Champion of Champions underway, time to start playing!

Well, with Mark Allen winning the European Tour event 4 this Sunday, we've got the 16 names who will be playing in the Champion of Champions 2015, which runs from November 10 to 15 (Tuesday to Sunday). Allen's triumph in Bulgaria means that Asian Tour event 1 winner Ding Junhui will miss out on the tournament, and the Chinese joins Mark Williams and Ronnie O`Sullivan - only previous champion of this "young" event - as big names who's failed to qualify or, in Ronnie's case, attend the tournament.

Even though this event only exists since 2013, it's already fairly considered the 4th bigger event on the Snooker's calendar, mostly thanks to ITV4 who provides a great broadcast.
The 16 winners of the most important events during the past 12 months will be present in Coventry (take Ronnie apart) and I expect it to be the a kick-off for most of the famous players. I mean, so far this season apart from John Higgins I don't see any players who's had bright runs in more than one event. Judd Trump, Ali Carter, Barry Hawkins and Mark Selby have had good runs here or there but didn't really reproduced their best form in more than just one event. And there are players like Stephen Maguire, Neil Robertson and the World Champion Stuart Bingham who haven't shown any sign of their form.
However I expect this to be the beginning line for those players and you can only criticize them if they go bad in this tournament. I think this because there are so many tournaments nowadays and the standard is so tough that the players like Trump, Selby and company kind of "save" their games to the bigger tournaments. Obviously nobody enters a tournament thinking of losing it, but they want to sort of "spend" their potential in the bigger tournaments, that's where they want to play well and that's where they make history. Take Junhui's 2013/14 season as an example, he won a record equaling of 5 Ranking Events, but failed to win any of the Triple Crown events or the Champion of Champion itself.
I am not here like Stephen Hendry saying "there is just 3 tournaments in Snooker and the rest is practice", totally out of me. All the tournaments are as hard as it could be and just to win one, whatever it is, is a fantastic achievement whoever you are, but it's on the big stage where it really counts and where you can make your name be remembered.
We'll have the prove as the big tournaments are played, but I think the big names are finally coping with the busy calendar, missing a few tournaments and playing the most comfortable for them, try to make a good run here or there for the Rankings and get prepared for the Champion of Champions, The Masters, Welsh Open, World Grand Prix and World Championship. It's like there are two divisions of tournaments, the big ones that everybody bleed for and the smaller ones to give opportunities for the low ranked players.
So, I expect finally some good performances from Selby, Trump, Bingham and Robertson, and of course I think Higgins, Allen and Carter who's already done well this season so far, to keep doing so.
You better also keep an eye on World Cup winners Zhou Yuelong (aged 17) and - principally - Yan Bingtao (aged 15) who will be the only players representing China at this tournament. I tell you what, they've really got the talent and it's nice for them to be playing in such a tournament like this so early in their careers. And don't be surprised if Yan Bingtao have a good run there, he seems to be so comfortable in the big stage, at 15 he looks so calm at the table that some experienced players at the Top 16 would love to do, I wonder what this boy will be like in 6 years time, and he'll only be 21!
It's a shame not to have Ding Junhui or Mark Williams at this event, Williams had a fantastic run in the Bulgaria Open with consecutive wins over in-form John Higgins 4-0 and Shaun Murphy 4-1, Allen was just too strong for him in the semis. Anyway even at the Crucible it would be a tough draw to get Higgins, Murphy and Allen in a row. And it's even a bigger shame not to have The Rocket there because he's qualified and choose to miss the event. However let's not allow Ronnie's shadow to overtake the event and enjoy it whatever happen!

Champion of Champions draw and format (Mark Allen fills the 'TBC' place)


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