Here are some aggregate stats from Matchroom's Premier League Pool 9-Ball event played February 18-22 at Classic Billiards in Lauderhill, Florida. Duong Quoc Hoang won the event, defeating Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz in the final match.
Format -- This was a 16-player, 5-day event.
The players' records were cumulative through the 3 round-robin stages rather than starting over for each stage. All of the matches in the round-robin stages were races to 5; the semifinal and final matches were races to 7.
Four tables were used for the event, streaming all 183 matches. Tables 1 and 2 were pay-per-view on wnttv.com. Tables 3 and 4 were free streaming on YouTube -- Table 3 on the Matchroom Pool channel and Table 4 on the talkSPORT channel. Only Table 1 had commentators, two per match -- Jeremy Jones, Scott Frost. and Tony Robles.
The 6 players who were eliminated after Stage 1, in the order of their standings, were Justin Bergman, AJ Manas, Moritz Neuhausen, John Morra, Thorsten Hohmann, and Kledio Kaçi.
The 10 players who qualified for Stage 2 on Day 4, in the order of their standings coming out of Stage 1, were: Eklent Kaçi, Duong Quoc Hoang, Robbie Capito, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, Chris Melling, Aloysius Yapp, Albert Januarta, Jonas Souto, Pijus Labutis, and Jesús Atencio.
The 6 players who qualified for Day 5 with the best records through Stages 1 and 2 (Days 1-4) are shown here in their final order of finish in the event.
Conditions -- the conditions for these streamed matches included the following:
The matches each day were played in two sessions, an afternoon session (starting at about noon local time, except at 10 am on Day 4) and an evening session (starting at about 6:00 pm). These stats are from the 19 matches (30% of the event's total of 63 matches played after Stage 1) that I watched, which were all of the matches being streamed from Table 1 on Days 4 and 5 (Stages 2, 3, and Playoffs). These 19 matches totaled 148 games. All 10 players in the event after Stage 1 appeared in the matches I tracked, ranging from just 2 appearances (Yapp and Labutis) to 6 appearances (Duong).
The 19 matches in the stats are listed here in the order in which they were played.
Saturday, February 21 (Day 4 of the event, Stage 2)
Sunday, Feb. 22 (Day 5, Stage 3 and Playoffs)
Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Breaker won game:
Break-and-run games -- on all breaks:
Break-and-run games -- on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
One-inning games (B&Rs plus non-breaker runouts on first visit to table)
■ Match lengths:
■ Distribution of match scores for races to 5:
■ Games with one or more safeties (est.):
■ Number of game-winning 9-balls on the break:
None
Format -- This was a 16-player, 5-day event.
▪︎ Stage 1 (Days 1-3) -- A 16-player round robin of 40 matches per day (120 matches in total, 15 matches per player). The 6 players with the worst records were eliminated.
▪︎ Stage 2 (Day 4) -- A 10-player round robin (45 matches in total, 9 matches per player). The 4 players with the worst records were eliminated.
▪︎ Stage 3 (Day 5) -- A 6-player round robin (15 matches in total, 5 matches per player). The 2 players with the worst records were eliminated.
▪︎ Playoffs (Day 5) -- The 4 players with the best records at the end of the third round robin played single elimination (2 semifinal matches and a final match) to determine the event's winner.
The players' records were cumulative through the 3 round-robin stages rather than starting over for each stage. All of the matches in the round-robin stages were races to 5; the semifinal and final matches were races to 7.
Four tables were used for the event, streaming all 183 matches. Tables 1 and 2 were pay-per-view on wnttv.com. Tables 3 and 4 were free streaming on YouTube -- Table 3 on the Matchroom Pool channel and Table 4 on the talkSPORT channel. Only Table 1 had commentators, two per match -- Jeremy Jones, Scott Frost. and Tony Robles.
The 6 players who were eliminated after Stage 1, in the order of their standings, were Justin Bergman, AJ Manas, Moritz Neuhausen, John Morra, Thorsten Hohmann, and Kledio Kaçi.
The 10 players who qualified for Stage 2 on Day 4, in the order of their standings coming out of Stage 1, were: Eklent Kaçi, Duong Quoc Hoang, Robbie Capito, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, Chris Melling, Aloysius Yapp, Albert Januarta, Jonas Souto, Pijus Labutis, and Jesús Atencio.
The 6 players who qualified for Day 5 with the best records through Stages 1 and 2 (Days 1-4) are shown here in their final order of finish in the event.
