World Rankings - History and Development

Prior to the early 1980s there was only one tournament open to all professionals and that was the world championship. There has always been seeding of a sort to keep the top players apart. The reigning champion was seeded one and the runner-up, two. After the 1976 championships it was decided to introduce a ranking system which would be the basis of the seeding for future championships although the top two seeds would still be selected as before. Performances in the previous three world championships were taken into account which meant that effectively, the 1974 championship was the first event to carry ranking points. For each year, the champion got five points, the runner-up four, semi-finalists three down to one for losers in the last 16. On this basis, the first ranking list, taking into account performances in the 1974, 75 and 76 championships was as follows:

This system remained unaltered up to and including those issued after the 1981/82 season. For the next season, two new ranking events were added to the circuit, the Jameson International and the Professional Players Tournament. At the end of that season points were awarded for these new events in the same basis as before but the most recent world championship carried double points. For the 1983/4 season, the Lada Classic, which had been held as an invitation tournament, formerly known as the Wilson Classic, since 1980, was made a full ranking event, open to all.

It was all change in the season 1984. Firstly, two more tournaments were added bringing the total to six. These were the UK Championship which, although it had been on the circuit since 1977, had previously excluded most overseas players, and the British Open. Secondly a completely new points system was devised.

Over the intervening years, the number of players on the circuit had increased steadily and there were now over 100 on the ranking list although not all of them played every tournament. Those ranked 65 and above played in the first round producing 32 winners to play those ranked 33-64 in the second round with the top 32 joining in the third round. This is similar to the system for the draws still used today. It was slightly different for the world championship with the top 16 excluded until the final stages. One ranking point was awarded to those who reached the last 32, two for the last sixteen and so on up to six for the winner. For those who went out in earlier rounds different categories of points were issued. First round losers got one frame point for each frame won, second round losers one ‘A’ point and one Merit point for those who reached the third round. The same points were awarded whether a player was seeded into a particular round or not. In the world championship it was roughly the same except that the winner got 10 points, runner-up 8 and then 6, 4, 2, and 1 for those who lost in the last 32. In this event, top sixteen ranked players who lost at this stage got 2 Merit points, not a ranking point. Only two years events were now included.

When calculating the final position, all those with ranking points came above those with only merit points or less, and then ‘A’ points and frame points. This meant that a player could have just one last 32 finish during the whole season and finish in the top 50 or so above those who had been more consistent. It did however help those newcomers who only had one season to make their mark as no such thing as starter points existed in those days and they had to do their best to score as much in one season as the lower ranked players did in two.

As the number of players continued to increase, the WPBSA decided to restrict the playing members to a total of 128. At the end of the 1986/87 season the bottom ten played of against ten who had come through a qualifying system. In most cases the new players were successful in ousting the existing ones.

Players such as Gary Wilkinson, Darren Morgan, James Wattana, Nigel Bond, Alan McManus and Ken Doherty all entered the main tour in this way. Most of the new players were able to keep there places and gradually the new breed of players took over from the older but less successful of the old guard. Those who were replaced were still able to play in the Embassy providing they retained their membership.

The same six tournaments made up the ranking tour until 1988/9 when events in Canada and Europe were added. The following season the number of tournaments increased to ten. Canada was dropped but there were new events in Dubai, Asia and Hong Kong (a last minute substitute for Australia). Since then the events have changed nearly every season but Europe and the Far East have continued to feature.

The sport continued to flourish and it became obvious that there were a lot of very good players who were unable to break into the professional ranks. From the beginning of the 1991/2 season, therefore, the WPBSA decided to open up the tour to anyone who paid the entrance fee. This resulted in some 500 new players on the tour although not all of them retained their membership at the end of the season. Many of today’s top players entered the paid ranks at this time.

