner goes on. The loser gets to beat whatever weak player made it to the losers qualification match from a block somewhere else in the bracket. And the only real times they lost over there was because their initial 8-player block only actually had 1 top player and it wasn't them.
In the end, you didn't need stage 1. You could have had a 64 player event (seeded) and pretty much get the same stage 2. Again, a couple upsets but not many. Yet stage 1 was valuable in other ways. It drives up the prize structure with entry fees. It's a warm-up for the pros so they're not cold when the real tournament starts.
Maybe this was already pretty apparent. It's just somehow this event mostly stuck to the script. Even Filler losing to Chua 9-1 was fun. And Clark testing him was intriguing. But from that original 8 player block, Chua and Filler are still both through. And had it played out differently, maybe Yapp wouldn't be facing Filler right away. But that didn't break the bracket.
Now we have new blocks of 8 players you can make predictions on what showdowns could occur when you get to last 16:
1. FSR vs. Wu
2. Konrad vs. Wiktor
3. Albin vs. Riku
4. Fedor vs. Shaw
5. SVB vs. Little Kaci
6. Big Ko vs. Oi
7. Big Kaci vs. Little Ko
8. Fortunski vs. Filler
If it goes even a little bit like that, none of the brackets are lopsided without upsets. This could easily lead to...
1. FSR vs. Fedor
2. Big Ko vs. Little Ko
or
1. Wu vs. Shaw
2. Little Kaci vs. Big Kaci
or
1. FSR vs. Albin
2. SVB vs. Filler
Any number of ways this plays out, I'm getting a little excited.
Hanoi Open - Nineball
Follow live the Hanoi Open at the Nineball online platform.
nineball.prpbilliards.com
1st seminfinalist Winner of FSR vs Wu (they play last 16)
2nd semifinalist Winner Albin vs Gorst/Shaw
3rd semifinalist Winner of SVB or Ko Pin Yi (they play quarterfinal)
4th semifinalist Kaci or Ko Ping Chung or Yapp or Filler or Chua
FSR and Wu have easiest top quarter of draw. They are on track to play in last 16 and winner should on paper appear in semifinal
The most brutal quarter is bottom quarter. Filler and Yapp have it toughest. They both have to beat consecutively 6 x800+ in a row to win title (assuming higher rated opponents win their matches) and 6 may be a record.
Typically, in a major, the winner beats maybe 2 or 3 or 4 x800+ at most in elimination stage to win title. Filler did have easier draw together in recent UK Open so tables are now turned. He does have chance to avenge his earlier loss to Johann Chua
Hey, Matt, hope you're well. Your post is superb, but it is with this one point that I disagree. With entry fees so low, I don't think that the extent to which the dead money finances the prize fund is what it is all about.
On the surface, neither the UK Open nor the Spanish Open needed a 256-player field. As you suggest, the big field doesn't much change who will appear in Stage 2.
On the other hand, look at the response Matchroom is getting when they venture into new places. They've now brought a major event to each of a) London, England, b) Kielce, Poland, c) Fulda, Germany, and now d) Lugo, Spain. With entry fees being low, semi-pro players are showing up in droves to these events and many local fans are watching their heroes. This is promoting pro pool in a way that is consistent with the Matchroom vision of growing the game in every corner of the globe.
To me, there's a little more going on than just playing down to 64. Pro pool is commanding attention in new places and, by doing so, bringing our sport to some new markets.
but whenever it looks this predictable there's often a wrench thrown in the machinery. maybe kledio or neuhausen in their block of 8..
nah, sanne azar can be a tough cookie when there's no shot clock. that's probably how that went down.. and i bet mika was fuming.
I would have to have seen Gerson beat Kazakis, what an upset that would have been He has been playing great. Very close match.
I dunno, I'd sure rather be playing between 7:00 and 11:00 in the evening than at 10:00 in the bleeping morning.
Two words: Derby City.
I love it when the bracket isn’t lopsided. That means when a non-blockbuster player breaks through it is a true Cinderella run and not just a weak shuffle of the deck.