1. ($25,000) -- Duong Quoc Hoang
2. ($12,250) -- Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz
3. ($10,000) -- Eklent Kaçi
4. ($10,000) -- Albert Januarta
5. ($8,000) -- Chris Melling
6. ($7,000) -- Robbie Capito
Conditions -- the conditions for these streamed matches included the following:
• Diamond 9-foot tables with 4" corner pockets (said Jeremy Jones);
• CPBA gray cloth;
• Aramith Tournament Black balls with a black-spots cue ball;
• Magic Ball Rack racking template;
• referee racks with the 9-ball on the foot spot and the 2-ball on one of the wings or in the back location;
• alternate breaks from behind the head string in a box approximately 8" to each side of the long string;
• no illegal-break rule, but referees are to enforce a forceful-break requirement;
• 30-sec. shot clock (60 sec. after the break), with one 30-sec. extension per player per game;
• foul on all balls;
• 3-foul rule in effect (violation did not occur in the matches I tracked;
• jump cues allowed;
• all slop counts; and
• lag for the break in each match.
The matches each day were played in two sessions, an afternoon session (starting at about noon local time, except at 10 am on Day 4) and an evening session (starting at about 6:00 pm). These stats are from the 19 matches (30% of the event's total of 63 matches played after Stage 1) that I watched, which were all of the matches being streamed from Table 1 on Days 4 and 5 (Stages 2, 3, and Playoffs). These 19 matches totaled 148 games. All 10 players in the event after Stage 1 appeared in the matches I tracked, ranging from just 2 appearances (Yapp and Labutis) to 6 appearances (Duong).
The 19 matches in the stats are listed here in the order in which they were played.
Saturday, February 21 (Day 4 of the event, Stage 2)
1. Souto defeated Capito 5-2
2. Kaçi d. Atencio 5-1
3. Labutis d. Kaçi 5-3
4. Yapp d. Atencio 5-3
5. Melling d. Labutis 5-4
6. Souto d. Sanchez-Ruiz 5-1
7. Duong d. Atencio 5-3
8. Capito d. Januarta 5-4
9. Duong d. Yapp 5-3
10. Januarta d. Souto 5-2
11. Melling d. Souto 5-1
Sunday, Feb. 22 (Day 5, Stage 3 and Playoffs)
12. Duong d. Melling 5-2
13. Sanchez-Ruiz d. Kaçi 5-0
14. Capito d. Duong 5-3
15. Januarta d. Melling 5-0
16. Januarta d. Capito 5-0
17. Sanchez-Ruiz d. Kaçi 7-5 (Semifinal)
18. Duong d. Januarta 7-6 (Semifinal)
19. Duong d. Sanchez-Ruiz 7-4 (Final)
Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Day 4 -- 77% (63 of 82)
Day 5 -- 79% (52 of 66)
Total -- 78% (115 of 148)
Breaker won game:
Day 4 -- 56% (46 of 82)
Day 5 -- 62% (41 of 66)
Total -- 59% (87 of 148)
Break-and-run games -- on all breaks:
Day 4 -- 26% (21 of 82)
Day 5 -- 26% (17 of 66)
Total -- 26% (38 of 148)
Break-and-run games -- on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Day 4 -- 33% (21 of 63)
Day 5 -- 33% (17 of 52)
Total -- 33% (38 of 115)
One-inning games (B&Rs plus non-breaker runouts on first visit to table)
Day 4 -- 46% (38 of 82)
Day 5 -- 47% (31 of 66)
Total -- 47% (69 of 148)
■ Match lengths:
- Longest races to 5 in total length (approx. 50 min.) -- Souto d. Capito 5-2 and Duong d. Yapp 5-3, both on Day 4
- Highest in average minutes per game (6.2 min.) -- Duong d. Yapp 5-3 and Melling d. Souto 5-1, both on Day 4
- Shortest in total length (20 min.) -- Januarta d. Melling 5-0 on Day 5
- Lowest in average minutes per game (3.8 min.) -- Capito d. Januarta 5-4 on Day 4
- Average match length for 16 races to 5 -- 37 min.
- Average minutes per game (all 19 matches) -- 5.5 min.
■ Distribution of match scores for races to 5:
5-4 -- 2 times
5-3 -- 5
5-2 -- 3
5-1 -- 3
5-0 -- 3
Total -- 16
Average match score -- 5 - 2.0
■ Games with one or more safeties (est.):
48% of all games
65% of games that were not B&R games
■ Number of game-winning 9-balls on the break:
None