At the end of that first season of the enlarged tour which, incidentally, resulted in some players having to play numerous qualifying rounds if they were to reach the final stages of a tournament, the points system was radically changed for the first time for eight years. The system of merit points and ‘A’ points was dropped as was only designed to cover a field of 128 players. As an interim measure the old system was run in parallel to a new system for the 1991/2 season. From the last 128 onwards, the new system awarded a fixed number of points per round. There were 600 for the Embassy, 500 for the UK right down to 100 for the smaller tournaments. For each round prior to the last 128 the points were half those awarded in the subsequent round. At the end of the season the ranking list was determined primarily using the old system. The new points were used to differentiate when all other points were equal. Only the new style points, however were carried forward to the next season. It was going to be a great achievement for any of the new players to reach the top 100 but in the event some twenty did. The best of those was Peter Ebdon who finished at No.47. Others included Anthony Hamilton, Joe Swail and Dave Harold.

For the 1992/3 season itself, the points awarded were changed again and instead of five different levels, there were only three. The world championship had 600 points per round with 6000 to the winner, The UK 500 with the winner getting 4500 and the remainder, 400 and 3600 for winning. The points in the earlier qualifying rounds reduced as before. For this season only there were four minor ranking tournaments which awarded 330 to the winner with proportionate points down the line.

With a few minor alterations, this system remained until the end of the 1996/7 season. The most significant of these changes was in 1994/5 when the points awarded to the winner of the world and UK championship to 6400 and 4800 respectively. Perhaps more importantly, the points differential from round to round was changed so that in stead of the points increasing by a fixed amount each round, the gap was bigger the further you went. For example in the majority of tournaments the winner got 1300 more than the runner-up with the losing semi-finalists 675 less than the runner-up and so on. This is basically the system still in use today even tough the points values have changed a few times. They were increased again in 1996/7 to 8100 for winning the Embassy, 6075 for the UK and 4560 for the rest. The points for other rounds were increased slightly as well.

During all this time there were over 100 new players joining the tour each season although roughly the same number were leaving finding they either were not good enough or simply could not afford the time. The qualifying school was now taking up almost three months with very little reward for the players involved unless they went all the way to the televised stages. It was therefore decided that the main tour would be restricted to 96 players from the 1997/8 season onwards. The remaining players would be offered a secondary tour from which they could qualify for the main tour the next season. All professionals however would still be entitled to enter the world championship.

The top 64 from the ranking list at the end of the1996/7 season automatically qualified. The rest were selected by means of four qualifying tournaments. The first involved the next 128 highest ranked players with eight qualifying for the tour. Their places in the next qualifying event were taken by the next eight in the rankings and so on until 32 had qualified in total. For 1998/99 the number of players was increased to 198 by the addition of some 70 odd players from the secondary, UK Tour and a number of overseas players plus the amateur world champion and runner-up. Six selected overseas players were exempt for the earlier qualifying rounds.

The powers that be seemed unable to make up their minds about what was the ideal number of players on the tour as it was all-change yet again for the 1999/2000 season. Only the top 106 in the rankings were guaranteed a place on the main tour plus the top twenty from the UK tour who were not already qualified and just two overseas qualifiers making a total of 128.

A decision was made that from the 2001/2 season there would be a 96 player tour with only the top 64 from the previous year sure of a place. To give as many players as possible the chance of making that top 64, the 2000/01 ranking tour was to be increased to 160, including all those on the 1999/2000 tour, eight overseas qualifiers and the rest from the UK tour.

The was a further change to the points system for 2000/01. The UK championship, for so long regarded as second only in importance to the world championship, a fact recognised by giving it more points than any other tournament except the Embassy, was to be joined by the British Open and the Asian Masters on that second level of points with the rest forming a third level. In addition, the top 16 were to be seeded through to the final 32 of all events. Previously this only happened for the world championship and the overseas events. There was also a small increase in to the actual points awarded with the world champion now getting 8500, the second tier tournament winners, 6400 and 4800 to the rest with corresponding increases through the rounds.

Will there be more changes in the future? No doubt there will. There have certainly been many changes to the system over the twenty four years since it was introduced but these changes have been a process of trial and error and have, in many cases, been forced by other changes in the structure of the game.

The main purpose of any ranking system is to accurately reflect the comparative performances of the players and to do this in a way which is as fair as possible to them all. At the same time the system must allow new players to progress and not give an unfair advantage to those who have been established for many years. The present system probably is still not perfect but it goes a long way to achieving its desired objectives.

Chris Turner

September 2000