Tour Card Race for 2019

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Zeyes
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:53 pm

The Thorn wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:32 pm Are big money soft tip tournaments really that frequent? Couldn't he just play the Dartslive World stages and play on the pro tour at the same time? Wouldn't he be able to play the majority of the tour events?
The Japanese soft-tip tour Asada plays on staged 29 tournaments this year:

- 12 in the lowest category, with winner's prize money of £3,500 (Asada entered 10, won 6)
- 13 in the middle category, with winner's prize money of £7,000 (Asada entered 12, won 7)
- 4 in the highest category, with winner's prize money of £10,500 (Asada entered 3, won 2 - the final event last week clashed with Ally Pally)

So that's roundabout £90,000 in prize money just for the 15 events he won, not even counting what he received in the others, or in non-tour events. Skipping these tourneys for major opportunities like the World Championship is one thing, skipping them for regular Pro Tour events would be quite a different matter.

Muramatsu was never quite this dominant on the rival Dartslive tour, but the basic idea is the same, hence he also played only sporadically when he had a tour card - trying their hand at the PDC is a big financial risk for these guys, even if they do get sponsorship for it (and I suspect many of their regular soft-tip sponsors don't care to pay them to do steel, so they'd have to find others for that).

Anyway, both these Japanese tours are only open to Japanese citizens and permanent residents, so all this only applies to Japanese players. Asian players from elsewhere don't have nearly this many opportunities to earn big tournament money.

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:57 pm

Just to add, the other three tour events Asada missed this year were for: two PDC Asian tour weekends, and the PDC World Cup.

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The Thorn
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by The Thorn » Fri Dec 21, 2018 9:04 pm

Cheers, wasn't really aware of this tour. That's some huge prize money with a significantly lower risk compared to the pro tour. Wouldn't blame him at all if he stayed there.
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Fiss Plaps
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Fiss Plaps » Fri Dec 21, 2018 9:24 pm

HELLO, TOUR CARD!

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Goodbye Jeffrey de Graaf.
2020 World Grand Prix Lucky Dip winner!
2x 2019 Q-School Lucky Dip winner!

Both as valuable as the Lakeside piss pot!

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Fri Dec 21, 2018 9:27 pm

The Thorn wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 9:04 pm Cheers, wasn't really aware of this tour. That's some huge prize money with a significantly lower risk compared to the pro tour. Wouldn't blame him at all if he stayed there.
Yeah, it's basically the international version of the Durrant dilemma. And similar to the BDO tour, the available prize money drops off quickly if you're not one of the best 2 or 3 players - but if you're not one of the best 2 or 3 players, you're probably also not good enough to make a dent on the Pro Tour. So nobody there is particularly incentivized to give the PDC a shot.

But the Asian Tour is giving a lot of these guys some exposure to the PDC system now, so things might be changing over time.

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Fri Dec 21, 2018 11:42 pm

Hmm, so Petersen's not out of the woods yet - Aspinall's victory has pushed him right down to the bubble again:

58,000 Aspinall* (R32+)
57,750 Joyce* (R32+)
55,750 Clemens* (R64)
55,500 Mansell (R96)
54,500 Cadby* (DNS)
53,250 Nicholson (R96)
53,000 Petersen (R32+)
-----------------------
46,750 Humphries* (R32+)
37,000 Labanauskas^ (R32+)

Jacques now down to 65th, de Graaf to 66th, so will have to rely on cards getting handed back. Pretty impressive by Jacques to lose a card straight after winning it based on one-year performance - first player to "achieve" that.

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Sat Dec 22, 2018 12:11 am

On a sidenote: We've come a long, long way from the first few years of the tour card when it was still possible to place in the top 64 with under £20,000 prize money from two years...

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by thegentle » Sat Dec 22, 2018 4:55 am

Zeyes wrote: Fri Dec 21, 2018 11:42 pm Hmm, so Petersen's not out of the woods yet - Aspinall's victory has pushed him right down to the bubble again:

58,000 Aspinall* (R32+)
57,750 Joyce* (R32+)
55,750 Clemens* (R64)
55,500 Mansell (R96)
54,500 Cadby* (DNS)
53,250 Nicholson (R96)
53,000 Petersen (R32+)
-----------------------
46,750 Humphries* (R32+)
37,000 Labanauskas^ (R32+)

Jacques now down to 65th, de Graaf to 66th, so will have to rely on cards getting handed back. Pretty impressive by Jacques to lose a card straight after winning it based on one-year performance - first player to "achieve" that.
Steve West only had a tour card for one year once, didn't he? Different circumstances I understand, didn't completely collapse like Jacques. He could be saved by Cadby, de Graaf in theory could be saved by Barney, though it's pretty unlikely he forwards his retirement a year
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by thegentle » Thu Dec 27, 2018 4:26 pm

Nicho is gone, and I have to say if you'd have told me that two weeks ago I'd have been shocked. Just goes to show how important the Worlds is, Nicho has been pretty solid over the past two years, yet largely through one event, Humph (who's been OK this year) and Devon (who's had a terrible year) jump him. Hope he'll be back, would be a shame to lose him to the game
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:58 pm

Yup...Aspinall, Joyce and also Petersen have moved well clear of £60k with their third round wins, leaving the end of the race looking like this:

61st: 56,750 Humphries* (R16+)
62nd: 55,750 Clemens* (R64)
63rd: 55,500 Mansell (R96)
64th: 54,500 Cadby* (DNS)
-------------------------------
65th: 53,250 Nicholson (R96)
66th: 52,250 Jacques (DNQ)
67th: 49,500 de Graaf (R96)

Labanauskas fell two wins short of making it in the end.

