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The German Masters: your views

Postby Tubberlad

Now, unfortunately due to studies I didn't get to see quite as much of this tournament as I had hoped, but what I did see impressed me, it's got a lot of potential and the format could be the start of even more ranking events.

The crowds: People who believe snooker starts and finishes with Ronnie O'Sullivan make me laugh. Without snooker's biggest draw present, we had crowds of around 2000 at most stages. Hugely impressive. Clearly, their will be life after O'Sullivan, as proven by Europe's snooker fans.

The format: it was something refreshingly different. The ideas of quarter-finals & semi-finals in the same day, along with the ditching of dividers, gave this tournament it's own identity, and I think it worked very well. May I say that it has the potential to work for other competitions, and the four day set-up may leave room for even more events of this nature.

Change: it was nice to see good, proper snooker on tv again. I was a big fan of the snooker shoot-out, but it's not material for ranking snooker. This is real snooker, and it was nice to see it still has it's place.

Mainland Europe: with the popularity of snooker in this region ballooning in recent years followin Eurosport's coverage of all ranking events, Mainland Europe has been crying out for a proper ranking tournament. They finally got it this weekend, and they made a success of it.

The tournament itself: Well, that have we learned? I think Mark Williams along with John Higgins will be the man to beat at the Crucible, I really believe that. I doubted his ability to overcome his agonising UK final loss, but considering how great a player he is, I shouldn't have. He could deservedly join Higgins & O'Sullivan on three World titles in May. As for Mark Selby, he can take a lot from it, but my doubts remain. A great player who is not a natural front runner nor winner in my opinion. Made a final not at his best, but the fact remains: he's a fine player, with one ranking title to his name.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby randam05

Tubber, you missed out man!

I think i enjoyed more than most people on here actually. I enjoyed it much more than the original masters this year if im honest. And i think its in the top 3 best tournaments ive seen this year. Beats the china, welsh and shanghai tournaments by far, bought more crowds than any other. The crowd possible made it for me. They were so entusiastic and built up an amazing atmosphere, and the end of tournie was no dissapointment.

Williams got really emotionally towards the end, for him anyway and it was great to see..this was only due to the crowds though. He would not have been nowhere near as emotional if he won the UK to a dead crowd.

All in all a super tournament that I couldnt fault, and cant wait for next years.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

i echo everything Randam has said.

theres no tournament to really rival the World Championship but christ that came pretty dam near.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby GJ

talk about knee jerking mate

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

GJ wrote:talk about knee jerking mate

im being honest as a spectacle it was better than the masters and the UK Combined ......yes those 2 tournaments are bigger and more prestiegous but the German Masters had a better feel about it and it transfered well without a doubt best tournament of the season so far <ok>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby randam05

Wild wrote:
GJ wrote:talk about knee jerking mate

im being honest as a spectacle it was better than the masters and the UK Combined ......yes those 2 tournaments are bigger and more prestiegous but the German Masters had a better feel about it and it transfered well without a doubt best tournament of the season so far <ok>


<ok> :)

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Bourne

Saw only one session of snooker and I thought it was okay, nothing to get majorly excited about. Venue was a big plus, very nice (on the TV anyway) and the 5 table set up seemed to work, though they could definitely have put up a couple more static cameras if they wanted to ... Hope I get to see more of it next year.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby GJ

Bourne wrote:Saw only one session of snooker and I thought it was okay, nothing to get majorly excited about. Venue was a big plus, very nice (on the TV anyway) and the 5 table set up seemed to work, though they could definitely have put up a couple more static cameras if they wanted to ... Hope I get to see more of it next year.



it was all conjested in to a small time frame so i missed alot of it as well

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Bourne

GJ wrote:
Bourne wrote:Saw only one session of snooker and I thought it was okay, nothing to get majorly excited about. Venue was a big plus, very nice (on the TV anyway) and the 5 table set up seemed to work, though they could definitely have put up a couple more static cameras if they wanted to ... Hope I get to see more of it next year.



it was all conjested in to a small time frame so i missed alot of it as well

Yes that was a big negative for me, it all went by in a flash.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby randam05

I cant actually quite put my finger on why i enjoyed it so much really! its annoying cause i did love it a lot but cant explain why! but certainly enjoyed more than Masters, and possibly UK

I think if most people gave it a big chance on here and watched properly they would have enjoyed it a lot too. :)

