thecueview wrote:Personally I actually like the Snooker Shootout.
It is something different - one of the things people wanted pre-Hearn was variety.
As a one off event it does no harm whatsoever...even if it brings just the casual fan wanting a quick bet in for the long weekend, that is great.
It is essentially a jazzed up modern day version of Pot Black with a stopclock - the tournament that started snooker's TV era; I see no-one complaining about that format back in the day!
I think people may have been concerned this was BH's plans for the future, but 6 years in, this is the only timed event now remaining. (Premier League, Power Snooker, Seniors World Championship before)
128 players is a good idea IMO, it will be the only competition on the circuit where all the players on tour can play live in front of TV cameras / audience in a one table set-up right from the start. They can also bank some valuable money that will support them throughout the rest of the season.
However, the event being a ranked is a very hard one to take...as mentioned before, it certainly will take a big portion of the 'fun' out of it.
I tend to agree with you. I feel a much of this opposition against this move is because many players don´t wan´t to give off something they think they have well deserved. They are afraid of losing a match in early stages against some new-comer or a journeyman. A more likely than they would with the normal tournament formats. However, the truth is, the better player still wins the match regardless the format. Reanne Evans and some other female players might have confused them. Reanne has been trying to get in with no results so far. She probably has had some deluded thoughts considering the current top players relative strenghts and abilities.
Shoot out brings the best out the game if you ask me. It is about bringing the game back in to the it´s real routes where the top players are fastly being challenged. It is a do or die - situation, make it or break it. Show me what you really got, AND how well you can control your nerves. The lads plays an exciting do or die - snooker. Obviously, who can play like that, do got something to back it up. Otherwise even the basic psychology rules a very fastly would coun´t them out of doing so.
It is about what people want to and what they don´t wan´t to. There´s your difference. Forcing things is something I can´t say that don´t do it, but the chanches to have any success are always an extremely slim. So it´s about what the majority want´s to. I am not bothered at all about this forcing things. The truth is, people have been doing that the last 10 years so or so. And they will keep up doing so at the future, too. I have said that a many already but that´s just simply the truth. I can´t know what happens in a year 2035 or 2040. But this is the current situation.