Earlier this week, World Snooker issued extensive information concerning the main tour in 2013/14, as well as players packs for the first four ranking events of the new season.
Click below for a summary of what I believe to be the key points of interest from the documentation available…
- Click here to view links to the information available
Tour Information 2013/14
The key points to note for me are as follows:
2013/14
- Confirmation that the tour will be made up of a maximum of 133 players (breakdown here)
- The provisional calendar for 2013/14 has been updated to reflect the new Champion of Champions event and also to confirm the venue of the ET6 event in November 2013 as the South West Snooker Academy, Gloucester.
- The ranking points tariffs for 2013/14 have also been set. Confirmed are the tweaks to the formats for the three events that will not be staged under a flat draw, as well as the points available for the remaining events, with totals remaining unchanged for all events from the last 32 stage onwards.
- World Snooker have also confirmed the dates of the various seeding revisions, together with the details of which points will be removed at each cut-off, which is a notable improvement upon last season when such information was not published until much later.
- The 2013 Q School Order of Merit will be used to select amateur players to ‘top up’ events to a maximum of 128 players, should fewer than 128 professionals choose to enter any event.
- There will continue to be three rolling 147 prizes in operation, one for the final stages of major ranking events (£5,000), one for the qualifying stages of major ranking events (£500), and one for the last 128 stage of PTC events (£500).
One sentence in this section that has caused some confusion within the pack is as follows:
“Players who have joined the tour commencing the 2013/14 season will not receive starter points as they will receive a two year exemption from falling off the tour. Players who finished outside of the top 64 in the 2012/13 season but regain a tour place by any means will start on zero points.”
Following my posting of the latest projected seedings list yesterday, a number of people tweeted me to say that because of the above, everyone outside of the top 64 will start the season on zero points.
At present I have not received official confirmation on this point, but for me this would be a very strange rule and would surely defeat the object of awarding two-year tour cards to players in the first place.
My interpretation therefore is that those players who finished 2012/13 outside of the top 64, who have just completed the first year of their two-year tour cards, have not ‘regained’ their places for next season, because they had never actually lost them.
We shall no doubt see which interpretation is correct as time goes on. The wording is somewhat ambiguous, so I can understand the confusion caused by that sentence.
2014/15
- Tournaments from the start of 2014/15 will be seeded based on the prize money ranking list to be published following the 2014 World Championship
- Seeded losers in events to be played under the ‘old system’, eg where they not required to play from the first round, will receive ‘half-money’ towards their ranking total under the new money list.
- All players not in the top 64 of the the prize money ranking list after the 2014 World Championship, will be relegated from the main tour, unless they have a two-year card starting in 2013/14.
- In advance of the anticipated move to a money list for 2014/15, World Snooker have also published an ‘indicative prize money rankings schedule’ for the 2013/14 season, which answers the question of how World Snooker will deal with prize money in terms of exchange rates. Crucially, conversions have already been made for each event in pounds sterling, which will mean that the money list should hopefully be easier to understand for both players and fans alike.
Australian Goldfields Open entry pack
- All players who win a match will receive prize money (last year only the last 48 received prize money)
- The seedings for the tournament will be determined as follows:
1 – Defending champion
2 – World champion
3-97 – Next 95 tour players from 2013/14 official world ranking list
98-105 – Next 8 from 2012/13 PTC Order of Merit
106-109 – Next 4 from the 2012/13 PTC Order of Merit
110-133 – Remaining players at random
Should more than 128 players enter the event, a pre-qualifying round may be required, involving up to 10 first-year professionals selected at random.
There will be two wildcards in the competition
The entry deadline is Wednesday 15th May 2013 (12pm)
Wuxi Classic entry pack
- The seedings for the tournament will be determined as follows:
1 – Defending champion
2 – World champion
3-97 – Next 95 tour players from 2013/14 official world ranking list
98-133 – Remaining players selected at random
There will be four wildcards in the competition, who will play tour opponents selected from the 32 lowest seeded qualifiers. Any tour player selected for a wildcard match will be excluded for being selected for a wildcard match for any other event during the rest of the season
The entry deadline is Wednesday 15th May 2013 (12pm)
Bulgarian Open entry pack
- The event will consist of 128 players. If 128 or more main tour players enter, there will be no space for amateur entrants. If fewer than 128 main tour players enter, the remaining spaces will be filled by amateur entrants following a pre-qualifying event prior to the main event.
- The top 24 players on the European Tour Prize Money Order of Merit will qualify for the PTC Grand Finals
- Again, the top 8 players taken from the European Tour Order of Merit, who have not already qualified, will be awarded a place on the 2014/15 main tour.
- Eurosport will broadcast one match table from the last 128 stage
- The entry deadline is Thursday 16th May 2013 (12pm)