On April 18, 2019, the WPA Players Tournament ended the first two rounds of competition in Las Vegas. Zheng Yuxuan, Ke Bingzhong, Yang Qingshun and Zhang Yulong won the round of 16; the Philippine player ChuA gave a big comeback and advanced with the nine-goal world champion Piado; and Van Bonin continued to defend the honor of the American player.
Co-hosted by WPA and CSI, the WPA Players Tournament is a WPA Category III ranking tournament featuring the DIAMONDS table, hyper CYCLOP for the designated ball, ANDY for the designated cloth, puma club (PEDATOR), how and master fans.
A four-day side event was held from 12 to 15 April. The Chinese Taipei Army gathered a huge lineup of 13 men and 1 woman to compete in the external competition, and finally Xu Kailun, Zhang Yulong, Yang Qingshun, Liu Leteng, Fu Zhewei and Guo Siting successfully broke through and completed the meeting with Zhang Ronglin, Ke Bingyi, Zheng Yuxuan, Wu Kunlin and Ke Bingzhong who directly participated in the in-conference competition.
The in-tournament adopts a 64-player single-player format, and those who win more than 2 rounds after 7 wins will win, take turns to rush the ball and ask for three balls to cross the line. The winner of the in-house tournament receives $10,000 in prize money. All players who are out of the first round can also participate in a separate "comfort match" where the winner can credit $1,500.
After the start of the intra-tournament, Ke Bingyi and Ke Bingzhong both won the first round with a score of 7-4; Zhang Yulong successfully blocked Pagulayan 7-3, and Yang Qingshun and Zheng Yuxuan also advanced to the round of 32. Zhang Ronglin, the popular "evil god of fire clouds", unexpectedly lost 4-7 to Russia's Maksim Dudanets, and was out of the first round; Fu Zhewei, Wu Kunlin, Liu Leteng, Xu Kailun and Guo Siting were also eliminated on the first day of the main competition. Compared with Chinese Taipei, the Performance of European and American and Filipino players was more relaxed, with Merlin, Druna, Jason Shaw, Chua, Imonen, Biado, Woodward, Abbott, Van Berning, Suqui and Dur all advancing to the round of 32.
The tournament got better after the 1/16 finals. Filipino player Chua briefly trailed Finland's "Iceman" Imonen 2-6, after which Chua magically trailed the score to 6-6 in four consecutive sets and defeated Imonen 8-6 in the following extra time. Another Filipino player, 2017 nine-goal World Championship champion Piado, played equally well, winning two straight sets after a 5-5 draw to beat U.S. midwester Woodward 7-5. Four Chinese Taipei players – Zheng Yuxuan, Ke Bingzhong, Yang Qingshun and Zhang Yulong – won to advance to the Round of 16.
Van Berning's 7-5 victory over Szewick continued to defend the honor of the American native; Jason Shaw played a convincing match to beat Philippine star Druna 7-2. Nick Maraj from Greece and Legendary German player Ralph Suqui also advanced to the Round of 16.
1/8 final matchup
Shaun Wilkie vs Zheng Yuxuan, Radsov Babica vs Jason Shaw, Yang Guohuang vs Ke Bingzhong, John Chua vs Nick Maraj, Carlo Biado vs Yang Qingshun, Eclente Khaki vs Shane Van Bonin, James Alanas vs Zhang Yulong, Raymond Farang vs Ralph Sukui