Q School

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The Q School is a tournament event in snooker where amateurs can qualify for the professional tour ( Snooker Main Tour ). The Q School was introduced in 2011 by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).

background

Until 2010, the Pontin's International Open Series (PIOS) was the qualifying series for the Main Tour. Eight tournaments were held over the season and the eight best in the overall ranking were then given the right to start the professional tournaments of the following season. However, this meant that professional players who had to leave the Main Tour were downgraded to amateurs for a year and only then were able to regain professional status. It was therefore decided that the qualification would not take place until after the World Snooker Championshipthat traditionally represents the end of a season. In addition, the PIOS tournaments spread out over the season were an obstacle for players who did not live in the UK. The Q-School events take place within a few days and thus also enable international players, for example from the European continent and above all from Asia, where snooker had gained enormous popularity in the 2000s, to take part in the qualification.

Tournament mode

The snooker season traditionally ends with the final of the World Snooker Championship on the first Monday in May, which is a public holiday in Great Britain. The Q School tournaments will then be held on several dates in mid-May. At each event, the participants are divided into four groups. Each group plays a group winner in the elimination process within 6 days, who is then qualified for the Snooker Main Tour. Formally, based on the entire event, the group finals are also referred to as the quarter-finals, with the semi-finals and finals not being played. All games, including the group finals, will be played in the Best of 7 mode (four winning frames).

Every amateur player is entitled to participate. However, a minimum age of 16 years applies to membership in the Main Tour. Registration is valid for all Q School events during the year. The entry fee is £ 600 for two events (up to 2013 it was £ 1000 for three events), there is no prize money in the Q-School tournaments.

development

In the course of the reforms of the WPBSA President Barry Hearn , who took office in 2009, the number of qualification places was increased to 12 when the Q School was introduced to increase its attractiveness. For this purpose, three consecutive events were scheduled, in which four qualifiers were played out. The field of participants was divided into four groups at each event. Since over 100 players had registered from the start, five rounds were played in each group with the final, which were spread over six days.

In 2011, the 12 winners were given the right to start the 2011/12 professional season . The snooker world ranking is based on the results of two years. But since only the top 64 of the rankings qualify directly for the following season at the end of the season, new players with only one professional year were disadvantaged. Therefore, starting in 2012, all players were granted Main Tour qualification not just for one but for two years. This applied not only to the Q-School winners, but also to those who qualified in other ways. Because from 2013, not only the top 64, but also the previous year's qualifiers were automatically further qualified, the field of professionals was expanded from 100 to 128 players. Nevertheless, there were fewer qualification places than before, which is why the qualification options have been adjusted again and again. As of 2014, the Q School was reduced to two tournaments and only eight players were given a new Main Tour starting authorization in order to reduce the imbalance compared to the international players who could not compete in England.

With the conversion of the professional field to 128 players, there was also a change in the tournament mode for most world ranking tournaments. Instead of a graduated qualification according to world rankings, there was a first qualifying round in which all 128 players had to compete in knockout mode. However, since some professionals were always absent for various reasons, places remained free. For this reason, a “Q School Order of Merit” was created, a list of players who were not qualified as professionals based on their performance at all Q-School events of the year. The number of frames won in the tournaments counts regardless of the number of rounds achieved. The free places at the corresponding professional tournaments were then filled according to this Order of Merit. Although the players were not rated for the world rankings, they were able to compete for the prize money in the tournaments and gain experience in professional snooker.

With the reduction of the Q-School qualifiers to eight, however, the number of participants who wanted to qualify rose at the same time to over 128, so that a pre-qualification had to be played in 2014 and six rounds were played per event and group from 2015. In the following year, the new record number of 182 players and the simultaneous loss of importance of the Players Tour Championship as a qualifying series was taken into account. For organizational reasons, they stayed at two Q-School events, but then awarded four more Main Tour seats to the following four players in the Q School Order of Merit.

venue

So far, central locations in England have always been chosen as the event location . For the first three years, the three Q-School events took place at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield . In 2014 they moved to the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester with the reduction to two tournaments . In the following two years the Meadowside Leisure Center in Burton-upon-Trent was the venue. In 2017 the tournament took place at the Guild Hall in Preston . After Burton-upon-Trent was the venue again in 2018, the Robin Park Leisure Center in Wigan will play in 2019 .

