Trip report: I traveled all the way to China to play in a Heyball Masters Tour event

K

kingwang

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I just got back from a two week trip in China to play in the latest JOY Billiard's Heyball Masters Tour event. It was an all expenses paid trip, my first time playing in an international competition, and a completely eye opening experience.

The quick summary
  • The events in China are massive: the Tour stop is comprised of two tournaments. The one I played in had over 700 entries. The combined prize pool was $1M+ USD 🤯
  • No expenses spared: huge arenas, extravagant opening ceremony, hundreds of staffers, ~60 tables, 40+ refs on duty
  • People really, really like pool in China. Star players even had sponsorships with non-pool brands, like coconut waters and energy drinks. There were twice as many pool halls as gyms in the cities I went to
  • As expected, the Chinese players are incredibly strong. There were also so many talented youngsters
  • I went two and out. Got matched up with a top 30 player in my second round match. Team USA went a combined 2-10 between the five of us.
For those of you with longer attention spans, I posted a pool focused write-up about the entire experience here.

 
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I'm not surprised. I remember my first excursion into China and seeing huge poolrooms packed full with players. That was over ten years ago. On another note I think they should have left the name as Chinese Eight Ball. Heyball doesn't do anything for me. And the Chinese typically want their name plastered everywhere. They are usually fanatical about that.
 
kingwang said:
I just got back from a two week trip in China to play in the latest JOY Billiard's Heyball Masters Tour event. It was an all expenses paid trip, my first time playing in an international competition, and a completely eye opening experience.

The quick summary
  • The events in China are massive: the Tour stop is comprised of two tournaments. The one I played in had over 700 entries. The combined prize pool was $1M+ USD 🤯
  • No expenses spared: huge arenas, extravagant opening ceremony, hundreds of staffers, ~60 tables, 40+ refs on duty
  • People really, really like pool in China. Star players even had sponsorships with non-pool brands, like coconut waters and energy drinks. There were twice as many pool halls as gyms in the cities I went to
  • As expected, the Chinese players are incredibly strong. There were also so many talented youngsters
  • I went two and out. Got matched up with a top 30 player in my second round match
For those of you with longer attention spans, I posted a pool focused write-up about the entire experience here.

Click to expand...
Thanks very much for sharing your experience. I've been to China and I've seen what you're talking about. I'm an ex patriot living in South Korea so trips to China are very inexpensive. Thanks very much for sharing your experience. I imagine the first time you see it. It is pretty eye-opening.

Criag
 
jay helfert said:
I'm not surprised. I remember my first excursion into China and seeing huge poolrooms packed full with players. That was over ten years ago. On another note I think they should have left the name as Chinese Eight Ball. Heyball doesn't do anything for me. And the Chinese typically want their name plastered everywhere. They are usually fanatical about that.
Click to expand...
Everything in Asia is about saving face (personal pride) so yeah, I can understand that the competitors would want their faces plastered on every wall possible.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I enjoyed reading it..
 
skogstokig said:
two and out is rough. any match go close?

and had you practiced on those tables before the trip?
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I had, but only twice. I got notice that I was going only two weeks before leaving. I had played Heyball competitively before and did well.

My first match was competitive and I played well but my opponent simply played better. The second match I got matched with one of the 30 best players in all of China and that was not competitive at all. As a 630 Fargo, I had expected not to make it very far (but one can always dream!)
 
kingwang said:
I had, but only twice. I got notice that I was going only two weeks before leaving. I had played Heyball competitively before and did well.

My first match was competitive and I played well but my opponent simply played better. The second match I got matched with one of the 30 best players in all of China and that was not competitive at all. As a 630 Fargo, I had expected not to make it very far (but one can always dream!)
Click to expand...
Congrats on even making the effort. Thanks for the report. Hope that you had a good time and picked up some valuable info?
 
jay helfert said:
I'm not surprised. I remember my first excursion into China and seeing huge poolrooms packed full with players. That was over ten years ago. On another note I think they should have left the name as Chinese Eight Ball. Heyball doesn't do anything for me. And the Chinese typically want their name plastered everywhere. They are usually fanatical about that.
Click to expand...
Hey sounds like 'black' in Mandarin Chinese. Maybe a reference to black ball.
 
u12armresl said:
Congrats on even making the effort. Thanks for the report. Hope that you had a good time and picked up some valuable info?
Click to expand...

Great time. My teammates were a lovely bunch, the tournament was unique, and town was very fun to explore.

From talking to spectators, I learned a lot more about the pool culture and the rating system they have over there (subjective tiers 1-11, similar to APA except over a much wider range). Playing in person, I learned how a lot of players would firmly smash in seemingly impossible shots with the OB close the rail, taking advantage of cushion compression to make the balls rattle in. Overall, it was very educational.
 
kingwang said:
For those of you with longer attention spans, I posted a pool focused write-up about the entire experience here.
Click to expand...
That was a great read. Hopefully you'll do some more tournament reports in the future.

>> to the incredibly unique food situation in Zhijiang, to the oddities of visiting a small Chinese town as a Chinese-American <<
Wish you had included some stuff on this though. Would love to know more.
 
OverTheNut said:
That was a great read. Hopefully you'll do some more tournament reports in the future.

>> to the incredibly unique food situation in Zhijiang, to the oddities of visiting a small Chinese town as a Chinese-American <<
Wish you had included some stuff on this though. Would love to know more.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately had to edit for length - not too many people want to read for 20 minutes and hear about my vacation stories!

Food-wise
  • Zhijiang is in the Hunan province of China, which is tied for the region with the spiciest food. Asking for something extra mild would get you something with a three pepper sign warning on a menu in Missouri. My spice tolerance is pretty good but not THAT good. I couldn't figure out how to order something between a 0/10 and a 5/10 on my personal spice scale. 0/10 = just ask for no spice, but that's boring. Asking for extra extra mild gave me 5/10
  • Bizarrely, the cuisine there features very little steamed rice. The people eat rice noodles (similar to Pho) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Got very tiring after a few days. My comfort food is steamed rice and I somehow, in the middle of freaking China, I was having a hard time finding it
  • The area also leans heavily on poultry: chicken, duck, and geese. Those dishes were all delicious
Visiting as a Chinese American
  • Compared to a metropolis like Shanghai or Beijing, these people see very few foreigners period. So people were very taken aback when they asked me where I was from and I said America. Many people assumed I was a translator assigned to the American players
  • That also means our little group with two white men and two white women got A LOT of attention. We got stopped a lot in public for photos, people saying hi, people giving us gifts, etc. Didn't happen to me while walking around solo, obviously
 
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