Snooker Fantasy S15/16

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

next update thursday. thursday-ish. depending on mood and work.

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Standing: Post Shoot-Out

Spieler	Punkte	Pro Team	Anti Team	+-
foo-rear	122	170	48	+8
Gecko	68	126	58	+1
ex'ratt	63	124	61	+10
Endrox	58	138	80	-1
piko	56	135	79	+6
Chapa	52	125	73	-4

Top / Bottom

Players	Points
Mark Selby	67
Mark J Williams	57
Judd Trump	57
Ryan Day	45
Kyren Wilson	45
...	...
Barry Pinches	-24

Events added:

China Open Qualifier
4 Frame Bonus: Kyren Wilson (4) [Recod: six consecutive centuries in a Bo9]
High Break: Ryan Day (142)

Shoot-Out
Winner: Robin Hull
High Break: David Gilbert (127)





Next Event:

Welsh Open (semis ongoing)​

 

[Chapatiyaq]

Shoot-out was bad for me with Milkins and Day going far... the matches were entertaining at least.

But I got 3 players of the top 4 of the Welsh Open so far (Neil Robertson, Allen, Perry), so hopefully I'll catch up.

 

[piko]

Overall, a well deserved tournament win for Ronnie. He played pretty badly in the first session yesterday, but managed to capitalize on Robertson's mistakes in the evening session. Some of O'Sullivan's breaks in the earlier rounds were simply amazing.
The 146 was "classic Ronnie", I guess. I understand why some people (Gecko :wave dislike such behavior and I agree that Ronnie should have gone for the maximum. But he'll always be that way, I guess.

It's still amazing to see a 40-year-old perform that well, especially after taking such a long break from competitive play. Like him or not, O'Sullivan definitely is one of a kind.

 

[Chapatiyaq]

Yeah, Ronnie was just too good this time.
I enjoyed Robertson's win in frame six though. It was very slow and thought out in contrast with Ronnie's quicker play, but it was nice to see the efforts to keep the break going.

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

adding updates, one by one

Standing: Post Welsh Open

Spieler	Punkte	Pro Team	Anti Team	+-
foo-rear	136	189	53	+14
Gecko	78	140	62	+10
Chapa	67	147	80	+15
ex'ratt	62	137	75	-1
piko	61	148	87	+5
Endrox	55	153	98	-3

Top / Bottom

Players	Points
Mark Selby	73
Judd Trump	62
Mark J Williams	60
Ryan Day	49
Mark Allen	49
...	...
Gareth Allen	-27

​

Events added:

Welsh Open
Winner: Ronnie O'Sullivan
4 Frame Bonus: Ronnie O'Sullivan (10), John Higgins (5)
High Break: Ding Junhui (147)

 

[Reary McFooface]

Ronnie O'Sullivan

19

10

2

0

6

0

10

0

0

0

0

47

Sich Ronnie ins Anti-Team zu holen, wäre auch nicht dumm gewesen. Langfristig kann da nicht viel passieren. Meh.

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Update about updates:

Sorry for the delay, gonna update the ET6 and the rest of the Championship League monday most likely. It been hard to catch a breath between planning to move, getting a job and working lately.

Another update: The Championship League delivers in terms of sheer entertainment and great scenes. They all did so well, particularly the group winners. Also, Carter completely destroyed Selby earlier. Been the first time in a long, long while I was actively cheering against the Jester. I so do hope Carter comes back to the Top 16 somehow, such a strong performance given his history >_>


https://twitter.com/Rolf_Kalb/status/705848401766776833

^for the write up dump ^

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Standing: Post Championship League finals

Spieler	Punkte	Pro Team	Anti Team	+-
foo-rear	159	206	47	+13
Gecko	116	173	57	+38
Chapa	90	167	77	+23
ex'ratt	78	159	81	+16
Endrox	60	167	107	+5
piko	58	161	103	-3

