2020 PDC Challenge Tour

[Rogg]

Starts, well, in 6 days. A glittering path to Players Championships, Ally Pally, tour cards, free Q-School entry, UK Open spots, all the rest of it.

There's an extra weekend this year: 24 events. Menzies said to Dan Dawson the other day that it's become a darts life in itself. We'll get a good idea on Saturday of which Q-School failures are serious and which fences need painted. Sort yourself out.


25-26 January
PC 1-10
11-12 April
6-7 June
11-12 July
15-16 August
19-20 September

[thegentle]

Starts, well, in 6 days. A glittering path to Players Championships, Ally Pally, tour cards, free Q-School entry, UK Open spots, all the rest of it.

There's an extra weekend this year: 24 events. Menzies said to Dan Dawson the other day that it's become a darts life in itself. We'll get a good idea on Saturday of which Q-School failures are serious and which fences need painted. Sort yourself out.


25-26 January
PC 1-10
11-12 April
6-7 June
11-12 July
15-16 August
19-20 September

Good to see that the first weekend isn't as crucial as it was last year (Edhouse finished 13th on the Challenge Tour last year yet by winning one at the right time he managed to play almost all the ProTour while players who finished higher than him were locked out), though that first weekend is still a biggie.

Weekends 2 and 4 clash with ET 4 and ET 10 this year, could mess with the plans of some jobbers, although those from the UK and Ireland and South/West Europe only have a possible two spots between them this year

[Rogg]

However, following a record entry for the 2020 PDC Qualifying Schools, more players than ever will become eligible to play on the Challenge Tour this year.

Should entries reach a level which make running two events per day impractical, one event will be played per day and the remaining two events will be rearranged.

https://www.pdc.tv/news/2020/01/20/pdc- ... our-update

[The Ginge Reaper]

Absolute garbage. 5 days notice that they may be halving the number of events you have already weighed out travel and hotel costs for.

[thegentle]

Absolute garbage. 5 days notice that they may be halving the number of events you have already weighed out travel and hotel costs for.

And just two events could determine whether you can play in PC1-10. Don't ace those events? Bye bye any realistic chances of making the World's via the ProTour...

[cannibal]

PDC may well be on its way to cocking this one up. Not like they had any clue there was going to be huge numbers at Q school.

Welcome to the PDC former BDO player. Here we can cock things up too, but on a bigger scale and throw more money around doing it. That is how we define professional.

[Rogg]

Didn't they once try to limit numbers to the top x in the Q-School merit tables? And then didn't because everyone was correctly seething about it.

Wait to see what the numbers are for the weekend but looks like this tour is now way too popular for its traditional shape and needs surgery one way or the other.

[Rogg]

[Fiss Plaps]

It has hit the point where the CT system needs a restructure. But I'm struggling to work out how it can be changed in such a way that it still works.

[SuperSwede]

It has hit the point where the CT system needs a restructure. But I'm struggling to work out how it can be changed in such a way that it still works.

It still only rewarding 2 cards despite numbers and quality rising suggests to me they don't particularly care.

[Rogg]

It still only rewarding 2 cards despite numbers and quality rising suggests to me they don't particularly care.

Listening to Bazza on the subject, I think Challenge Tourers should be happy that there are as many as two cards on offer.

[Zeyes]

Didn't they once try to limit numbers to the top x in the Q-School merit tables? And then didn't because everyone was correctly seething about it.

I think you're thinking of them trying to limit the UK Open Qualifiers a couple of years back.

They did have to reschedule tournaments on the lesser tours hastily in Reading once IIRC, when the entry numbers went past what the 16 boards in that location could accommodate. Did the same thing there, one instead of two tournaments per day, make-up weekend at a later date.

Can't find the original pdc.tv article anymore, but here it is over the road from back then: http://www.tsod.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13740

This was back when they played two youth events on Saturdays and two CT's on Sundays, rather than 4-tourney blocks for a single tour.

