This was posted by Ian Burns on Facebook:
So the players have got information about the draw. It should be published soon on WST site, I reckon.
Update – 25.06.2021
The announcement by WST is now out:
Rocket To Face On Yee In Championship League
Ronnie O’Sullivan will start his 2021/22 season in a group which includes Ng On Yee in the Championship League, which gets underway on July 18.
The first world ranking event of the season will see 128 players at the Morningside Arena, Leicester. Stage one will run from 18-23 July, 26-30 July and 2-6 August. Stage two takes place from August 9-12, with the third and final stage on August 13.
Hong Kong’s On Yee is one of two women competing on the World Snooker Tour in the coming season, alongside Reanne Evans. The group featuring O’Sullivan, On Yee, Mark Joyce and Ian Burns will take place on July 20.
World number one Judd Trump has been drawn into a group with Anthony Hamilton, Lee Walker and Rod Lawler on Friday August 6. John Higgins’ group has an international flavour as, on July 27, he will take on Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham, Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo and Iran’s Soheil Vahedi.
On July 29, defending champion Kyren Wilson will be up against Sam Craigie, Ben Hancorn and Dylan Emery.
Each group of four players will be contested with a round-robin format. Each match is four frames, though if the score reaches 3-0 then the fourth frame will not be played.
Players will be awarded three points for a win and one point for a drawn match. The group table standings will be determined by the following criteria, in this order:
1) Most points
2) Net frame difference
3) Result of match between the two players in question (should three or more players be tied then a mini table will be produced using the criteria above).
4) Highest break in the group.
5) If the highest break is also tied, the next highest break made by the players in question will be used.The 32 group winners in stage one will go through to stage two.
Prize money
Stage one
Group winner: £3,000
2nd place: £2,000
3rd place: £1,000
4th place: £0Stage two
Group winner: £4,000
2nd place: £3,000
3rd place: £2,000
4th place: £1,000Stage three
Group winner: £6,000
2nd place: £4,000
3rd place: £2,000
4th place: £1,000Final
Winner: £20,000
Runner-up: £10,000Total prize money: £328,000
Details of how to watch will be announced soon.
In total, 18 professionals haven’t entered: Mark Selby, Neil Robertson, Jack Lisowski, Ding Junhui, Kurt Maflin, Xiao Guodong, Li Hang, Liang Wenbo, Lyu Haotian, Jamie O’Neill, Tian Pengfei, Fan Zhengyi, Lei Peifan, Marco Fu, Wu Yize, Xu Si, Zhang Anda and of course Stephen Hendry.
Unsurpsiringly, 12 Chinese players are spending a bit of extra time at home, although curiously not the ones I had heard. It’s quite likely some will have travelling complications and not show. I also expect some top players will have second thoughts – this isn’t exactly a major competition.
Thus so far there are 24 top-ups from the Q School list. Remarkably, these are precisely the top 24 on that list – nobody has declined the offer. Those that are working must have an understanding boss, as it’s not possible to know in advance which of the 16 days they will be called to play.
I suppose I should never complain when Ronnie chooses to play, but part of me kinda wishes he wouldn’t enter all of these championship league style events. His poor performance in best of 3 matches last season dropped his career winning percentage beneath 75%…
This was in a different comp and he had serious issues with his cue. He wanted to get it to john Parris ASAP and didn’t try to win. I’m actually certain that he made sure to be last of the group, so that he wouldn’t deprive some other guy who was trying their hardest from a bit of prize money