Top / Bottom

Players	Points
Mark Selby	102
Judd Trump	71
Mark J Williams	64
Kyren Wilson	60
Ronnie o'Sullivan	55
...	...
Gareth Allen	-31

​

Events added:

Championship League Group 6 & 7 & Winner's Group
Winner: Judd Trump
4 Frame Bonus: none
High Break: Fergal o'Brien [Group 6] (147), Stuart Bingham [Group 7] (140), Matthew Selt (141)
Maximum Break Bonus: Fergal o'Brien, Group 6 -- VOD --

European Tour 7, Gdynia

Winner: Mark Selby
4 Frame Bonus: none
High Break: Rod Lawler, Anthony Hamilton (139 respectively)


Next Event:

World Grand Prix (ongoing)

Notes about Grand Prix, Championship Winner's League and PTC Finals:

There will be no first match loss, as there qualifiers in place. The Qualifiers worked as follows:

For the Championship Winner's League each player had to win a group with the best seven invites left.

For the World Grand Prix players could only qualify by winning prize money in full ranked titles

For the PTC Finals obviously the best ranked PTC players were invited; iirc 24 from the European Tour and 8 from the Asian Tour.

 

[Chapatiyaq]

I have to admit I didn't really follow the last few weeks of competition. (only checking results from time to time)
Looks like Allister Carter had a decent run in Championship League, which I love

As for our fantasy league, I find it awesome that the ranking changes so much. While I though foo-rear already had it in the bag, now I'm not so sure.

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

I really don't think anyone can get to foo by the end of the season for several reasons. One being that his and my team share their top scorers, the other being that none of his anti-team players will score in the remaining tournaments; there's "only" the PTC finals, China and the World Championship if I remember correctly. Consequently the players of our team, namely Selt, Carter, Perry, would need to go on a rampage in all three tours. That's highly unrealistic, even though I so want Carter to get back into the Top 16 by making it to at least one Semi and the Quarters of the WC this year.

Anyhow, trying to make a second power rank the next days since the season is coming close to its end.

 

[piko]

I fucked up big time this season.

 

[Chapatiyaq]

Ah yeah, right, Gecko. I didn't really think ahead
I didn't realize we were already so close to the end of the season.

 

[Reary McFooface]

I really don't think anyone can get to foo by the end of the season

It's pretty unlikely, but still possible. I've witnessed barfing horses. Selt, Carter and Perry certainly have the class to pull something off and all played pretty well in the matches I saw them in, and you got pretty close. I don't know, this season mainly taught me that I don't know shit about this game. A few white washes, first round losses etc. and a good draw can make the hell of a difference.

Spoiler

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Power Ranking, Part II​

Preamble

As mentioned in the previous posts, the season is about to enter its final stages. There are only few tours left with today's World Grand Prix Finals being one of the most important ones. Therefore another update before the prestigious Crucible will arive in two months time. The list is most likely to be poven wrong by reality though, as was the last update listing Neil Robertson as one of the disappointments of the season.

My choice of players is losely based on several factors, such as average performance in tournaments, peak exhibits of play during chosen matches, the Fantasy point scheme and the provisional season points collected by Snooker.org. Keep in mind that the entire season thus far has been part of the 'analysis'.


#1 John Higgins

John Higgins is able to defend his spot as most consistent and successful player since the last ranking, however close the call is. The scotsman still showcases phases of sheer brilliance in most tournaments he enters. Having won both the Australian Open and the International Championship earlier this season, he was able to take one medium and one big sized event, eventually propelling him back into the Top 8 of the current provisional ranking. Yet, in the rest of the season he only managed to make a deep run during the UK Championship, but didn't manage to go further in a high end tour, even failing to qualify for the Championship Playoffs. In other words: A bit mediocre compared to his opening months. There's still plenty going for him and he has at least an outsider chance to win another World Title later on.