Results

season Beginning Attendees competition Qualifier 1 Qualifier 2 Qualifier 3 Qualifier 4
2011/12 May 11, 2011 124 Event 1 EnglandEngland Andrew Norman EnglandEngland David Grace EnglandEngland Adam Wicheard FinlandFinland Robin Hull
May 17, 2011 Event 2 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Li Yan IrelandIreland David Morris EnglandEngland Simon Bedford China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Tian Pengfei
May 23, 2011 Event 3 NorwayNorway Kurt Maflin EnglandEngland Stuart Carrington EnglandEngland Adam Duffy EnglandEngland David Gilbert
2012/13 May 13, 2012 115 Event 1 EnglandEngland Martin O'Donnell EnglandEngland Sam Baird EnglandEngland Ian Burns China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Chen Zhe
May 19, 2012 Event 2 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Daniel Wells EnglandEngland Jamie O'Neill EnglandEngland Sean O'Sullivan EnglandEngland Paul Davison
May 25, 2012 Event 3 EnglandEngland Rod Lawler EnglandEngland Michael Wasley EnglandEngland Joel Walker EnglandEngland Robbie Williams
2013/14 May 11th, 2013 110 Event 1 EnglandEngland Elliot Slessor EnglandEngland Alex Davies EnglandEngland Lee Page EnglandEngland Hammad Miah
May 15, 2013 Event 2 QatarQatar Ahmed Saif ScotlandScotland Ross Muir EnglandEngland Ryan Clark SwitzerlandSwitzerland Alexander Ursenbacher
May 19, 2013 Event 3 IrelandIreland David Morris EnglandEngland Lee Spick EnglandEngland Chris Wakelin ScotlandScotland Fraser Patrick
2014/15 May 10, 2014 145 Event 1 EnglandEngland Craig Steadman EnglandEngland Chris Melling China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Zhang Anda China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Tian Pengfei
May 16, 2014 Event 2 EnglandEngland Liam Highfield EnglandEngland Michael Georgiou WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Lee Walker ScotlandScotland Michael Leslie
2015/16 May 14, 2015 166 Event 1 EnglandEngland Sydney Wilson WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Daniel Wells ScotlandScotland Eden Sharav ScotlandScotland Rhys Clark
May 20, 2015 Event 2 EnglandEngland Jason Weston WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Gareth Allen WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Duane Jones EnglandEngland Paul Davison
2016/17 May 16, 2016 182 Event 1 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Fang Xiongman EnglandEngland Christopher Keogan China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Cao Yupeng China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Chen Zhe
May 22, 2016 Event 2 EnglandEngland Michael Georgiou EnglandEngland John Astley MaltaMalta Alex Borg WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg David John
May 22, 2016 Order of Merit EnglandEngland Craig Steadman EnglandEngland Jamie Barrett WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Ian Preece EnglandEngland Adam Duffy
2017/18 May 14, 2017 206 Event 1 GermanyGermany Lukas Kleckers EnglandEngland Allan Taylor EnglandEngland Billy Joe Castle EnglandEngland Ashley Hugill
20th May 2017 Event 2 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Duane Jones EnglandEngland Sanderson Lam EnglandEngland Paul Davison China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Chen Zifan
20th May 2017 Order of Merit China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Zhang Yong EnglandEngland Sean O'Sullivan Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Joe Swail EnglandEngland Martin O'Donnell
2018/19 May 14, 2018 202 Event 1 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Jak Jones EnglandEngland Sam Baird EnglandEngland Hammad Miah EnglandEngland Sam Craigie
20th May 2018 Event 2 Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland Jordan Brown EnglandEngland Craig Steadman China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Lu Ning China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Zhao Xintong
May 26, 2018 Event 3 MalaysiaMalaysia Thor Chuan Leong WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Kishan Hirani Hong KongHong Kong Lee Chun Wai EnglandEngland Ashley Carty
2019/20 May 18, 2019 218 Event 1 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Xu Si EnglandEngland David Lilley EnglandEngland Jamie O'Neill IranIran Soheil Vahedi
May 24, 2019 Event 2 China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Chen Zifan EnglandEngland Riley Parsons EnglandEngland Louis Heathcote ScotlandScotland Fraser Patrick
May 30, 2019 Event 3 EnglandEngland Barry Pinches MaltaMalta Alex Borg SwitzerlandSwitzerland Alexander Ursenbacher EnglandEngland Andy Hicks
4th July 2019 Order of Merit China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Si Jiahui EnglandEngland Billy Joe Castle EnglandEngland Peter Lines China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Peifan Lei
2020/21 August 7, 2020 172 Event 1 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Lee Walker EnglandEngland Peter Devlin GermanyGermany Simon Lichtenberg China People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China Fan Zhengyi
August 8, 2020 Event 2 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Jamie Jones EnglandEngland Zak Surety EnglandEngland Oliver Lines EnglandEngland Ben Hancorn
August 9, 2020 Event 3 EnglandEngland Rory McLeod EnglandEngland Jamie Wilson EnglandEngland Farakh Ajaib EnglandEngland Steven Hallworth

