With the start of the 2012/13 professional season now upon us, I have today had a go at compiling the new projected seedings list, which will come into effect this August and determine the seedings for the International Championship. At this stage however, it is very much a working draft as there are one or two important issues yet to be confirmed by World Snooker, so for the time being do not treat it as anything more than an educated guess…
- Click here to view the new projected seedings list
So what is still to be confirmed?
The most important matter still to be confirmed is exactly which points from the 2010/11 season will be removed at the first seedings cut-off point on 12th August 2012.
As the ranking system is described within the official points schedule as being a ‘2 year rolling points system’ then for me I have taken this literally and deducted points up until the 2010 PTC3 event, which was won by Tom Ford on 8th August 2010. The next event was the PTC4 event, but taking place between 14-16 August 2010, logic dictates that these points should be retained, falling within the two-year period.
This is merely an educated guess however, and yet to be confirmed by World Snooker. Still, I have used this logic to compile a ‘Points to Defend’ page covering the first cut-off, which you can view here.
Another matter that I was unsure on is what exactly would happen to the starter points for Adam Duffy, Yu Delu and David Gilbert, who competed on the tour last year having been awarded starter points for 2010/11. I understand though that the 8325 points will be whittled down by 438 points per event (included PTCs), until the last three events from which 439 points will be removed.
The other big question mark is concerning which top 16 players (or even those just outside), have elected to skip Australia and Wuxi. While I would bet my mortgage (if I had one), on Ronnie O’Sullivan being one of them for example, until this is confirmed then I have inserted their minimum points for the time being and will remove them, as and when they are announced.
Otherwise aside from typos and potential dodgy maths (on which I’m sure will be pointed out and fixed within minutes of me typing this), I think that the figures should be about right.
What are the most interesting themes? With no points to be removed for the foreseeable future following his ban in 2010, John Higgins rises to number three provisionally and I suspect could go close to challenging for top spot by December. From the UK Championship however, he will of course have a substantial number of points to be removed and is likely to drop again.
With his PTC success a couple of years ago to be removed, Tom Ford is one who drops down a little from his current ranking, while Ali Carter is immediately back inside the top 16 provisionally, though the points from his Shanghai Masters victory in 2010 will be removed at the second cut-off.
Anyway, hopefully there will soon be some clarification on the points to be removed at the first cut-off point, following which I will be able to post this list with confidence, or make any necessary amendments…