You may or may not know, but the Championship League is back on some of our Internet screens with Group 7 on, followed by the Championship League final!
Those currently in Group 7 (Higgins, Brecel, Milkins, Walden, Trump, Li and Dale) are battling it out in a series of matches against each other to win the group. Whoever wins will join the winners’ group and fight against the other group winners Zhou, Selby, Wilson, Carter, Williams and Gould.
No? You’re not alone.
Championship League always seems like the black sheep out of the current family of ranking and non-ranking events. Not only is this a non-ranking event but it isn’t even on TV – it is broadcast by Internet only. All matches are best-of-5s, which is a purist’s worst nightmare. I personally used to be very much interested in this event. I like the eliminator-style format and the fact that it rewards consistency. If you have done well enough, you stay in the next round. If you have done very well, you go through to the finals. If you did not perform well enough, you are out. Simple as that.
I also like the cottage design. Living in the city surrounded by blocks as someone who’s lived in a tiny countryside village makes me appreciate it even more. You also can’t deny that there are plenty of memories from that event throughout its history. There have been SIX maximum breaks, weirdly all occurring since 2014 considering the first Championship League started in 2008. Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins, Stephen Maguire scored one each and remarkably, Fergal O’Brien made his first maximum in his long and illustrious career at the age of 43 years and 354 days, making him the oldest player to score a maximum. He was a very happy bunny, as you can see below.
That was until Mark Davis came along and even more remarkably, scored two 147’s in the same tournament, in two separate groups. He meant he beat Fergal’s and his own record for being the oldest professional to score a maximum at 44 years and 202 days. There have been some fairly high-profile winners with eight different winners, with Judd Trump being the most successful player, with 3 trophies under his belt. Very recently, Luca Brecel scored his first 147 against John Higgins today. A video of it is below. In fact, had it not been for the Championship League, Neil Robertson would have probably never reached a 100 centuries in a season (he hit 22 centuries in the Championship League in 2013/2014 season)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Y7aU7doz4
However, it’s only until this season when I started to lose interest in it. So far, there have been seven withdrawals since the initial draw was released. Robertson and Allen left due to personal reasons, but McGill, Hawkins, Murphy, Liang and Li seem to request removal from the tourney because they felt like it. And these withdrawals are relatively common. With so many tournaments gaining momentum and prestige, there are a few events which are shrinking into insignificance. This happened a little with the Gibraltar Open and it is even worse here, since this is a non-ranking event.
It does make me wonder – if it isn’t treated as properly as the events, why bother with the Championship League at all – really? Haven’t these top players had enough practice for these events anyway? When there is a calendar so busy, it does make one wonder why top players, who are more likely to go to events by merit (Masters, World Grand Prix, Players Championship, Champion of Champions) need the Championship League at all. Should this be more exclusive to lower-ranked players? It may be more interesting if it was exclusively for players outside of the Top 32 or even the Top 64 to give them valuable game time?
Personally, it wouldn’t surprise me if this disappears in a few years. It has already been dwarfed by other tourneys and it does feel like an event where people can join and leave as they please. This isn’t one that is treated professionally most of the time. The tournament isn’t rated highly in terms of qualifying for the Champion of Champions in previous years next year, where winning the event would guarantee an invite to the Champion of Champions according it the tournament website. It is strange that it is considered more important than the Home Nations events and even the Paul Hunter Classic and the Snooker Shoot-Out, but oh well. That is why I expect it still exists – the prize is getting into the Champion of Champions?
I’ll still pay attention to it, as Group 7 is a very interesting and competitive group and the final group should be a great one. But I can’t help thinking, since Premier League Snooker isn’t around, it’s there for the sake of being there and I am not sure what its role in the calendar. Is the Championship League more than competitive practice and getting back on form? That is the question.
