Here are some aggregate stats from Matchroom's Premier League Pool 9-Ball event played March 18-25 at US 1 Billiards & Bar in West Haven, Connecticut. Shane Van Boening won the event, defeating Ko Pin Yi in the final match.
Format -- This was a 16-player, 8-day event. The field consisted of the top 8 players from Matchroom's WNT Rankings plus 8 wild cards chosen by Matchroom.
Two tables were used for the event. Table 1, with commentary, was pay-per-view on DAZN in the United States; Table 2 was free on YouTube. The commentators, two per match, were Jeremy Jones, Karl Boyes, and Scott Frost.
The 10 players who qualified for Stage 2 on Days 6 and 7 were, in order of their standings coming out Stage 1: Shane Van Boening, Joshua Filler, Ko Pin Yi, Fedor Gorst, Wiktor Zielinski, Ko Ping Chung, Skyler Woodward, Mario He, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, and Albin Ouschan.
The 6 players who qualified for Day 8 with the best records through Stages 1 and 2 (Days 1-7) are shown here in their final order of finish in the event.
Conditions -- the conditions for this event included the following:
The matches each day were played in two sessions, a day session (starting at about 11:00 am local time) and an evening session (starting at about 5:30 pm). These stats are from the 34 matches (54% 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 6, 7, and 8 (Stages 2, 3, and Playoffs). These 34 matches totaled 254 games. All 10 players in the event after Stage 1 appeared in the matches I tracked, ranging from 2 appearances (Woodward) to 11 appearances (Van Boening).
The 34 matches in the stats are listed here in the order in which they were played.
Saturday, March 23 (Day 6 of the event, Stage 2)
Sunday, March 24 (Day 7, Stage 2)
Monday, March 25 (Day 8, 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.):
Format -- This was a 16-player, 8-day event. The field consisted of the top 8 players from Matchroom's WNT Rankings plus 8 wild cards chosen by Matchroom.
- Stage 1 (Days 1-5) -- A 16-player round robin of 24 matches per day (120 matches in total, 15 matches per player). The 6 players with the worst records were eliminated.
- Stage 2 (Days 6-7) -- 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 8) -- A 6-player round robin (15 matches in total, 5 matches per player). The 2 players with the worst records were eliminated.
- Playoffs (Day 8) -- 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.Two tables were used for the event. Table 1, with commentary, was pay-per-view on DAZN in the United States; Table 2 was free on YouTube. The commentators, two per match, were Jeremy Jones, Karl Boyes, and Scott Frost.
The 10 players who qualified for Stage 2 on Days 6 and 7 were, in order of their standings coming out Stage 1: Shane Van Boening, Joshua Filler, Ko Pin Yi, Fedor Gorst, Wiktor Zielinski, Ko Ping Chung, Skyler Woodward, Mario He, Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz, and Albin Ouschan.
The 6 players who qualified for Day 8 with the best records through Stages 1 and 2 (Days 1-7) are shown here in their final order of finish in the event.
1. ($20,000) -- Shane Van Boening
2. ($12,500) -- Ko Pin Yi
3. ($8,000) -- Ko Ping Chung
4. ($8,000) -- Joshua Filler
5. ($7,000) -- Fedor Gorst
6. ($6,250) -- Francisco Sanchez-Ruiz
Conditions -- the conditions for this event included the following:
- Rasson Mr-Sung Accura 9-foot tables with 4" corner pockets;
- Simonis 860 shark gray cloth;
- Aramith Tournament Black balls with a black-spots cue ball;
- referee racks using a racking template with the 9-ball on the foot spot (2-ball not necessarily in 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;
- 30-sec. shot clock (60 sec. after the break), with one 30-sec. extension per player per game;
- foul on all balls;
- jump cues allowed;
- lag for the break in each match; and
- all slop counts.
The matches each day were played in two sessions, a day session (starting at about 11:00 am local time) and an evening session (starting at about 5:30 pm). These stats are from the 34 matches (54% 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 6, 7, and 8 (Stages 2, 3, and Playoffs). These 34 matches totaled 254 games. All 10 players in the event after Stage 1 appeared in the matches I tracked, ranging from 2 appearances (Woodward) to 11 appearances (Van Boening).