#2 Ronnie o'Sullivan

Sullivan made his hundreth comeback from supposed retirement for the Masters in January, which he won with a clear 10-1 over Hawkins. However, in my eyes Sullivan didn't so much win as his opponents lost. ROS was the most consistent player in London, while, ironically, the usual suspects started to burn out after a show of high class potting. The title alone therefore wouldn't justify to give ROS a spot among the best players of this season.
The biggest reason for promoting ROS was his run in the Welsh Open and the first matches in his Championship League group. The plays featured there can only be compared to Hendry's or Davis' golden age – it took a lot to take one frame from Sullivan. His long pots, his safe play, his break building and his potting was stellar and flawless. It seemed as if he couldn't be stopped, especially after he won his 20th consecutive match after having declassed the likes of Selby and Robertson.

The only reason for ROS not being on top is that I have doubts he can maintain this outstanding performance for long. In the Championship League playoffs he already showed that he is beatable again, and his level dropped to 'near perfection', a standard a couple of players can keep up. Knowing Sullivan's yoyo-form, this might have just been a short intermezzo. Regardless, he still is THE favourite to enter the crucible and his second spot in this ranking should be interpreted like that – very close to #1, only activity being in the way.


#3 Neil Robertson

The Australian is another potential candidate for the top spot, if it wasn't for his high variance in the smaller tournaments: five first round losses. It's either on or off, there's nothing in between. Robertson's decision to take some time off is both a great and a bad one. Great in terms of: He's the best if he enters with dedication, worst whenever he has to rely on his, for now, non-existent b-form over short distances. It might sound bad at times, but it really isn't, after all Robertson won two major titles this season – UK Championship (147 in the finals!) and the Champions of Champions – as well as showcasing an outlandish performance in the Masters (6 centuries in 11 Frames, despite losing that one), made his way to the finals in Cardiff and making it to the Quarters of the International.

In my eyes Robertson will not win another title in China, but is one of the guy's really in favour of lifiting the World Title this year. He's apparently setting his mind to this task for the entire season – he only goes on a rampage over long distance, that's where his strengths are, at least in my opinion. Also, he is used to the pressure, analyses his opponents like a lunatic and he will have the time to adjust in the Crucible.


#4 Judd Trump

Trump on the fourth place is a bit of a stretch as he missed to really finish big this season until a few weeks ago when he defeated ROS in the fight for the Championship League Finals. Besides that Trump rarely showed his true potential in the course of an entire week, but displayed constant results nonetheless – for instance his finals against Kyren Wilson and an average tournament finish among the best eight. I'm not entirely sure where to place him in the Crucible list, for now it doesn't seem he has the drive to really aim at the trophy.


#5 Martin Gould

Martin Gould finally made his break through in Berlin earlier this year, after he missed to fight back against Higgins in Bendigo. One title out of two finals this season, accompanied by two Quarter Final appearances and another two finishes in the Round of Sixteen don't seem all to much though, especially compared to the track record of the leading trio. Then again Gould had the misfortune to be forced to undergo high class players in any given tournament, thanks to the low seeding he held. He will definitely be in the Crucible this year, as he made it to the Top16, where he belongs. He even might turn some more heads in the PTC Finals and the China Open; in Sheffield not so much, as his lack of experience over very long distances just might be too much for now.


#6 Mark Selby

Mark Selby showed why he remained the unchallenged leader of the World Rankings time and time again. Although having one of the more unsuccesful seasons he still lifted another PTC Title in Poland, making a total of seven minor trophys for the Jester. In comparison to Robertson it's Selby's lack of variance which holds him back, at least in my eyes. He mostly relies on his B-Form over a tournament – which is enough to best a lower ranked player, but not nearly enough to overtower the elite. However, the Crucible is where consistency pays off greatly, so Selby just might be in this year, a year in which nobody can truely claim to be dominant.


