World Champion

[TheBook]

On ESPN Classic it was mentioned how many world championships the players had won. How is the World Champion determined and who keeps track of this? Is it because they won a tournament that was called the World Champion Tournament, or was it because they won or lost it by a challenge match like in boxing?

How is the world championship determined today if there is such a thing? There seems to be too many rankings and tournaments that do not contribute to one overall championship that could declare one player as the best at the end of the year.

 

[sjm]

The world pool chamionships for men is a high-profile prestigious event. It has an elite international field of 128, consisting of 16 groups of 8. Each group plays a full round robin using nineball races to five, and the top 4 advance to single elimination. Last man standing in single elimination is crowned world champion.

Here's a link to the last one, held in Taiwan, and won by Alex Pagulalyan.

http://worldpoolchampionship.com/results_and_tables.asp

 

[hobokenapa]

How is the world championship determined today if there is such a thing? There seems to be too many rankings and tournaments that do not contribute to one overall championship that could declare one player as the best at the end of the year.

http://www.worldpoolchampionship.com

Last five winners are :

2004: A Pagulayan
2003: T Hohmann
2002: E Strickland
2001: M Immonen
2000: FP Chao

 

[thoffen]

I am pretty sure that, at that time, the world championship was straight pool. Today it is 9-ball.

 

[JAM]

On ESPN Classic it was mentioned how many world championships the players had won. How is the World Champion determined and who keeps track of this? Is it because they won a tournament that was called the World Champion Tournament, or was it because they won or lost it by a challenge match like in boxing?

How is the world championship determined today if there is such a thing? There seems to be too many rankings and tournaments that do not contribute to one overall championship that could declare one player as the best at the end of the year.

Kind of like boxing. There are so many world championship belts that it gets kind of confusing as to the Who's Who.

The WPC is the current top dog on the championship title market when it comes to pool. I'm not sure how many years Matchroom Sport has brought this magnificant event to the fore, but this is the premier event for most aspiring players who desire to be number one in the world.

Previously, though, there were "world championship"-quality tournaments. Jose Parica told me one time that he won the very FIRST world pool championship in Tokyo, Japan, I think in the '70s era. Because there are not any DECENT archives relating to pocket billiards in general, these kinds of factoids are hard to research. JMHO, FWIW!

JAM

 

[BlowFish]

WPC past champions.

Kind of like boxing. There are so many world championship belts that it gets kind of confusing as to the Who's Who.

The WPC is the current top dog on the championship title market when it comes to pool. I'm not sure how many years Matchroom Sport has brought this magnificant event to the fore, but this is the premier event for most aspiring players who desire to be number one in the world.

Previously, though, there were "world championship"-quality tournaments. Jose Parica told me one time that he won the very FIRST world pool championship in Tokyo, Japan, I think in the '70s era. Because there are not any DECENT archives relating to pocket billiards in general, these kinds of factoids are hard to research. JMHO, FWIW!

JAM

Link to the past WPC Champions -> http://worldpoolchampionship.com/event_information.asp

2004 - Alex Pagulayan

 

[TheBook]

So the modern world championship is determined or given the title by winning the tournamnent that is called the World Championship.

On ESPN Irving Crane was playing Jimmy Moore. I think both were given credit as being the World Champ at sometime.

Didn't they have challenge matches years ago to win the title like they do in boxing? Would it add more excitement and exposure today if the title was won and had to be defended through a challenge match instead of by winning a tournament?

 

[mjantti]

For instance, Earl is widely titled as 6 times World Champion. I've never ever seen his world titles listed with years. Earl has 3 WPA titles, how about the rest ?

 

[sjm]

For instance, Earl is widely titled as 6 times World Champion. I've never ever seen his world titles listed with years. Earl has 3 WPA titles, how about the rest ?

The other three are from the 1980's and from the era when the World championship pool event was neither more lucrative nor more prestigious than a typical American pro tour stop. It did not have a first-tier field in which the entire pool playing world was represented.

The world championship in its current from is only about fifteen years old.

 

[mjantti]

The other three are from the 1980's and from the era when the World championship pool event was neither more lucrative nor more prestigious than a typical American pro tour stop. It did not have a first-tier field in which the entire pool playing world was represented.

The world championship in its current from is only about fifteen years old.

Thanks SJM, I kind of guessed that already. What bothers me, that I have never seen a list of those world championships from the 80's. I'm not here to put doubt on Mr. Strickland's titles in particular, I'm just wondering why there aren't any results anywhere. They have a bunch of titles and results in 1pocket from the early 50s or something, how come I have never seen any list of 80's champions in 9-ball ? Or was there some disagreement already at the time on some tournament being a world championships or not ? Or are the billiard organizations from the 80's to blame ? No instance seem to have anything written down...