The 34 matches in the stats are listed here in the order in which they were played.
Saturday, March 23 (Day 6 of the event, Stage 2)
1. Van Boening defeated Ouschan 5-0
2. Ko PC d. Gorst 5-4
3. Ko PC d. Ouschan 5-3
4. Filler d. Gorst 5-0
5. Sanchez-Ruiz d. He 5-4
6. Woodward d. He 5-1
7. Ko PY d. Sanchez-Ruiz 5-1
8. Ko PC d. Van Boening 5-4
9. He d. Gorst 5-3
10. Ko PY d. Ko PC 5-3
11. Ko PC d. Filler 5-3
12. Filler d. Van Boening 5-1
Sunday, March 24 (Day 7, Stage 2)
13. Zielinski d. Van Boening 5-4
14. Van Boening d. He 5-3
15. Sanchez-Ruiz d. Ouschan 5-1
16. Ko PY d. Filler 5-2
17. Filler d. Zielinski 5-1
18. Sanchez-Ruiz d. Van Boening 5-1
19. Ko PY d. Gorst 5-3
20. Gorst d. Ouschan 5-2
21. Filler d. He 5-2
22. Woodward d. Ko PC 5-2
23. Sanchez-Ruiz d. Filler 5-4
24. Zielinski d. He 5-1
Monday, March 25 (Day 8, Stage 3 and Playoffs)
25. Ko PC d. Ko PY 5-0
26. Filler d. Ko PY 5-4
27. Sanchez-Ruiz d. Filler 5-3
28. Ko PY d. Van Boening 5-4
29. Gorst d. Van Boening 5-4
30. Ko PY d. Sanchez-Ruiz 5-1
31. Ko PC d. Sanchez-Ruiz 5-2
32. Ko PC d. Van Boening 5-2
33. Van Boening d. Ko PC 7-3 (Semifinal)
34. Van Boening d. Ko PY 7-4 (Final)
Successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Day 6 -- 82% (71 of 87)
Day 7 -- 84% (72 of 86)
Day 8 -- 78% (63 of 81)
Total -- 81% (206 of 254)
Breaker won game:
Day 6 -- 66% (57 of 87)
Day 7 -- 67% (58 of 86)
Day 8 -- 65% (53 of 81)
Total -- 66% (168 of 254)
Break-and-run games -- on all breaks:
Day 6 -- 32% (28 of 87)
Day 7 -- 31% (27 of 86)
Day 8 -- 32% (26 of 81)
Total -- 32% (81 of 254)
Break-and-run games -- on successful breaks (made at least one ball and did not foul):
Day 6 -- 39% (28 of 71)
Day 7 -- 38% (27 of 72)
Day 8 -- 41% (26 of 63)
Total -- 39% (81 of 206)
One-inning games (B&Rs plus non-breaker runouts on first visit to table)
Day 6 -- 53% (46 of 87)
Day 7 -- 48% (41 of 86)
Day 8 -- 52% (42 of 81)
Total -- 51% (129 of 254)
■ Match lengths:
[Note: lengths include timeouts and commercial breaks of about 1½ min. after every 3rd game.]
- Longest race to 5 in total length (2 matches tied at about 57 min.) -- Matches 2 and 28 above
- Highest in average minutes per game (6.7 min.) -- Van Boening d. Ko Ping Chung 7-3
- Shortest in total length (4 matches tied at about 25 min.) -- Matches 4, 6, 12, and 31 above
- Lowest in average minutes per game (3.6 min.) -- Ko Ping Chung d. Sanchez-Ruiz 5-2
- Average match length for 32 races to 5 -- 38 min.
- Average minutes per game (all 34 matches) -- 5.3 min.
■ Distribution of match scores for races to 5:
5-4 -- 8 times
5-3 -- 7
5-2 -- 6
5-1 -- 8
5-0 -- 3
Total -- 32
Average match score -- 5 - 2.3
■ Games with one or more safeties (est.):
42% of all games
62% of games that were not B&R games
■ Number of game-winning 9-balls on the break:4 (1.6% of all 254 games). In addition, one 9-ball was made on a fouled break; it was spotted.
