WPBA to organize Women's World 8-Ball Championships

  1. You have to imagine theyโ€™ll use WPA rankings, not WPBA rankings.
  2. Iโ€™m not seeing anything saying the selection process is two players per country. Do you have a link to anything suggesting that? I checked their Facebook page and didnโ€™t see anything like that.
  3. I imagine theyโ€™ll have a whole tiered invite system. Iโ€™m making this up but something like top 15 on WPA Rankings, then each continental federation gets 10, then the WPA itself can invite 5, then WPBA can invite 5, then the remainder follows the WPA rankings to fill the field.
  4. WPA will consider Kristina and Margaret as unaffiliated IOC athletes and not as US athletes. IOC criteria for country of representation requires citizenship. Theyโ€™ll certainly get invites somewhere in there.
  5. WPA rankings for USA go Allison, April, Savannah, Sofia, Kaylee, and on.
While I'm basing this on nothing, I'll predict that there are sixteen or more Americans in the field of the World 8ball.
 
On wpba facebook where they posted the tmt anouncement Dec 16.
Denice Belinger posted that.
I found the post. I have no idea who Denise B. is, but it seems to me its 3rd hand info, and who knows where she heard it.

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128 players would be 100 dead-money and 'maybe' 28 with a shot to win.

yep. the truth is that the level drops significantly behind the top 20, to the point that it's even hard to watch them play.

i had little interest in watching women pro pool at all until siming chen and the new crop of female pros came along. could be fun to watch them play 8-ball.
 
In general, the host country gets extra spots for WPA championships. They have also done local qualifiers at the venue just before the start of the championship. It would be nice to have more official info.

I just checked on the WPA website calendar and the only thing listed there for the dates given is the "Commonwealth Billiard Championship", with no information of discipline or location.
 
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Sofia Mast came 5th in the World 10ball with all the big names from Europe and Asia present. Still, as you suggest, American women will likely be in for a very big challenge here.
Did that while knocking out Jasmin (albeit not playing her best). I think if she keeps improving at this rate she'll be top 10 in a couple years. I know, i know; growth isn't linear. But she's going to be very good.

I expect to see April there (MN represent!) and hope she plays well. Maybe all that heyball will pay off.

Really cool to see the game expanding for the ladies and the prize pools getting bigger. Want better competition? Let the athletes function as professionals 100% of the time.
 
Did that while knocking out Jasmin (albeit not playing her best). I think if she keeps improving at this rate she'll be top 10 in a couple years. I know, i know; growth isn't linear. But she's going to be very good.
Sofia beat Silviana Lu in L16 in a marathon match who put out Kelly Fisher. Sofia won three matched to reach the single elimination: beat Jasmin in WQ but Jasmin bounced from loser side and reached quarter finals. Sofia also beat tough Meng "Bean" Hung and German Tina Vogelmann. Definitely starting to reach "world beater" status.
 
Sofia beat Silviana Lu in L16 in a marathon match who put out Kelly Fisher. Sofia won three matched to reach the single elimination: beat Jasmin in WQ but Jasmin bounced from loser side and reached quarter finals. Sofia also beat tough Meng "Bean" Hung and German Tina Vogelmann. Definitely starting to reach "world beater" status.
Tommy Kennedy won a US Open ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ
 
Tommy Kennedy won a US Open ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ
There's no US women's players that are in TK's category. He was probably the most under-rated player of his crop of players. I don't see any US women pros that are that good but flying under the radar like TK did. Cat still plays great, just won another Florida state title recently.
 
There's no US women's players that are in TK's category. He was probably the most under-rated player of his crop of players. I don't see any US women pros that are that good but flying under the radar like TK did. Cat still plays great, just won another Florida state title recently.
Agreed, you cannot luck up and win a 9-ball U.S. Open in that or any era by fluke!
 
Sofia beat Silviana Lu in L16 in a marathon match who put out Kelly Fisher. Sofia won three matched to reach the single elimination: beat Jasmin in WQ but Jasmin bounced from loser side and reached quarter finals. Sofia also beat tough Meng "Bean" Hung and German Tina Vogelmann. Definitely starting to reach "world beater" status.
Mast, at 638, is the 86th best female player in the world based on Fargo, and as I eyeball the list, that's very accurate. She is the 15th highest rated American. Yes, she certainly plays well enough to score some upsets against credible players.

... but to be a Top 50 player, she needs to reach 717 Fargo and to be a Top 20 player in the world, she needs to be 735 Fargo, meaning Margaret Fefilova speed. These goals are a long, long way away, and I haven't seen anything yet that would lead me to believe she'll get to either of these goals anytime soon.

As much as anyone, I want to see a home grown American make her mark on the world stage, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The two young Americans (including Savannah, #94 based on Fargo) are a long, long way away from being contenders at the majors.
 
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Mast, at 638, is the 86th best female player in the world based on Fargo, and as I eyeball the list, that's very accurate. She is the 15th highest rate American. Yes, she certainly plays well enough to score some upsets against credible players.

... but to be a Top 50 player, she needs to reach 717 Fargo and to be a Top 20 player in the world, she needs to be 735 Fargo, meaning Margaret Fefilova speed. These goals are a long, long way away, and I haven't seen anything yet that would lead me to believe she'll get to either of these goals anytime soon.

