The Future of the PDC World Championship - Expansion to 128 confirmed for 2025/6

[Randall]

A bigger venue to get more people in for the business end ie surely preferable to more jobbers

Any ideas for alternative venues?

Would any of the pl venues be available?

[Rogg]

A bigger venue to get more people in for the business end ie surely preferable to more jobbers

Any ideas for alternative venues?

Would any of the pl venues be available?

For basically a month around Christmas, very unlikely I would think. Plus probably too big anyway.

[sennafan24]

A bigger venue to get more people in for the business end ie surely preferable to more jobbers

Any ideas for alternative venues?

Would any of the pl venues be available?

For basically a month around Christmas, very unlikely I would think. Plus probably too big anyway.

The cinema in Wales?

[Rogg]

A bigger venue to get more people in for the business end ie surely preferable to more jobbers

Any ideas for alternative venues?

Would any of the pl venues be available?

For basically a month around Christmas, very unlikely I would think. Plus probably too big anyway.

The cinema in Wales?

Yesyesyesyesyes

[sennafan24]

Obviously the WDF will suffer has a result of this. WDF should get through this by renaming their World Championship to Earth Championship or Universal Championship.

4 women coming

[1205]

I think Sherrock will get a bit tired playing 32 games.

But seriously:

1) increase the number of Pro Tour spots that qualify to increase the number of Tour Card holders that qualify.
Make a Tour Card worth having for more than half the players.
They could just go to (32 + 32) + 32 and have the lower 32 play the current 32 "International" qualifiers.

Or + 16 to 24 and then ,,,

2) Increase the number from the affiliates, especially the stronger, distant affiliates like the CDC and Asian Tour
It's just not realistic to expect marginal players from longer distances to commit to the tour.
Focus instead on strengthening the affiliates so that players are coming over when they're able to make a splash and earn some decent money.
They need Hetas, not Matherses.
The rumored changes to the UK Open with global qualifiers could also help support those players.

[Randall]

A bigger venue to get more people in for the business end ie surely preferable to more jobbers

Any ideas for alternative venues?

Would any of the pl venues be available?

For basically a month around Christmas, very unlikely I would think. Plus probably too big anyway.

True
Might actually need a few darts fans to show up

[DeepFriedRat]

DFR will be beautiful in this thread, I can sense it.

My mind is already salivating at a hypothetical 128 player list for this year just to test

[1205]

Fuck sake I love jobbers but 96 is perfect in the current landscape. 128 will reward utter failure

Even with 96 there’s a lot of international qualifiers you know are gonna get spanked 3-0 in sets

If you add more internationals you could have 2 of them playing

Imagine Alexis Toylo v Leonard Gates or Darius Labanauskas v Jesus Noguera

Classic first round battles

Or have 64 seeds.

Or at least Top 32 OOM + Top 32 Pro Tour play 64 others in the first round.
32 seeds. Random draw of Top 32 Pro Tour against those seeds.
Then random draw of the 64 others against those 64 players.

The overall effect would be adding 32 more games with the top 32 on the OOM.
Start earlier and the winners all play 2 games before Christmas.
But the risk is more one-sided games in the first round.

So maybe they'd prefer adding a 0th round. (Actually bumping the Top 32 OOM to 3rd round)
64 players -> + 32 Pro Tour -> + 32 OOM.
More lower-standard games, but they could be more competitive.
Part of the problem with the current 32 "International" players is that it includes a few low standard players and they're playing the 32 from the Pro Tour so there's more likely to be a gap in level.
To make up the next 64 add more Pro Tour players, and maybe more affiliates.
Then if you have a 0th round of 64 you should have a closer standard and it'll weed out the weaklings and provide a warm-up for the winners before they play the Top 32 of the Pro Tour.

There's enough depth to add more decent players and get reasonable games if you're actually a fan of darts.