#7 Kyren Wilson

Last season Luca Brecel and Michael White were hyped as the up and coming young stars of the scene. Meanwhile, Kyren Wilson made his way, mostly in PTCs, in which he beat the lower ranked players consistently, until he finally broke free in China, lifting his first ranked title. That's an achievement only few professionals could dream of, and even if they won, most of them were significantly older and more experienced. He also delivered proof that it's just a matter of time before he will get another one – three more semi finals this season earn him a higher spot in this power rank, I'm positiviely surprised by Wilson's quality and attitude towards the game, the audience and his capability to entertain.


#8 Marco Fu

The man from Hong Kong falls short in terms of publicity, despite playing a rather good season thus far. He holds two minor titles – the General Cup and a PTC Title – and can show a couple of Quarter Final finishes. Much like Robertson he is either do or die in most tournaments, just a little less successful. In my opinion he might snatch another ranking title in the PTC Finals or China; for the crucible I wouldn't really place my bets here.


#9 Mark Allen

The Irish star had a similar season to Fu, yet just a slightly worse one. One PTC title, another final appearance, two semis, two quarters, three times in the round of sixteen. Yet also a bad start into the season, and burn outs during tournaments. Allen has a lot of room to improve, at least compared to the elite circle. Yet, he demonstrated well why he won't drop out of the Top 10 in the next years. He is more or less the guy dividing the true top eight from the rest of the field. Beat Allen consinstently and you can win titles.


#10 Allister Carter

This is not just based on sympathy, Carter really does deserve a spot among the best ten players of this ranking. He couldn't really add to his PTC win in Fürth earlier this season, but that doesn't really matter. Nor does it matter that he rarely made it farther than the rounds of the last sixteen. It's his seeding, the lack of first round losses and the quality of play he still shows. Due to his low seeding he is forced to take on the elite players very early and somehow manages to still best them. Whereas the likes of a Robertson, Selby or ROS can easily waltz over two or three Top64 players, Carter usually has to beat the best newcomers, a top contender of the Top32 and afterwards Top 8 players only. And he still moves back towards the best sixteen. Go Ali.



Disappointments of the Season

Ricky Walden. Cleary. So much potential, so little to show for. His best finish was as runner-up in the AT1, where he had to... beat like noone to get there. A couple of amateurs and then failed to beat an out of form Ding Junhui. Sad to see him doing so badly, I really like him.

Michael White. Again, very clearly. Two titles last season, this season very bad performances along the way. He seems to have lost his motivation and some problem to deal with disappointing situations on the table. His match against Allen underlined that – high risk shots when a safety was very easy to do. I don't know what's up with him, but he could do a lot better. Compared to other player's slumps it's still not bad.

---

---

Format Evaluation

I really don't like the trend to introduce Best of Seven as the standard length for matches. They sure make it easier to hold small tournaments, but they also take away a lot of room that makes up for good snooker. I'm not quite sure what Hearn tried to achieve, altough I read tons of statements. I really don't know what to think of him: Successful, no doubt, increasing quality? Only in parts, for every good aspect there are plenty of downers.

The upside of the Bo7 were clearly the driving factor of the PTCs, which finally lead to unexperienced players gain just what they missed: experience. Sean o'Sullivan, Wells, Yuelong being some of them, but also good amateurs like Miah, Causton and Fernandez, and most importantly, players like Michael White, Kyren Wilson, Luca Brecel and Martin Gould in previous seasons. That's the clear upside. Again, very positive. I enjoyed most PTCs of last season, the Ruhr Open being an exception to the rule and a perfect transition to the downsides.