As much as anyone, I want to see a home grown American make her mark on the world stage, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The two young Americans (including Savannah, #94 based on Fargo) are a long, long way away from being contenders at the majors.
As always, thanks for providing needed reality checks. Itโ€™s unfortunate that some people interpret posts like this as negativity or even anti-Americanism.
 
Mast, at 638, is the 86th best female player in the world based on Fargo, and as I eyeball the list, that's very accurate. She is the 15th highest rated American. Yes, she certainly plays well enough to score some upsets against credible players.

... but to be a Top 50 player, she needs to reach 717 Fargo and to be a Top 20 player in the world, she needs to be 735 Fargo, meaning Margaret Fefilova speed. These goals are a long, long way away, and I haven't seen anything yet that would lead me to believe she'll get to either of these goals anytime soon.

As much as anyone, I want to see a home grown American make her mark on the world stage, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The two young Americans (including Savannah, #94 based on Fargo) are a long, long way away from being contenders at the majors.

I was curious so went to digitalpool and looked up the performance rating for Sofia at three fairly recent WPBA events. 689, 687, and 685. I don't think the 638 is even close to her current level of play. She is only 16. I believe she will be a top US player before she turns 21.
 
Mast, at 638, is the 86th best female player in the world based on Fargo, and as I eyeball the list, that's very accurate. She is the 15th highest rated American. Yes, she certainly plays well enough to score some upsets against credible players.

... but to be a Top 50 player, she needs to reach 717 Fargo and to be a Top 20 player in the world, she needs to be 735 Fargo, meaning Margaret Fefilova speed. These goals are a long, long way away, and I haven't seen anything yet that would lead me to believe she'll get to either of these goals anytime soon.

As much as anyone, I want to see a home grown American make her mark on the world stage, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The two young Americans (including Savannah, #94 based on Fargo) are a long, long way away from being contenders at the majors.

As a Vegas resident Iโ€™ve seen Savannah play quite a bit over the past year. While I agree with your assessment I will say she has improved a lot in a short period of time (over 100 Fargo points in a little over a year). If she continues this pace I can see her playing at a 700 Fargo level within 2-3 years as she is only 14 years young.
 
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I was curious so went to digitalpool and looked up the performance rating for Sofia at three fairly recent WPBA events. 689, 687, and 685. I don't think the 638 is even close to her current level of play. She is only 16. I believe she will be a top US player before she turns 21.
Sheโ€™s #15 for US on FargoRate. If sheโ€™s playing 685 speed sheโ€™s top 5. If you throw out Fisher, Tkach, Fefilova, and Corr then with that shes #1. If you look at WPBA sheโ€™s #10 for US but I think she loses points from not exclusively dedicating her time to those events. Sheโ€™s #30 on the womenโ€™s WPA ranking internationally which puts her at #4 for the US on womenโ€™s rankings. With all that, sheโ€™s demonstrably a top US womenโ€™s player hands down. The only argument left is just whether a top US womenโ€™s player is a threat to win a world championship or be characterized as a generational talent which those two we can say she has more to do before getting those flowers.
 
I was curious so went to digitalpool and looked up the performance rating for Sofia at three fairly recent WPBA events. 689, 687, and 685. I don't think the 638 is even close to her current level of play. She is only 16. I believe she will be a top US player before she turns 21.
Strongly agreed that Sofia will be a top US player, and maybe already is, but I seriously doubt that's her goal. At present, the only American-born player in the Fargo Top 50 is the long-retired Jennifer Barretta.

When we talk about elite players, we're talking about Top 25 players or better, and that means Fargo 735 on the women's side. As one who follows women's pool closely, I would guess that the average Fargo of the major champions (World 9ball, World 10ball, China Open) of the last few years is over 760. When Kristina Tkach won the World 10ball in November with a Fargo 736, it was the lowest Fargo seen of a major champion in a long time.

The last two American women that were all the rage as mid-teens were Briana Miller and April Larsen, who were both over Fargo 600 speed as mid-teens. They both went on to be fine players, with April now at Fargo 664 and Briana now at 674. Based on Fargo, April is the world #60 and Briana Miller is World #53. I'm guessing both are about 23 now. Both play great pool, but neither has blossomed into a contender at pool's majors. The "give them time" argument has come and gone.

I'm not saying Sofia (or Savannah) can't develop into a world class force, for maybe they can, but I have watched both and I'm not wowed quite yet. Those who think that every teen woman that plays in the 600s will definitely go on to be a Top 25 player in the world simply hasn't been paying enough attention over the years. Every single one of them is a longshot.

In my opinion, teen phenoms of about twenty-five years ago like Jasmin Ouschan and Ga Young Kim, who were teens before Fargo existed, already played 700 Fargo speed by the age of 17. With them, you could see what was coming.

Let's get real. American ranking means nothing. A player is not elite until they rank among the Top 25 players in the world, and I wish both Sofia and Savannah every success in chasing down that goal. I doubt anyone would like to see them succeed more than me, but I will not let my hopes bring about a delusional view of what's likely coming.

Call me a party pooper if you like, but I've been among women's pro pool since the WPBA formed in 1976.
 
There's no US women's players that are in TK's category. He was probably the most under-rated player of his crop of players. I don't see any US women pros that are that good but flying under the radar like TK did. Cat still plays great, just won another Florida state title recently.
There's not a single human alive that is betting on TK to win a major event
 

2 Players per country, I would assume US being host may be allowed more shooters, maybe.​

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2025 Oneida WPA Women's World 8-ball Championship

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