World 8-Ball Championship

M

malaguista

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The World 8-Ball Championship are taking place at this moment in the United Arab Emirates. For a world event this has had very little publicity.
Does anyone know for example what the prize fund and breakdown is?
Does anyone know why there are no American players involved?
Does anyone know how the players were selected?
There is nothing apart from results on the WPA website regarding this event.
 
World 8 Ball Championships

There is a "schedule conflict" with an event in NYC or something. I bet it has more to do with the state department though. There's travel advisories for Americans throughout the region. Has anyone seen the total payouts for the US Open yet? I'm looking for the whole thing not just the top 16.


Andy
 
Thanks Berry for the useful information.
Interesting to note that in the World 9 Ball Championships there were 42 countries represented, in the 8 Ball there are only 24 countries and 25% of the field are from the home country, doesn´t the rest of the world play 8 Ball?
 
I had the pleasure of living in a tent on a military base located in UAE for 3 months. Not a bad place as far as the Middle East is concerned. Americans are allowed to travel there as they please as far as I know. They've held tournaments there before in the last few years.

Some crazy drivers there. Almost as bad as Korea. One interesting thing about their cars is that the lower numbered the license plates are, the closer they are to the royal family.

You also have to be very careful on what you take pictures of there. If you get caught taking a picture of any of their Mosque, you could be going to prison. There was an idiot that I went downtown with who took a picture of a Mosque with his digital camera. Later on we went to a huge elaborate jewely store complex and some of the guys I was with were taking a picture of it. Right then a cop came out from inside the building and confiscated our camera's. Then took us into the security there and proceeded to erase the pictures on our camera's. If they would of saw the Mosque on that idiots camera, its possible I could be in their prison right now.
 
When the world 9ball championships started it was just WPA, then matchroom sport jumped aboard and look at what they did to the WPC, hopefully matchroom will jump aboard the world 8ball championships in the future, that would be great.
 
Now this is interesting. 1st place, Efren Reyes. 2nd place marlon manalo. 3rd place alex pagulayan and francisco bustamante. (from the AZ Billiards Tournament results page). do filipinos play 8ball all day???
 
Renegade said:
Now this is interesting. 1st place, Efren Reyes. 2nd place marlon manalo. 3rd place alex pagulayan and francisco bustamante. (from the AZ Billiards Tournament results page). do filipinos play 8ball all day???
Click to expand...

While the 8-ball tourney was occurring in UAE, the UPA-sanctioned World Summit of Pool transpired in NYC; 2 years in a row, I might add.

The Filippino players are MIA on the American tournament trail as of late, due to the lucrative Asian Tours where pool players, especially the Filippinos, are welcome with open arms. The competition is limited in some venues to country of origin or citizenship.

Personally, I'd like to see more 8-ball tournaments come to the fore. 9-ball ain't hitting the mark, and the rules in some 9-ball venues seem almost ridiculous.

It is, I hate to say it, just about impossible to earn a living due to the exhorbitant travel costs around the world, even in the continental United States. Players are stuck $1,500 and $2,000 before they hit the first ball, and there can only be ONE winner. If you come in fourth place, you MIGHT break even for the trip. Imagine playing pool full time and attending two or three of these events each and every month. Even the best of players may come out in the red by the end of the year.

I'd like to see a Central Tournament Registry created, a place where all promoters can register their upcoming event. This would put an end to simultaneous tournaments occurring, i.e., the UPA Season Finale at the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles and the JOB tournament in Nashville, both occuring simultaneously in January 2005.

The $300,000-guaranteed/added Hilton-sponsored North American Open Tour looked very promising. Because of tournament scheduling conflict, only 43 players showed up to compete on the first $20,000-added leg. Last I heard, the NAOT has canceled the second $30,000-added leg which was to occur in February 2005 in Pittsburgh, PA.

The professional pool player is a rare breed, indeed, and much like the buffalo from the Wild West, they are diminishing in numbers. I have seen numerous GREAT pool players leave the pool racket to pursue a job or another means of income because they desire stability and a roof over their heads.

How the sport will evolve is anybody's guess. I'm not very optimistic, looking at the history-repeats-itself phenomenon. Here in the United States, there are currently world-class players who are dead broke, not because they are poor money managers, but the cost of being a professional pool player exceeds what the sport has to offer currently. It's truly a Catch-22 (IMO)! :(

JAM
 
And another thing...

Before the game of 9-ball ruled the world, here in the States, it was straight pool. Even though 9-ball currently is the tournament game of choice, I think bringing 8-ball back in the limelight may be a good move.

Pool is played by more people in the United States than ANY other game, according to various research think-tanks (LOL). Since the majority of Americans, as an example, who do play pool partake in 8-ball games in their local billiard parlors, it would seem like a good opportunity for pocket billiards in general to advance, attracting the "majority of Americans" who play the game.

When there is a LEVEL playing field, things may improve. If it don't change, the current stock of competent American pool players will continue to diminish. It would help if the powers-that-be exert a little effort to get a level playing field, as a first step (IMO).

If you look at JAM's pictures of U.S. Open Winners, there aren't too many players depicted who are enjoying the benefits, i.e., MONEY and income, of being a U.S. Open champion, unlike other sports. Those who are successful left the competitive arena in order to make a living.

Maybe 8-ball, the game which is played by most, is the ticket to elevate the sport. :)

JAM
 
JAM said:
... Maybe 8-ball, the game which is played by most, is the ticket to elevate the sport. :)

JAM
Click to expand...

I'd love to see more professional 8-ball, but there is one hitch. The pro's are too good. I've most of the tapes from the invitational 8-ball event accu-stats put on a few years ago. I enjoy the tapes immensely, but almost every rack is the same story; if the breaker pockets a ball he runs out, otherwise the non-breaker runs out. I enjoyed watching it, but in some respects it was boring because they ran out so easily. No strategy was generally neccessary except for planning the runout and the observer isn't privy to what the player is thinking during that process. I think it is telling that accu-stats never had a 2nd "annual" invitational 8-ball tournament, my guess is the tapes didn't sell.

Maybe if the pockets were tightened up and the facing angles changed to make the pockets less accepting for pros 8-ball would work. Generally there is no back and forth between pros and the public can't identify with pure offense. In other sports though the offensive game is superior to the average Joe's on the street, so isn't the defensive games. As a result the average Joe can identify with the "net game", with the relative abilities of the players.

Just some thoughts FWIW.
 
wow. i agree with you completely, JAM. with the slim pickings out there nowadays, players would tend to focus on where they could get the most bang for their buck.
on the other hand, while scheduling events so that they wouldn't overlap would almost ensure a steady income for most pro pool players, it would tend to keep the dough in a few well-practiced hands. can you imagine what would happen if a few select players kept winning all the tournaments?
 
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