[oche balboa]

Cap it at 256 players for Challenge Tour. Have 2 events each day. no problem

Of course the rest would go on the waiting list.

[cannibal]

It still only rewarding 2 cards despite numbers and quality rising suggests to me they don't particularly care.

Listening to Bazza on the subject, I think Challenge Tourers should be happy that there are as many as two cards on offer.

I think Hearn likes to chase the next big thing for the adrenaline and the reward. Meanwhile the slow and steady approach is how most business survive. At heart Hearn is a promoter a business man second.

Tour cards from the CT is obvious way to go if your looking for better more reliable proven players. But guess what those players are faces we have seen on the tour before. More glitz in that player no one ever saw before who came thru some two bit qualifier and knocks out some seeded pro.

But of course Hearn might have forgotten Cross and Asp who came thru the more reliable old CT route.

[SuperSwede]

It still only rewarding 2 cards despite numbers and quality rising suggests to me they don't particularly care.

Listening to Bazza on the subject, I think Challenge Tourers should be happy that there are as many as two cards on offer.

He is big on the "we don't reward failure" line and he sees CT as a crumb to players that have failed to win through Q school. Motivated no doubt by the fact you can build and sustain a 4 day hype around Q school but for most of the year most of the audience pays zero attention to the CT.

Ultimately he knows that cream rises and talent finds a way no matter what via whatever route it needs to so he is more about having more avenues open.

[Rogg]

Mitchell tweeting a fair bit about the weekend and beyond. https://mobile.twitter.com/scottydogdart ...he topped the averages you know!

Sounds rather bewildered but confirms his plan to do all 6 Challenge Tour weekends.

[Zeyes]

He is big on the "we don't reward failure" line and he sees CT as a crumb to players that have failed to win through Q school.

Yeah, that's been a recurring theme for as long as the tour card system has existed. Heck, it took major player complaining just to let the non-card holders into the UK Open qualifiers back in 2011 when Q School first ran - the original plan was to be completely shot of anyone who didn't make it into the 128 tour spots. The Challenge Tour similarly seems to be seen not as a valuable foundation, just a necessary evil.

I suppose it's partly motivated by Hearn thinking this lower-tier stuff isn't really the PDC's job to begin with. The Development Tour can at least be justified as a player discovery tool (ditto the international tours the PDC supports), but I doubt the Challenge Tour with all its retread players would exist at all if the BDO hadn't been such a mess for so long.

[Potter's Lake]

You buy a Q-School lottery ticket, and if your numbers don't come up, hang on to it, because later in the year we'll draw out two serial numbers as a bonus prize.

To be fair when the BDO finally fucks off and dies I'm okay with the Challenge Tour expanding a la the PC Finals and it becoming a de facto amateur tournament.

[oche balboa]

He is big on the "we don't reward failure" line and he sees CT as a crumb to players that have failed to win through Q school.

Yeah, that's been a recurring theme for as long as the tour card system has existed. Heck, it took major player complaining just to let the non-card holders into the UK Open qualifiers back in 2011 when Q School first ran - the original plan was to be completely shot of anyone who didn't make it into the 128 tour spots. The Challenge Tour similarly seems to be seen not as a valuable foundation, just a necessary evil.

I suppose it's partly motivated by Hearn thinking this lower-tier stuff isn't really the PDC's job to begin with. The Development Tour can at least be justified as a player discovery tool (ditto the international tours the PDC supports), but I doubt the Challenge Tour with all its retread players would exist at all if the BDO hadn't been such a mess for so long.

Hearn doesnt really want the Challenge Tour. But knows that the minute the bigger guys withdraw it would not make the pro tour look good without 128 playing in it.

[oche balboa]

256 Challenge Tour Cardholders in my opinion (Based on amount of entries in each school)

156 Uk & 100 Euro

Then the rest on the waiting list

A lot of fair players would miss out