Affiliate/lower tour players averaging 83.5+ (not a TC holder):
- Challenge Tour: 105
- Asian Tour: 14
- CDC: 13
- Nordic and Baltic: 9
- Development Tour: 8
- Next Gen: 6 (at least 1 overlap)
- Japan: 4 (mostly overlap with Asian Tour)
- Women's Series: 1 (also on Development Tour)
- China: 1

[DeepFriedRat]

Here's what I could see-

Top 32 seeded
Top 32 Pro Tour protected from the big OOM Top 32
(64)

The rest

Next 16 from the Pro Tour (16)
International Qualifiers (48)

Last 128-

Top 32 vs The Rest (these games play circa 15-19 Dec)
Pro Tour 32 vs The Rest (these games play circa 10-14 Dec)

Last 64-

Top 32/The Rest vs Pro Tour 32/The Rest (these games play 20-23 Dec)

Last 32 onwards as normal after Christmas

[DeepFriedRat]

Here's what I could see-

Top 32 seeded
Top 32 Pro Tour protected from the big OOM Top 32
(64)

The rest

Next 16 from the Pro Tour (16)
International Qualifiers (48)

Last 128-

Top 32 vs The Rest (these games play circa 15-19 Dec)
Pro Tour 32 vs The Rest (these games play circa 10-14 Dec)

Last 64-

Top 32/The Rest vs Pro Tour 32/The Rest (these games play 20-23 Dec)

Last 32 onwards as normal after Christmas

Here's what we could see in theory if we applied this year's current standings to a 128 field under the above criteria.

Top 32

1. Luke Humphries
2. Michael Smith
3. Michael van Gerwen
4. Rob Cross
5. Gerwyn Price
6. Jonny Clayton
7. Dave Chisnall
8. Damon Heta
9. Dimitri van den Bergh
10. Nathan Aspinall
11. Stephen Bunting
12. Peter Wright
13. Chris Dobey
14. Josh Rock
15. Luke Littler
16. Danny Noppert
17. James Wade
18. Ryan Searle
19. Joe Cullen
20. Andrew Gilding
21. Gary Anderson
22. Ross Smith
23. Martin Schindler
24. Gabriel Clemens
25. Brendan Dolan
26. Dirk van Duijvenbode
27. Daryl Gurney
28. Krzysztof Ratajski
29. Raymond van Barneveld
30. Gian van Veen
31. Ricardo Pietreczko
32. Luke Woodhouse

Top Pro Tour Qualifiers (32)

1. Cameron Menzies
2. Ritchie Edhouse
2. Mike de Decker
4. Jermaine Wattimena
5. Alan Soutar
6. Ryan Joyce
7. Kevin Doets
8. Niels Zonneveld
9. Wessel Nijman
10. Callan Rydz
11. Karel Sedlacek
12. Madars Razma
13. Richard Veenstra
14. Wesley Plaisier**
15. Dom Taylor*
16. Martin Lukeman
17. Scott Williams
18. Ricky Evans
19. Stephen Burton
20. William O'Connor
21. Ryan Meikle
22. James Hurrell*
23. Andy Baetens*
24. Thibault Tricole
25. Florian Hempel
26. Jeffrey Sparidaans*
27. Jim Williams
28. Chris Landman
29. Ian White
30. Graham Hall*
31. Mensur Suljovic
32. Mario Vandenbogaerde

The Rest (64)

Next 16 Pro-Tour

1. Berry van Peer
2. Nick Kenny
3. Maik Kuivenhoven
4. Jose de Sousa
5. Matt Campbell
6. Kim Huybrechts
7. Jeffrey de Zwaan
8. Steve Beaton
9. Lee Evans
10. Lukas Wenig*
11. Mickey Mansell
12. Daniel Klose*
13. Connor Scutt
14. Nathan Rafferty
15. Robert Owen
16. Dylan Slevin

International Qualifiers (48)

17. Xiaochen Zong (PDC China PL Winner)
18. Jeffrey de Graaf (PDC NB 1)
19. Darius Labanauskas (PDC NB 2)
20. Japan Series Winner
21. Jeremy Fagg* (DPA Winner)
22. Leonard Gates (CDC USA 1)
23. Dave Cameron (CDC Canada 1)
24. Stowe Buntz (CDC 3)
25. Mark Cleaver* (DPNZ 1)
26. Rashad Sweeting* (CDLC Winner)
27. Alexis Toylo* (Asia Tour 1)
28. Paolo Nebrida (Asia Tour 2)
29. Tomoya Goto (Asia Tour 3)
30. Ryusei Azemoto* Asia Tour 4)
31. Niko Springer* (DT 1)
32. Keane Barry (DT 2)
33. Asia Championship Winner
34. Oceanic Masters Winner
35. Noa-Lynn van Leuven* (Womens Series 1)
36. Fallon Sherrock (Womens Series 2)
37. Christian Kist (CT 1)
38. Danny Jansen (CT 2)
39. Indian Qualifier
40. African Qualifier
41. PDC Europe Next Gen/Super League
42. West Europe Qualifier
43. East Europe Qualifier
44. World Youth Champion
45. PDPA Qualifier
46. PDPA Qualifier
47. PDPA Qualifier

