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888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

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Tuesday 19th~Sunday 24th of November in Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

The Champion of Champions is the replacement for the Premier League and played over a week and not over many weeks.

It consists of Players thats had the Most success during the previous year.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, Mark Selby and Ding Junhui heads the Field.

The format is 3 matches per day for the first 4 day. Quarter of the draw will play down to the semi finals on those days with Semi Finals and the Final played on Saturday the 23rd and Sunday 24th of November respectively . Group Matches will be Best of 7 frames with Semi Finals best of 11 and a 19 frame Final.

Who will be the Inaugural Champion?

DRAW

Tuesday 19th of November

Group 2

1pm

Mark Selby 4-2 Shaun Murphy H2H Selby leads 14-11

NB 2.30pm

John Higgins 3-4 Stephen Maguire H2H 8-8

7pm

Stephen Maguire 3-6 Mark Selby Head to Head Selby leads 10-6

Wednesday 20th of November

Group 3

1pm

Judd Trump 4-1 Marco Fu H2H Trump leads 7-3

NB 2.30pm

Ricky Walden 0-4 Stuart Bingham H2H Bingham leads 2-1

7pm

Judd Trump 2-6 Stuart Bingham H2H Trump leads 7-3

Thursday 21st of November

Group 4

1pm

Neil Robertson 4-3 Martin Gould H2H Robertson leads 8-3

NB 2.30pm

Mark Allen 3-4 Allister Carter H2H 7-7

7pm

Allister Carter 5-6 Neil Robertson H2H Robertson leads 9-7

Friday 22nd of November

Group 1

1pm

Ding Junhui 4-2 Barry Hawkins H2H 6-6

NB 2.30pm

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-0 Mark Davis H2H O'Sullivan leads 3-1

7pm

Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-5 Ding Junhui H2H O'Sullivan leads 8-3

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Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

fridge46 wrote:Is it me, or is this a less glamorous version of the Masters?!

i prefer to look at it as a more Glamorous version of the Premier League my self.

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

Skullman wrote:Since each 'group' is straight elimination, aren't these essentially just last 16 and quarter final matches, rather than group matches?

yup its just Bizarre.

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Allen79

I've got tickets to the final of this one, should be good to see decent snooker in a good venue! I haven't studied how the draw for the semis would work out but I'm hoping for a Ronnie v Selby final! Not sure about the lack of MSI though? What does everyone else think?

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby roy142857

Skullman wrote:Since each 'group' is straight elimination, aren't these essentially just last 16 and quarter final matches, rather than group matches?


Basically Sections rather than Groups i.e. 'Sections of the draw'. They're only 'Groups' in the sense that they can be advertised as 'this is the group of players playing today'. Not a bad innovation, just a semantic problem really.

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby SnookerFan

Allen79 wrote:I've got tickets to the final of this one, should be good to see decent snooker in a good venue! I haven't studied how the draw for the semis would work out but I'm hoping for a Ronnie v Selby final! Not sure about the lack of MSI though? What does everyone else think?


I don't really see the point in such a long match. Fair enough that there's no MSI in a best of seven.

It seems to be innovation for the sake of it. "Let's rob the crowd of their one chance to go for a snake hiss." <laugh>

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby PLtheRef

Alpha wrote:What they should have done is have 3 sets of group matches per day and have an end of day league table where the player who finishes top moves into the semi finals.


That'd still work best with 12 players as 6 best of 7 matches is a lot to fit in on one table during a day

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

The 16 man Field for the Champion of Champions has been completed with Shaun Murphy and Mark Davis taking the last 2 Spots http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsAr ... 13,00.html

Tuesday 19th of November

Group 2

John Higgins v Stephen Maguire
Mark Selby v Shaun Murphy

John Higgins/Stephen Maguire v Mark Selby/Shaun Murphy


Wednesday 20th of November

Group 3

Judd Trump v Marco Fu
Ricky Walden v Stuart Bingham

Judd Trump/Marco Fu v Ricky Walden/Stuart Bingham

Thursday 21st of November

Group 4

Mark Allen v Allister Carter
Neil Robertson v Martin Gould

Mark Allen/Allister Carter v Neil Robertson/Martin Gould

Friday 22nd of November

Group 1

Ronnie O'Sullivan v Mark Davis
Ding Junhui v Barry Hawkins

Ronnie O'Sullivan/Mark Davis v Ding Junhui/Barry Hawkins

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby bluelagoon

With the new money based rankings the champions of the ranking events will be the same players who will be in the Top16. So the Champion of Champions event is definitely just another Masters. Makes the Masters less interesting in a few years. :-(

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

bluelagoon wrote:With the new money based rankings the champions of the ranking events will be the same players who will be in the Top16. So the Champion of Champions event is definitely just another Masters. Makes the Masters less interesting in a few years. :-(

Martin Gould got in to this because of his shoot out success that wont make any difference to money ranking list

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Andre147

Yeah just another Masters with another name. Initially I thought it carried ranking points, put I see it doesn't. But the original Masters will always be the Masters, it's part of the Big 3, UK, Masters and Worlds and it has massive history and great matches, so for me this event won't take away any of it's prestige.