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

GJ wrote:
Bourne wrote:Saw only one session of snooker and I thought it was okay, nothing to get majorly excited about. Venue was a big plus, very nice (on the TV anyway) and the 5 table set up seemed to work, though they could definitely have put up a couple more static cameras if they wanted to ... Hope I get to see more of it next year.



it was all conjested in to a small time frame so i missed alot of it as well


as a kid i missed a hell of a lot of the World Championship as well.

i was in school during the day and a highlight package at 11pm at night so apart from the weekends i saw very little but that time was when the sport grabbed me something magical about the whole thing.

im not saying it was on a par with the Worlds,UK or Masters as a event but that venue was magical very similar to the conference centre and the crucible and that tournament could well be what truly signals the beginning of the second coming of snooker.

only time will tell.

possibly theres room for improvements regarding a extra day etc

but as a first time almost experimental event my expectations was minimal to be honest.open plan,2 matches per day etc

but i really enjoyed it and a fitting final to cap it off on sunday.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

Witz78 wrote:My top 3 favourite tournaments this year so far

1) Sky Shootout
2) UK Championship
3) World Open


dont like your taste infact your taste stinks <doh>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Witz78

Wild wrote:
Witz78 wrote:My top 3 favourite tournaments this year so far

1) Sky Shootout
2) UK Championship
3) World Open


dont like your taste infact your taste stinks <doh>


whats your 3 then? :chin:

face it, your just a Purist who wont be converted :john:

you slated the Sky Shootout and the World Open before they took place then had to do a grovelling back track after you realised how good and popular they actually were. :D

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Witz78

Bourne wrote:I'd go:

1 World Open
2 UK Championship
3 Shootout


good to see someone else with sense and a realistic opinion <ok>

whats the competition to these?

PTCs werent broadcast so aint in the running

Shanghai Masters was poor IMO

Masters was very dissapointing

Premier League was as good as i remember in many a year but given the stop start weekly nature of it, its hard to class it as a proper tournament.

I enjoyed the Power Snooker but wouldnt have it on my top 3.

The German Masters came good in the end and is one for the future but there were a number of tweaks required IMO.


Anyway lets see what Wild comes up with as his top 3 tournaments of the season so far :roll:

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

my top 3

1 German Masters
2 UK Championship
3 The Masters

the German Masters is the only tournament so far that pierced the True Majors.

nothing compares to the majors but the German Masters managed it <ok>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Bourne

PTCs werent broadcast so aint in the running

Shanghai Masters was poor IMO

Masters was very dissapointing

Premier League was as good as i remember in many a year but given the stop start weekly nature of it, its hard to class it as a proper tournament.

I enjoyed the Power Snooker but wouldnt have it on my top 3.

The German Masters came good in the end and is one for the future but there were a number of tweaks required IMO.


You've totally summed up my feelings on this too <ok> Some of the snooker in the PL was really top notch but you never really got that feeling that every frame was so important, a lot of tanking etc, and it took until the 9th or 10th week for matches to truly mean something.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Witz78

Wild wrote:my top 3

1 German Masters
2 UK Championship
3 The Masters

the German Masters is the only tournament so far that pierced the True Majors.

nothing compares to the majors but the German Masters managed it <ok>


the Masters was dire this year, think you were the only person on here at the time defending it and claiming it was a great tournament <doh>

anyway, the Grand Prix was classed as the 4th Major wasnt it so surely that makes the World Open a Major in effect now, especially given the lucrative 100k top prize it had on offer.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

Witz78 wrote:
Wild wrote:my top 3

1 German Masters
2 UK Championship
3 The Masters

the German Masters is the only tournament so far that pierced the True Majors.

nothing compares to the majors but the German Masters managed it <ok>


the Masters was dire this year, think you were the only person on here at the time defending it and claiming it was a great tournament <doh>

anyway, the Grand Prix was classed as the 4th Major wasnt it so surely that makes the World Open a Major in effect now, especially given the lucrative 100k top prize it had on offer.


na World Open cant even compare to the Grand Prix never mind being a Major,

the masters wasent the best granted but in comparison with the World Open it spanked it bottom good and proper.

i wont even rank the Shootout anywhere because it was not snooker so it has no room on my list anywhere i enjoyed it but i enjoy a sunday roast and nobody going to call that snooker are they <ok>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby SnookerFan

randam05 wrote:Tubber, you missed out man!

I think i enjoyed more than most people on here actually. I enjoyed it much more than the original masters this year if im honest. And i think its in the top 3 best tournaments ive seen this year. Beats the china, welsh and shanghai tournaments by far, bought more crowds than any other.