Possible New International Qualifiers to get up to 64

48. Andy Boulton (CT 3)
49. Jimmy van Schie* (CT 4)
50. Sebastian Bialecki (DT 3)
51. Charlie Manby* (DT 4)
52. Mikuru Suzuki (Womens Series 3)
53. Lisa Ashton (Womens Series 4)
54. Jim Long (CDC Canada 2)
55. Johan Engstrom* (PDC NB 3)
56. Oskar Lukasiak* (PDC NB 4)
57. Man Lok Leung (Asia Tour 5)
58. Sandro Eric Sosing (Asia Tour 6)
59. Brenton Lloyd (DPA 2)
60. Kayden Milne (DPNZ 2)
61. Japan Series Runner-Up
62. CDC Continental Cup Winner
63. South Europe Qualifier
64. Non TC Holder/Rileys Qualifier

* denotes debutants

[Emulsfier]

Here's what I could see-

Top 32 seeded
Top 32 Pro Tour protected from the big OOM Top 32
(64)

The rest

Next 16 from the Pro Tour (16)
International Qualifiers (48)

Last 128-

Top 32 vs The Rest (these games play circa 15-19 Dec)
Pro Tour 32 vs The Rest (these games play circa 10-14 Dec)

Last 64-

Top 32/The Rest vs Pro Tour 32/The Rest (these games play 20-23 Dec)

Last 32 onwards as normal after Christmas

I think your avatar might be buggered mate.

[thegentle]

Surprised this is happening so soon, it took over a decade to go from 64/72 to 96. Kind of annoyed that the symmetry of 64 OoM and ProTour qualifiers out of 128 TCH will go, but I like 1205’s suggestions

[The Thorn]

Gets your pussy wet doesn"t it

[Addicks Fan]

This just seems like a money-making exercise, with the added bonus of making a tour card a bit more attractive. Far too long for a tournament that already takes forever. It's a bit ludicrous that you can play your last three matches (the longest matches) over 3 days, and the other 3 or 4 could take the best part of 4 weeks!

[Dfc180]

I always think the world championships should always be the best players, not the most players. More players and more games doesn't make for a better spectacle, just overkill

[thegentle]

I always think the world championships should always be the best players, not the most players. More players and more games doesn't make for a better spectacle, just overkill

The best players will still be there, and we will absolutely watch the hell out of it though. I get the concern when people talk about too many games in football, the darts players will be fine lol

[Dfc180]

I always think the world championships should always be the best players, not the most players. More players and more games doesn't make for a better spectacle, just overkill

The best players will still be there, and we will absolutely watch the hell out of it though. I get the concern when people talk about too many games in football, the darts players will be fine lol

I will still watch it but I'm not overly keen on watching jacques labre vs nitin kumar in a best of 5 sets (for example)

[sennafan24]

I always think the world championships should always be the best players, not the most players. More players and more games doesn't make for a better spectacle, just overkill

The best players will still be there, and we will absolutely watch the hell out of it though. I get the concern when people talk about too many games in football, the darts players will be fine lol

I will still watch it but I'm not overly keen on watching jacques labre vs nitin kumar in a best of 5 sets (for example)

+1

[tungsten tossers]

I always think the world championships should always be the best players, not the most players. More players and more games doesn't make for a better spectacle, just overkill

The best players will still be there, and we will absolutely watch the hell out of it though. I get the concern when people talk about too many games in football, the darts players will be fine lol

I will still watch it but I'm not overly keen on watching jacques labre vs nitin kumar in a best of 5 sets (for example)

+1

+2

Malt, on the other hand will have his Popcorn and tissues at the ready