Unlike fun events like the Shoot Out, the PTCs should be somewhat important. Important enough for the seasoned professionals to at least try to get into their finals, but not nearly as important as a full ranking title, let alone a tripple crown tournament (UK, Masters, WC). Well... and that's where it started, it seems as if even big tours, namely the World Grand Prix, try to import the short distances. Some players cheer for it, others not so much.
There are plenty of games were you can see that good intentions fail: Lawler, Ebdon and McManus are prime examples of a class of players who can stretch even a Bo7 to infinity. Be that as it may, it's not bad, its their style, they're not really playing destructively for the sake of winning. The problem is that there's just no mid session interval and no to little room to re-gain control for a player with a bad start. The Robertson v. Ebdon of last week underlines this: Robertson had a difficult start, yet played better than Ebdon. I can't say where it went wrong, but it felt as if a chance of a high class recovering Robertson was taken away. That's just one example, perhaps a bad one. Yet one that makes the point. I saw tons of Bo7 which featured two scrappy openers. Afterwards one of the two players had just a stroke of misfortune, e.g. a failed split, a kick or a bad cushion contact – and the match got one sided. That's the nature of snooker, the second a player starts to score heavy his opponent does not have the opportunity to gain table time. The effect might be exponential if the following frame ends with a century and a long pot. It's incredibly difficult to get back, even though the other player just had two good frames out of four. So far I only saw Selby, and only Selby, to make successful comebacks from 0-3 or 1-3 down repetitively. In the previous season Selby and Murphy, but no others. This is as much as it takes to dominate in short distances, a form only the new elite class is able to reproduce. Doesn't seem very fair, or a quality that can be expected in this game. There's too much precision and concentration needed already, without facing the pressure of such short distances.

The effects, long term, can be really interesting. I doubt Ronnie o'Sullivan could've maintained a 23 streak of wins against top class players, if it weren't for more than half of these games being Bo7s and Bo5s. There's simply no way with all the talents on the tour that a player can dominate like that after missing out half of the season. The upside, in Sullivan's case, is that fans are pleased – ROS argueably showed new greats. It was nice to watch at least, even if you don't like him too well.

The Ruhr Open was a clear contrast: Dozends of elite class players had a bad start, were consequently beaten and we had rather poor matches from the Quarter finals (!) onwards. That can't be the effect Hearn hopes for. I really don't want to see that on the circuit – four days of tournaments featuring low class games. Especially the lower ranked players – from what I saw in three PTCs live – try so hard, that they're willing to REALLY play destructively. A best of seven with a high break of 40 is not unusual, but the rule for low tier players – despite them being more than just able to make higher breaks. Please no more. I get why the players do it, but as fan, it's not cool to watch. It's draining and it makes me watch other things instead.




The End of PTCs, Official Ranking

With Selby's last victory the PTCs come to an end. I think it's very sad, as many venues promised great games, cheap prices and a ton to watch with professionals being highly entertaining. It was really easy to talk with them, get autographs and get to know them off-table in a less serious environment. That's just gone. However, most PTCs will be small ranked tournaments, which is good and hopefully will be as fun as the old format.

However, with the PTCs being over, there's also a lot of stuff going on in the rankings. First off, the best players will get a prolonged / new professional license for next season, if they're not already qualified. Sounds complicated, but it is not. Any player placed within the Top64 is automatically qualified. Everyone under that mark needs to qualify via different methods; one being the PTC rankings – that gains you a two-year card. The players to earn that are:

Europen Order of Merit:

Thor Chuan Leong, Ian Burns, Lee Walker, Mitchell Mann, Aditya Mehta, Scott Donaldson, Hammad Miah (a), Anthony Hamilton (2325)

Asian Order of Merit:

Leo Fernandez (a), Zhang Anda (1750)


In other words, to qualify via the European tour any player had to finish twice in the Ro32 and once in the Ro64; in the Asian tour event (there was just one) a player had to reach the Round of 16.

Looking at the qualifiers the cards are justified in all cases. Especially Fernandez and Miah earned it the hard way; while established professionals had to win twice two games and antoher one in seven tours, they had to win twice five games and another four, while having to pay an entrance fee of ~200 pounds per event. And it's not like they had it easy, whenever they entered the Ro128 they were automatically seeded against a player with a ranking of at least Top32. That's hard. And that shows just HOW good these two are.

