MR in 2024 used its points system for 9 ball to populate the PLP, giving auto bids to the top 12-14 players. Then there were a few wild cards.
In 2024, MR chose Bernie Regalario and Michael Feliciano, both Pinoys, as wild cards. Nguyen Anh Tuan was another wild card given his lower points ranking.
The other 13 appear to have made it on points. FSR, SVB, Sky, Alcaide, Gorst, Shaw, Ko Pin Yi, Ko Ping Chung, Filler, Ouschan, He, Dang Jin Hu, Zielinski.
Given the WPA-WNT split, MR decided not to use the point system this year.
Frazer talked about this a few months ago on Doggin It. She indicated MR would eventually go back to a point system, but she also seemed to relish the idea of more wild cards and more opportunity to expand the reach of the game, especially by introducing more young players.
Hence the choice of Nhiet and Koyongian.
Supposedly AJ Manas was invited, but he was denied a passport (How does that happen in this day and age to so many pool players?)
Manas, imo, is the best under-20 player in the world that I have seen over the past year. Much as I enjoyed the recent American Juniors showdown in Vegas, none of the young Americans are at his level.
The inclusion of Pehlivanovic is obvious enough. The event is taking place in his home country. He is also among the top 40 worldwide and top 20 is not out of the question.
Pehlivanovic also played in the PLP in 2023. He did great in the round robin, finishing third overall.
Surprised that Aleksa Pecelj has not been picked since he is from Serbia. But maybe that's why.
The event is still pretty top heavy even with people like Gorst and Filler missing. But not as top heavy as as it was in 2024.
SVB, Kaci, Chua and FSR are top 10 players globally. Yapp is top 20. I'd expect at least one of the final two players to be in the top 20 as well.
Let's say six of the 16 PLP players are in the top 20.
Styler, Labutis, Neuhausen, Capito and Huang are probably outside the top 20 if the WPA players are included, though Moritz and Pijus are knocking on the door.
Compare that to 2024. The top 13 players were all in the top 20 globally.
On the other hand, only five of the 16 players in the PLP in 2023 were in the top 20 globally!
Invitees included Earl Strickland, Chris Melling (the event was in the UK), Naoyuki Oi, Wu Kun Lin, Luong Duc Thien, Pagulayan, Konrad Juszczyszyn and two women, Seo Seoa and Chou Chieh Yu.
Hard to see why Seoa and Chieh were invited given MR's absence in the women's game.
In any case, it was a weak field overall.