Now to wait if Cadby's visa issues might result in him giving up his card and his fellow Aussie to profit from it...

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Thu Dec 27, 2018 9:08 pm

Incidentally, if I'm not mistaken there should be 30 tour cards available for Q School now.

Assigned:

64 through the OOM
30 continuing two-year cards (out of 37 given out for 2018)
4 new two-year cards through Challenge and Dev Tours 2018
--
98

Cadby's possible resignation wouldn't change those numbers, since his card would go to a player in Nicholson who otherwise wouldn't have one, rather than end up adding to the QS total. (Unless they change the rules again...)

What's still possible is that other two-year players outside the top 64 end up resigning, although the PDPA's tracking appears to imply that all 30 have signed up for next year.

De Zwaan/Noppert/Clemens from the Euro QS, Joyce/Aspinall/Cadby from the UK one, and Humphries from the Dev Tour are the 7 players who moved straight into the top 64 in their first tour card year this season. Plus Ratajski completely without a card, of course.

At the last QS the UK/Euro card split was 23/10 - if the relative sign-up numbers are the same we'd be getting 21/9 this year.

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by thegentle » Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:34 am

How many of the class of 2017 made it to the top 64 within a year? Seems as though we've had a lot of 'newbies' storm through the rankings this year
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by Zeyes » Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:55 am

(Players in brackets went into the top 64 without holding a tour card)

2011 / 4+1: Magnus Caris, Dave Chisnall, John Henderson, James Richardson, (Kim Huybrechts)
2012 / 3+2: John Bowles, James Hubbard, Dean Winstanley, (Jerry Hendriks, Darren Webster)
2013 / 3+0: Ricky Evans, Ronny Huybrechts, Kevin McDine
2014 / 6+2: Kyle Anderson, Stephen Bunting, Christian Kist, Gerwyn Price, Rowby-John Rodriguez, Benito van de Pas, (Max Hopp, Cristo Reyes)
2015 / 7+3: Andy Boulton, Jeffrey de Zwaan, Robbie Green, Alan Norris, William O'Connor, Devon Petersen, Dimitri Van den Bergh, (Jan Dekker, Joe Murnan, Dirk van Duijvenbode)
2016 / 3+0: Jeffrey de Graaf, Mick McGowan, Ron Meulenkamp
2017 / 5+2: Toni Alcinas, Rob Cross, Steve Lennon, Richard North, Martin Schindler, (Peter Jacques, Zoran Lerchbacher)

More details than you asked, but anyway...

Not as elite a circle of players as one might expect. Several ended up losing their card again two years later, after their debut year had dropped off the OOM. (With, as mentioned before, Jacques the first to manage to lose it just one year later.)

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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by tungsten tossers » Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:17 am

Burton tweeted that the entire top 10 of the development tour will start 2019 with a tour card...
A good advert for the youth system...

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thegentle
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by thegentle » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:10 am

tungsten tossers wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:17 am Burton tweeted that the entire top 10 of the development tour will start 2019 with a tour card...
A good advert for the youth system...
A very satisfactory Q-School indeed, (almost?) all of the guys who will get a card are proven at some kind of decent level
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The Thorn
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by The Thorn » Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:42 pm

I really don't begrudge anyone at Q-School a card. It's a big achievement to get through that field. The problem is with some players who are good enough but didn't make it, like Harris. The cream did rise to the top this time as we've seen with Razma, Darius or Meuwisse but still you feel some players should have got a card based on their season on the CT
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by thegentle » Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:19 pm

The Thorn wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:42 pm I really don't begrudge anyone at Q-School a card. It's a big achievement to get through that field. The problem is with some players who are good enough but didn't make it, like Harris. The cream did rise to the top this time as we've seen with Razma, Darius or Meuwisse but still you feel some players should have got a card based on their season on the CT
I agree, Harris should definitely have a card based on his performances last year. That said, is there anyone else who would be really missed on the main tour this year? And will any of those players who will end up with a card look out of place, apart from possibly van der Meer and Kuivenhoven (if indeed he gets a card)? As long as Mad Cammie wins his in a few weeks and we get a minimal number of Dootson types, that'll be fine by me
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The Thorn
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by The Thorn » Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:21 pm

Expect the likes of Ross Twell to be out in great numbers. We need Menzies, Hughes, Durrant, Waites to win a card, who else? Portela would be nice but I'm still not confident he has the game. Here's hoping many ladies enter
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by thegentle » Mon Jan 07, 2019 1:32 pm

Prakash Jiwa loves a run at Q-School :lol:
I would like Nicholson to win one, putting aside what you think of him as a person (don't care) or as a commentator (I actually quite like him there), he still has the game to compete on the tour. Whether he wants to do Q-School again is another matter
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Re: Tour Card Race for 2019

Post by tungsten tossers » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:21 pm

The Thorn wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:42 pm I really don't begrudge anyone at Q-School a card. It's a big achievement to get through that field. The problem is with some players who are good enough but didn't make it, like Harris. The cream did rise to the top this time as we've seen with Razma, Darius or Meuwisse but still you feel some players should have got a card based on their season on the CT
I agree, Cody does have the game, but he struggles a bit on the floor, like many others do.
We have mentioned before about the CT on here, and I would like to see maybe more than two cards awarded.
QS still has an element of the luck of the draw about it, and a change is maybe needed, but it is a worry for the likes of Cody, and possibly Hughes and Cammie, if they fail again this year.

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