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The new China Championship - a trick missed?

Postby PLtheRef

The news that emerged that a new China Championship with what is a record breaking overseas first prize of £200,000 will probably not have gone unnoticed by snooker fans.

The plans for the uninitiated are a 16 man invitational field made up of the top 10 in the World ranking list with four more spots reserved for the top 4 in the one year rankings. Two players will be nominated by the CBSA. From 2017 however the tournament will become a new ranking event with 128 players competing.

Although its good to see a new event (reserving judgement on the format with a five day window - hoping it doesn't become a best of 7 to best of 9 contest - with the money involved I'm not sure it will) - I'm still left wondering as to whether the tournament may have missed a trick in trying to make it something different.

The one 'style' of event that the Asian game has always had missing from the tour is a 'Masters' style invitational event. It has it's regular rankers plus it's 'UK' in the International Championship.

- Of course these 'Pilot' events have had some measure of success - the Northern Ireland Trophy became an established ranking event - but some others were staged as one offs e.g. th Brazilian Masters.

With Chinese snooker having no need for a 'pilot' event before a new ranker - wouldn't it be better for the event to remain an invitational event - and provide something to the game that it doesn't already have over there?

Re: The new China Championship - a trick missed?

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

When I saw the story first yesterday I thought it was a good idea for a tournament until I read further down and saw it just going another ranking event next year with the same awkward 128 player format and no doubt with qualifiers thousands of miles away a month before. While in general I wouldn't really be in favour of favouring the top players over the rest a Chinese "Masters" would potentially be the first proper major to be held there. While the prize money is very good the Chinese events still feel a bit second rate.

Re: The new China Championship - a trick missed?

Postby Andre147

I fully agree with PL and what Wild said in the other thread... We need more invitational tournaments like this when it's only the top of the top!

We have the CoC and Masters, but having one in China like this for the next few years would be very good. Unfortunately it's the standard 128 for the next 3 years.