 

[Chapatiyaq]

I didn't really follow the start of the season, so I have to admit I wouldn't have thought of John Higgins at rank 1.
Anyway, that was a great read, with a lot of info that a casual watcher like me had missed.

 

[Reary McFooface]

Walden took that disappointment of the season award thing really personally.

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Standing: Post China Open

Spieler	Punkte	Pro Team	Anti Team	+-
foo-rear	176	225	49	+17
Gecko	136	197	61	+20
Chapa	104	187	83	+14
ex'ratt	93	185	92	+15
piko	76	177	101	+18
Endrox	58	182	124	-2

Top / Bottom

Players	Points
Mark Selby	102
Judd Trump	87
Mark J Williams	64
Kyren Wilson	62
Mark Allen	59
...	...
Gareth Allen	-31

​

sorry for the delay, planned on doing it earlier, but both work and failing support via telekom deutschland held me back here. trying to invest more time when it comes to sheffield.

qualifiers begun, most important details:

1. With Maguire reaching the Semis of the China Open Ding Junhui finally dropped out of the Top16 and now has to undergo three matches in the qualifiers

2. qualifiers begun, so far the upsets are:

Akbar > Jamie Jones
Wakelin > Woollaston
Zhao Xintong (amatuer world champion) > Lawler (!!!)
Ayouri > Pengfei
Zhang Yong > Joe Swail
Jamie Rhys Clarke (a) > Jamie Burnett

by now it's safe to say nobody will be able to catch foo-rear, for that to happen Selt and Carter would need to face each other in the finals while Trump, Robertson and King would have to lose big times.

At least im not losing to piko by one point this season

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Standing: Sheffield 2016

Spieler	Punkte	Pro Team	Anti Team	+-
foo-rear	167	223	56	-6
Gecko	141	205	64	-1
Chapa	113	198	85	+3
piko	80	183	103	+1
ex'ratt	78	200	122	-11
Endrox	58	204	146	-+0

Top / Bottom

Players	Points
Mark Selby	113
Judd Trump	88
Kyren Wilson	71
Mark J Williams	66
Marco Fu	66
...	...
Gareth Allen	-31

​

Bonus Points Sheffield:

5*Century: Selby, Higgins, Junhui, McManus, Marco Fu, ROS
4*Century: Marco Fu (Semis), Ding Junhui (Semis, new record)
High Break: Kyren Wilson 143

Gratulations to Foo-Rear
Thanks for participation

 

[piko]

Well. Grats to the winner. Bad choices were made. My pro team sucked this season. Murphy underperformed, and I chose the wrong "up and coming" players. (Brecel, M. White)

 

[ex'ratt]

My point score is positive this time, yay Thanks to the great performance of Ding Junhui, my Anti-Team scored quite nice at the Crucible.

 

[Chapatiyaq]

Congrats to foo-rear, who dominated the standings for a long time until the end.
I'm lucky to be third, I'll just regret picking Sam Baird, even though he somehow showed good stuff in Sheffield, with a good match against Selby.

I'm impatient to participate next year

 

[Reary McFooface]

Thanks. Not trying to humble brag, but I'm pretty positive I lucked out hard. I had the opportunity to trade for King on a roll, which I did too late and I have no idea how White and Brecel got so many points with what they were showing. Robertson won two tournaments, but didn't do much else. Nobody picked Selby. Gecko got unlucky with Maflins performance and his trade, I thought he had the better team starting out. It was fun though. You going to do another season, Gecko?

 

[Gelöschtes Mitglied 683020]

Probably, but need to know the format changes of WorldSnooker first, as the PTC format changes and a lot of the initial points depended on them. Maybe organized on a blog or something then, not sure about it. Be that as it may, the new season will only start in two or three months.

Whoever is interested, the Q-School starts in roughly two weeks. Cheering for Adam Duffy and Lukas Kleckers there. And Xintong, if he isn't already qualified.