But in the defence of the Welsh Open and China Open, they haven't brought any fans in at all this year, in that they've not been held yet.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby SnookerFan

Witz78 wrote:the Masters was dire this year, think you were the only person on here at the time defending it and claiming it was a great tournament <doh>


He wasn't. I loved The Masters this year. I was shocked when I saw people didn't like it on here, but I guess that was because the standard wasn't that high.

I thought Ronnie vs Allen was a tense, nerve jangling affair. I thought Selby vs King was a good match, and though wasn't always of a high standard, it was one of those matches that was made better for it. I liked Ding vs Williams, and was gutted I didn't go. And that was just the first round matches.

I thought Ding's play all the way through the tournament was superb. I thought the semi-finals were both exciting matches, and the All-Asian final was historic, but thought Marco Fu through it away towards the end. It had a satisfying outcome though, with Mr. Ding winning.

Those are moments off the top of my head. Whereby the only thing I can think of worthy of discussion in the best of five matches at the World Open was Ronnie almost not making a 147. <doh>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby SnookerFan

"The German Masters came good in the end and is one for the future but there were a number of tweaks required IMO."

I agree. I'd like to see it longer, but without losing the multi-table format. Maybe bringing in the last round of qualifying to events? Or being the one tournament a year where the top-32 automatically qualify. I'm not a fan of letting numerous wildcards into rankers ala China Open, but it'd be good if we had more opportunity to watch this. Rather then what we had, with the cameras going down on day 1. Because it could become a very fine tournament. It's a shame that you can be busy one day, and miss a big portion of the tournament.

As a serial ticket buyer, I don't know how I'd like to watch the tournament live. And it would be interesting to hear how a lack of dividers between matches helped or hindered live viewing. Didn't Monique go? I'd be interested in hearing how that differed from what we're used to here in the UK. It certainly worked from a televisual standpoint though, and made the German tournament look unique, and somehow more exciting.

And of course the massive, massive crowd helped. And showed that a big crowd can bring atmosphere, without having to resort to this idea that snooker is better when everybody watching it is drunk.

I'd like to see more tournaments in Germany. The fans were good, showing that they didn't care whether Ronnie was there or not. They wanted to see quality snooker, whether the person playing it was a big name or not. Fair play to them. It's criminal we haven't seen more events over there in recent years, and I'd like a couple next year. Maybe a German Open, and a Dusseldorf Open or something.

Snooker and Germany could become very close allies. <ok>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby GJ

The world open was well ahead of this conjested rubbish and world open was the length of a proper ranking event.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby SnookerFan

GJ wrote:The world open was well ahead of this conjested rubbish and world open was the length of a proper ranking event.


With matches the shorter then the World Series of Snooker.

Which is essentially what that tournament was. Big players playing lesser known journeymen in the first rounds, short matches.... All they needed to do was put it in Poland, and it was a week long World Series event. <laugh>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby GJ

SnookerFan wrote:
GJ wrote:The world open was well ahead of this conjested rubbish and world open was the length of a proper ranking event.


With matches the shorter then the World Series of Snooker.

Which is essentially what that tournament was. Big players playing lesser known journeymen in the first rounds, short matches.... All they needed to do was put it in Poland, and it was a week long World Series event. <laugh>



no fixing at world open though <cool>

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby SnookerFan

GJ wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:
GJ wrote:The world open was well ahead of this conjested rubbish and world open was the length of a proper ranking event.


With matches the shorter then the World Series of Snooker.

Which is essentially what that tournament was. Big players playing lesser known journeymen in the first rounds, short matches.... All they needed to do was put it in Poland, and it was a week long World Series event. <laugh>



no fixing at world open though <cool>


Only because it wasn't worth gambling on.

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby GJ

SnookerFan wrote:
GJ wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:
GJ wrote:The world open was well ahead of this conjested rubbish and world open was the length of a proper ranking event.


With matches the shorter then the World Series of Snooker.

Which is essentially what that tournament was. Big players playing lesser known journeymen in the first rounds, short matches.... All they needed to do was put it in Poland, and it was a week long World Series event. <laugh>



no fixing at world open though <cool>


Only because it wasn't worth gambling on.


:emu:

Re: The German Masters: your views

Postby Wildey

in defence of the welsh open they have a good attendance ok could be better but ive seen it better at Newport than at the UK in Telford.