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Q-School Changes: 4 Places Now Up for Grabs at Snookerbacker Classic , Snookerbacker, January 22, 2014
  2. ↑ Changes To Q School 2014 , Ivan Hirschowitz, World Snooker, January 22, 2014
  3. ↑ World Snooker Announces Changes To Pro Tour , Maximum Snooker, October 20, 2011
  4. ^ Q School Ranking List ( Memento from December 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), World Snooker, May 23, 2014
  5. ^ Qualifying School - Event One (2011). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  6. ^ Qualifying School - Event Two (2011). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Three (2011). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2012). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2012). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  10. ^ Qualifying School - Event Three (2012). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2013). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2013). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Three (2013). Snooker.org, accessed March 10, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2014). Snooker.org, accessed May 3, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2014). Snooker.org, accessed May 3, 2014 .
  16. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2015). Snooker.org, accessed April 5, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2015). Snooker.org, accessed April 5, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2016). In: snooker.org. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2016). In: snooker.org. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
  20. ^ Q School Order of Merit. In: snooker.org. Retrieved June 2, 2016 .
  21. ^ Q School Event 2 Qualifiers. In: worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association , May 22, 2016, accessed June 2, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2017). In: snooker.org. Retrieved May 14, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2017). In: snooker.org. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .
  24. ^ Q School Order of Merit (2017). In: snooker.org. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .
  25. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2018). snooker.org, May 19, 2018, archived from the original on August 12, 2018 ; accessed on August 12, 2018 .
  26. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2018). snooker.org, May 25, 2018, archived from the original on August 12, 2018 ; accessed on August 12, 2018 .
  27. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Three (2018). snooker.org, May 31, 2018, archived from the original on August 12, 2018 ; accessed on August 12, 2018 .
  28. ↑ Qualifying School - Event One (2019). snooker.org, accessed April 30, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Two (2019). snooker.org, accessed April 30, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Qualifying School - Event Three (2019). snooker.org, accessed June 4, 2019 .
  31. ^ Q School Order of Merit. snooker.org, accessed June 4, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Q School 1 (2020). snooker.org, accessed August 8, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Q School 2 (2020). snooker.org, accessed on August 9, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Q School 3 (2020). snooker.org, accessed on August 10, 2020 .

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