On April 27, 2022, Beijing time, the Snooker World Championships ended the 11th day of competition, and the final four were about to come out. At the same time, the World Taiwan Federation announced an important decision, one of the three major tournaments, the British Championship will follow the example of the World Championships, and the top 16 players in the world ranking will enter the round of 32 as seeded players. For the defending champion Zhao Xintong, this is obviously good news, and it can be said that the hope of defending the title has greatly increased.
As we all know, the three snooker competitions are the World Championship, the British Championship and the Masters, the World Championship and the British Championship belong to the top ranking competitions, and the Masters belong to the invitational tournament. Previously, many celebrities said that they should improve the status of the British Championship, and O'Sullivan believed that the British Championship should also protect the seeded players. Now, the latest decision of the World Federation of Taiwan should make O'Sullivan particularly happy.
The World Taiwan Federation announced that the British Championship will follow the example of the World Championships, with the top 16 seeded players in the world ranking directly entering the 32-person main competition list, and the other 16 regular players will be selected through the qualification round. To put it simply, in recent years, the British Championship has always used parallel signing tables, all players have to start from the first round, and after the restructuring, the seeded players are protected and directly advanced to the round of 32. Although the British Championship will not adopt a long-term system throughout the game, such a change is also a perfect fit for the World Championships.
In addition, the qualifying format is similar to the World Championships, with 112 professional players and 16 invited wild card players competing for 16 regular spots. It is also particularly important that the restructured British Championship has increased the total prize money and the championship prize money, and the championship prize money has risen from 200,000 pounds to 250,000 pounds, which can be said to have greatly increased the attractiveness of the British Championship.
Next season's British Championship will be held from 12 to 20 November, with Chinese player Zhao Xintong playing as the defending champion. For him, such a restructuring is also good news, he directly advanced to the round of 32, and the hope of defending the title has greatly increased. Compared with the World Championships, the first few rounds of the British Championship will not use a long-term system, and for Zhao Xintong, a player who is biased towards offense but lacks stability, he is indeed more likely to win the championship.
However, for Ding Junhui, such a restructuring has added to the challenge, he is currently far from the top 16, next season must play more, but also strive for good results, so that there is a hope to return to the top 16, and then as a seed player to participate in the British Championship. Overall, this restructuring once again affirms the status of seeded players, and the audience can also see the performance of each seeded player in the main stage, and the status of the British Championship has indeed been greatly improved!