It’s quite a simple process to understand, but this is for those who are either new to the sport or unaware how the players in the televised World Championship achieve their place. It can vary in minor ways from each year although for the most part, the qualification process for snookers biggest tournament of the year remains largely the same. Here’s how it works.
You’ve probably heard the term ‘Race to the Crucible’ mentioned at some points throughout any given season. This refers specifically to the race to be in the Top 16 as these individuals in the rankings automatically qualify for the Crucible and avoid underdoing the stress of qualifying. Once you hear what the qualifiers have to go through just to get to the main stage, you’ll understand why being in and around the Top 16 of the world rankings is a desirable prospect for all professionals. It’s also why the tournament before the WSC is such an important event for those players.
The Top 16 are then seeded, with the defending champion holding the No. 1 seed, and the rest based off their world rankings. None of these players will contest in the first round. The Top 16 face off against the 16 individuals that came through the qualifying rounds. As for those 16 that survived the enduring stages of qualifying, this is what they have to go through.
Those outside the Top 16 i.e. ranked 17-128 have to go through several qualifying matches which if successful, means they go to the Crucible. So this means that 112 professionals have to fight for a coveted spot in the tournament? Not exactly. It’s actually 128 players that have to contest qualifying. The remainder of these players are made up of wildcards, chosen by WPBSA and provided to players based on their performances in their respective circuits. This can include a select few from the women’s circuit or those who have flourished in the amateur scene.
Qualifiers who are ranked from 17-80 are seeded as 1-64 for the purposes of the qualifying draw. Similar to the main stage, these players go against those that are non-seeded while the rest are drawn randomly. Those who make the latter stages of qualifying do receive some financial compensation, so they don’t feel as if they’re walking away with nothing if they came close to reaching the Crucible. Last year, over £500,000 of the prize fund was allocated to the qualifiers.
Formerly, every qualifying player regardless of ranking would have to play three best-of-19 matches and win all of these matches to secure their place in the Crucible. The reason I said ‘regardless of ranking’ was because prior to this (<2015), those ranked 17-32 only needed to win one match, while the rest had to go through the war of attrition. However, since the process changed so that all players had to play three matches.
That is, until this year. The format has slightly changed once again to in order to comply with government safety regulations, but also provide a little more weighting to those ranked higher. The most significant change to qualifiers this year is that the matches played in Rounds 1-3 will be contested over best-of-11 matches as opposed to the standard best-of-19.
For this year’s qualification, players ranked 17-48 are only required to win two matches and the rest of the field will need to win up to four, depending on their seeding. This has now become an increasingly difficult task for those outside rank 48 who aim to qualify; further meaning that some players will have won 28 frames (and likely played significantly more) before the first round of the Crucible. In fairness, this number would have been upwards of 40 frames but due to adherence with social distancing rules, the format has been altered.
While qualifying is certainly no easy or comfortable journey, things did used to be a little more difficult. In fact, players would have to go through up to six rounds of matches to qualify! If you choose any year at random, for example 2002, you can see that some players like Shaun Murphy had to win five matches just to reach the Crucible. Unfortunately for Murphy, after all the work he happened to come across Stephen Hendry in Round 1. In 2004, Ryan Day was also one of the players that had to win five matches, only to narrowly lose to John Higgins in the first round.
So it can be perceived that qualifying is a more gruelling process than playing in the World Championship itself. And this has been the opinion of professionals that have frequently qualified for the WSC such as Ali Carter and Graeme Dott, with the former once stating that it’s the best preparation for the tournament.
What do you think about the qualification process for the World Championship?
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