2016 World Series – Overview

The Simonis World Series 2016 is an exciting new concept from the IPA, giving both Professional and Amateur players the opportunities to play in new upcoming and established Blackball playing countries. It is an opportunity to showcase the talents of the IPA to a new audience, helping raise the profile of both the players and the IPA.

Professional Players (including new Professionals for 2016)

Six new Professional events have been created, which will be played over three weekends (Sat & Sun) in early 2016. Each event will be played down to the semi finals. The four remaining players will then play the final stages in the relevant country later in the year.

Flights and accommodation are included for all the semi finalists.

The four finalists (along with the qualifying amateur) will play in a Team Challenge event against a select Team from the host country, and there will also be an Open singles event.

Note – Any new Professional player who wishes to participate in the WS Pro qualifiers, will be classed as professional for the World Championships.

Amateur Players (Priority given to current/new IPA Tour players)

There will be six qualifier events, which will be played over the same weekends as the Professional events and at the same venues.

Entries are limited to the first 32 paid players ONLY who are currently on the IPA Tour or who are signed up for 2016 (with deposit paid).

Any places not filled 2 weeks prior to the qualifier will be opened up to external entries.

The winners package will include flights and accommodation to the relevant country, plus prize monies.

You will take part in the Team Challenge event and the Open singles event.

Event Details:

	Professional			Amateur
Entry Fee	£100		Entry Fee	£40

Winner	£2,000	(+ Flights/accom)	Winner	£200	(+ Flights/accom)
Runner Up	£900	(+ Flights/accom)	Runner Up	£150
Semi Final	£400	(+ Flights/accom)	3rd	£110
5th/6th	£200		4th	£90
7th/8th	£150		5th/6th	£60
9th-12th	£90		7th/8th	£40
13th-16th	£60

Total	£5,000		Total	£750

Qualifying Dates/Venues

Reading Pool & Snooker	16^th & 17th Jan	Sat – Malta	Sun – Gibraltar
Leeds 147 Club	20th & 21st Feb	Sat – Southern Ireland	Sun – South Africa
Reading Pool & Snooker	23^rd & 24^th April	Sat – Norway	Sun – Northern Ireland

Final stages

Gibraltar	25^th – 27^th March
South Africa	1^st – 7^th September
Malta	16^th-18^th September
Southern Ireland	23^rd-25^th September
Northern Ireland	18^th – 20^th November
Norway	2^nd-4^th December

Event Formats

Location	Professionals	Amateurs
Eire	Best of 5 sets, each set best of 5	Best of 3 sets, each set best of 5
Malta	race to 9 frames	race to 7 frames
Gibraltar	Best of 3 sets, each set best of 7	Best of 3 sets, each set best of 5
Northern Ireland	As Southern Ireland – redrawn	As Southern Ireland - redrawn
Norway	Race to 8 frames – Redrawn after every round	Race to 6 frames – Redrawn after every round
South Africa	Players vote	Players vote

All events are double elimination. There is no seeding. These are ranking events.

Polo tops will be provided for the finalists which must be worn for the Pro & Team Challenge events.

The Pro qualifiers will be played on Simonis cloth. The final stages will also be played on Simonis, together with the Team Challenge.

There will be a separate World Series ranking, which will feed into the main Pro rankings. It is hoped that there will be a special prize for the overall winner of the World Series.