Vilmos Foldes belongs in the IPT

thebestpoolroom

thebestpoolroom

thepoolroom
Silver Member
I felt very bad for Vilmos Foldes for coming in 3rd twice in the previous IPT qualifiers. He was ahead 9-5 against Shane Van Boening and lost the match. OUCH, that hurts. Nothing taken away from the way that Shane played, he played flawless pool the last 5 racks and deserved to win!

However, Vilmos should be on the very top of the alternate list if one of the players can't make it. He deserves to be an IPT member for his accomplishment so far. This kid can play some 8-Ball! The scary thing about him is he's only 21 years old. I'm looking forward to him winning many tournaments in the future.

John
 
thebestpoolroom said:
I felt very bad for Vilmos Foldes for coming in 3rd twice in the previous IPT qualifiers. He was ahead 9-5 against Shane Van Boening and lost the match. OUCH, that hurts. Nothing taken away from the way that Shane played, he played flawless pool the last 5 racks and deserved to win!

However, Vilmos should be on the very top of the alternate list if one of the players can't make it. He deserves to be an IPT member for his accomplishment so far. This kid can play some 8-Ball! The scary thing about him is he's only 21 years old. I'm looking forward to him winning many tournaments in the future.

John
Click to expand...

There's no question that Foldes, who finished ninth in the last world championships and who was good enough to beast Johnny Archer at the World Summit, is one of the premier players in the world. He will probably earn a spot on the IPT in one of the next three qualifiers. In the end, though, it doesn't make that much difference. His game is strong enough that he's 100% certain to earn a spot on the 2007 tour one way or another, and that's when the IPT will heat up anyway. If the IPT makes it big, Foldes will be part of it, and with his great talent, he stands to be one of the big winners.
 
Last edited:
This is a problem common to any such systems of using a small number of Qualifying tournaments that only the top 1 or 2 players can earn qualifications from. A similar system is being proposed for the upcoming Dragon Promotions 14.1 "World Championship".

In this type of qualifying system no matter how many great players enter only 1 or 2 can place. A much fairer system would be based on qualifying tournament points over an entire season, but of course there are precious few such tours. You could use a combined index of the multiple small, regional tours combined with a few national level events but even then many players simply cannot afford to enter enough tournaments to earn enough points.

It's an unfortunate chicken/egg situation that until the IPT (or something like it) succeeds is running a consistent Pro tour on both a US and International level for at least 2 or 3 years that is well funded enough to attract a large portion of the pro-class players there won't be a fairer way of figuring out entry eligability that is also practical. (IE Not simply qualifying thousands of capable players or holding hundreds of qualifying events.)
 
What might be interesting (and this is just me brainstorming on the spot here, don't flame me!) is if pool tours ran sort of like professional baseball - i.e. you've got the main tour (i.e. National/American League) and then you have the 'farm' tour (i.e. all the little farm teams around the country). The main baseball team franchises all have their farm teams that they will sometimes 'bring someone up' from to the majors (and sometimes send someone back down).

The 'farm' tour could be more regional - i.e. the NW runs independent (but on the same rules) as the NE, the SE, Midwest, etc. Think of it as a tour with training wheels, for people to develop in. And then, cycle people up from the farm tour into the main one (and from the main down to the farm) based on performance. Such a system would give the people interested in the tour many more events to compete in, and they would be much closer to them geographically to boot. AND it would get MANY more people involved on a regular basis.

It *is* sad that you could have so many quality players show up for a qualifier and only two of'em get to advance - but that's how it is currently. If they did it otherwise, at this point in the tour's infancy, the number of players on the main tour would probably be too large.
 
Like sjm pointed out, Foldes is going to be part of the IPT one way or another, it is only a matter of time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top