Nevertheless, I think this is a nice addition to the calendar, well, it's certainly way better than the Premier League cause it replaces that event. Mind you, it wouldn't be that hard to make an event better than the PL <laugh>

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

yea the History of the Masters goes back to 1975 longer than the UK Championship and although demolishing the Conference center was a Massive set back for the Event and Snooker TBH it had a magic feel back in the 80s when Alex Higgins went to town there and 3,000+ strong crowd roaring him on but the event is the same event with a list of Great names on the Trophy.

Champion of Champions has 0 names on the trophy.

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby SnookerFan

Yeah, I only went to The Conference Centre a couple of times, and they were both in the same year. (The last year it was staged there.)

Both Wembley Arena and the Ally Pally are pretty cack as snooker venues. Wembley was too big and too characterless, but at least you could walk to the tube station. <laugh> I've only been to the Ally Pally for snooker, but I get the impression it'd be better for other stuff. It doesn't seem to have the same excitement attached to it that I'm told they have at the darts.

Either way, I care more about The Masters than I care about the Champion of Champions. rofl

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby roy142857

Been thinking about (and agreeing with) the comments of this as 'just another Masters' as far as the line-up goes.

A real pity in a way that they simply added Shaun Murphy and Mark Davis based on rankings, surely to live up to the name contestants should be event winners. It would have been better to add a couple of event winners by adding the most recent Euro Tour and Asian Tour winners not already qualified (I think in this case that would be Liáng Wénbó and Mark Williams).

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Wildey

roy142857 wrote:Been thinking about (and agreeing with) the comments of this as 'just another Masters' as far as the line-up goes.

A real pity in a way that they simply added Shaun Murphy and Mark Davis based on rankings, surely to live up to the name contestants should be event winners. It would have been better to add a couple of event winners by adding the most recent Euro Tour and Asian Tour winners not already qualified (I think in this case that would be Liáng Wénbó and Mark Williams).

totally agree with that <ok>

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Andre147

Andy Spark wrote:We are drifting off topic here but suffice to say I am not really convinced by these no shot clock arguments. I won't explain why because it's a bit off topic to the general group stage of Champion of Champions event and we can probably agree to disagree on the issue, but we can still all agree that snooker generally is a brilliant game and possibly the best game in the world! :-)

BTW I don't really like the name "Champion of Champions" as a couple of these guys got in due to their ranking rather than any particular Champion of XYZ status. A better title would be "Champion of a short format non-ranking event featuring champions of important recent events plus a couple of extra players high up on the official rankings who we invited to make up the numbers" This would explain the nature of it better!


rofl :clap: Good one.

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Skullman

Andy Spark wrote:
BTW I don't really like the name "Champion of Champions" as a couple of these guys got in due to their ranking rather than any particular Champion of XYZ status. A better title would be "Champion of a short format non-ranking event featuring champions of important recent events plus a couple of extra players high up on the official rankings who we invited to make up the numbers" This would explain the nature of it better!


Yeah but CoC's snappier.

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Andy Spark

Jewell wrote:
Skullman wrote:
Andy Spark wrote:
BTW I don't really like the name "Champion of Champions" as a couple of these guys got in due to their ranking rather than any particular Champion of XYZ status. A better title would be "Champion of a short format non-ranking event featuring champions of important recent events plus a couple of extra players high up on the official rankings who we invited to make up the numbers" This would explain the nature of it better!


Yeah but CoC's snappier.


CoC sounds cheesy. Surely uncle Barry could have come up with something better?

errr...this is the bloke that came up with the title "International Championship" to describe a new international championship!

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby Snooker Overdrive

I guess we all are wondering how this event will rank.

Is it a just a pretty useless Masters "Light" or will it establish itself as another big tournament everyone desperately wants to win?

1) Price Money:
100.000 pound is a lot of money. Only 4 events offer more for the winner. So from that standpoint it has to be one of the biggest tournaments of the year.

2) Competing players:
Looks very much like the top 16. That's a bit disappointing because in that way it very much feels like a Master Light. I think only 8 elite players would have been better.

3) Prestige/ History:
Like the International Championship last year it's completely new. So it doesn't have a rich history, at least not yet. But if this event remains in the calendar for the next years, that will obviously improve.

4) Format:
At least no shot clock that's good news. Otherwise it's just like the Masters except the first round is only best of 7. I would have preferred a longer format, best of 17 in every match. With only 8 players that would have been possible.

5) Venue:
Haven't seen it yet.

Conclusion:

I very much welcome this event but I think Barry Hearn missed a trick here. Another idea to make this event more unique would be a "The Winner Takes It All" twist, meaning whoever wins the event gets all the price money. All other players, including the runner up get nothing.

What do you guys think about my assessment and my improvement proposals?

Re: 888casino Champion of Champions Group Stages Discussion.

Postby SnookerFan

I'm not sure they'll have a winner take all event, to be honest. It would seem unfair, especially to the losing finalist. (Who may only lose by the odd frame.) And I'm not sure the players would agree to it.

Maybe some kind of prize money based on how many frames a player wins, like in the Premier League. But dunno if even that would be feasible. I admit that's an idea that I've just blurted out now, and can't be bothered to do the maths to see if it would work. Mainly because I'd doubt they'd do that either.