World Snooker Championship 2016

World Championship Qualifiers: Whether it's fair ot not, it's tasty!

Pond Forge will host the Qualifiers for the third time this year

In my first post entitled "World Snooker Championship 2016" I will be talking about the Qualifying event (for the draw click here), which sees 128 players in Ponds Forge, Sheffield, battling for the remaining 16 Crucible places.

Everybody outside the Top 16 of the World Ranking have to play three best of 19 matches to qualify, and the event runs from Wednesday 6th to Wednesday 13th, with the main event beginning at the Crucible on Wednesday 16th April. 16 "Top-Up" amateurs are invited to play the Qualifiers, of course with a few professionals missing out some other amateur players are invited too.
In the past the Qualifiers worked like: 64 players ranked outside the Top 64 played Round one, the 32 winners played the players ranked from 33 to 64 in the World in Round two, then the 32 winners played each other in Round three with the 16 winners playing the players ranked between 17 and 32 in the World in Round four, and finally the 16 winners qualified for the Crucible. All the matches used to be best 19 frames as well.

But during the last weeks many people and players such as Peter Ebdon, Mark Williams and Dominic Dale are complaining about the way the Qualifiers are played, saying "it's impossible for a Qualifier to win the World Championship" and "the format is unfair with the 17th ranked in the World having to play three matches as well", Ebdon even argued saying last year only one Qualifier won two matches at the Crucible. But when was it normal to have more than one Qualifier in the Last 8 of the World Championship? And when did it become normal to see Qualifiers winning the World Championship? Only two players won the World Championship as Qualifiers, Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005, and they're both true legends of the game between the elite list of only 10 players who completed the Triple Crown in Snooker's history.
And in the past some players had to play 4 best of 19 matches to qualify, but I don't remember Peter Ebdon moaning about that, must've been because he wasn't one of these players and "these" players weren't famous names with a legion of fans.
I think the previous format was fair, but this one is either, the players have two years to get themselves into the Top 16, not just a couple of weeks, and if they don't they'll have to play the Qualifiers. And if you're inside the Top 32 you won't play anyone ranked above 33rd in the World so if you can't win three matches you don't deserve a place at the Crucible. The matches are best of 19 as well, so the best player will come through for sure.
Anyway the problem isn't with the format, but with the schedule I think, it takes a lot from you to play three best of 19 matches, and you might finish it on Wednesday and be told Thursday that you will play another best of 19 match at the Crucible on Saturday, that's not enough time to prepare yourself neither physically nor psychologically. Some players then have a massive disadvantage, and some not quite because you can also win your third Round in the Qualifiers on Tuesday and play your first Round match at the Crucible on the next Wednesday having one week in between them.
Well, the World Championship always start on a Saturday so I think the Qualifier would finish at the Sunday before with the draw released on Monday, and it then should be alright. But World Snooker have three very lucrative events right before it - World Grand Prix, Players Championship and China Open - and that fills all the space in the calendar to play the Qualifiers two weeks before the action starts at the Crucible.


It has always been like this and will never change, if a player is bound to lift the Trophy he'll do it doesn't matter what or who he has to come through, and the Qualifiers this year will be unmissable, full of legends, former champions and in form players.
In terms of quality the Qualifiers have potential to be as good as any World Championship ever played at the Crucible Theatre.
Between legends and former champions we'll have Jimmy White, Steve Davis, Graeme Dott, Peter Ebdon and Matthew Stevens. We'll also have players like Liang Wenbo, Tian Pengfei, Zhou Yuelong, David Gilbert, Rory McLeod, Tom Ford, Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Ryan Day, Mark Davis, Robin Hull, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter and Kyren Wilson (who won the Shanghai Masters and made the Semis in the Champion of Champions, the German Masters and the Gdynia Open) who have all made at least one Final this season believe or not. And they made it not because the level of the best players dropped a bit, who watches the Snooker during the whole year will know how good everybody's been playing. And the ones who only watch the World Championship must have a few surprises.
Ding Junhui (Quarter in the Welsh Open and the Players Championship, Semis in the World Grand Prix, title in the Asian Tour and 147 Maximum Break in February), David Grace (Semis in the UK Championship and Quarters in the Gibraltar Open) and Anthony McGill (Quarter-Finalist of the World Championship last year on his debut) are also some players that nobody want to draw in the Qualifiers and in some aspects we would be surprised not to read their names between the 32 who will be playing at the Crucible this year.
Having said that, I've already mentioned the name of 20 players and there are still other players like Robert Milkins, Dominic Dale, Rod Lawler, Mark King, Matthew Selt and Michael Holt that have some good experience and should beat anybody in Ponds Forge.
Only 16 players qualify, what means these players will meet each other in the way and there are many other players who have a lot of potential but don't play many tournaments throughout the season and upset in the Qualifiers, like Brazilian Igor Figueiredo who have been one match away from a Crucible spot twice, but only plays 1 or 2 professional events a year so people don't expect a lot from him in the Qualifiers.

I think that's reason enough to watch the Qualifiers isn't it? World Snooker will show it Live Online  from Wednesday 6th to Wednesday 13th and you can follow all the results from Pond Forge at Ronnie O`Sullivan Brasil on Facebook.