The draw for the 2 Asia-Oceania Q-school events was made and shared on Facebook in the very early hours (in Europe) this morning.
Snooker.org has worked out the draws for you!
Here they are:
Event 1: 1-7 June 2022
Event 2: 9-16 June 2022
Luo Honghao seems to be the only Chinese player in the draw. That surprises me a bit but I can understand why he would choose to enter these events rather than the UK ones. The field may not be as strong and it may look like a better chance to go through.
I’m happily surprised by the turn-up: 69 players is not bad at all considering the recent years’ circumstances and the fact that it’s held for the first time.
Those who have been following snooker for some years will recognise a few names in that draw most notably Dechawat Poomjaeng … but also Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Thor Chuan Leong, Amir Sarkosh and Hamza Akbar.
Yes but objectively it’s a very weak field. I’m disappointed there’s no Kei Kamihashi, or any of the reasonable players from Myanmar.
I assume that the regional centres (China, Hong Kong, India, even Thailand) had planned their Q School campaign before this Asian Q School was announced. So we have the absurd situation where the best players are struggling in the UK Q School, whereas inferior players will be representing Asia on the 2022-23 professional tour, and getting clobbered. Luo Honghao (probably privately funded) is the only player with any pedigree, and there are 4 places.
If it’s the case that relegated professionals (Sunny Akani, Gao Yang, Soheil Vahedi, …) are ‘expected’ to enter the UK Q School because they have been living predominantly in the UK, then that’s a ridiculous system. What will happen is that players qualifying from Asia get relegated after 2 years, but then a fresh set replace them who are even less equipped. Whilst it’s OK to have players representing regions for development purposes, a system that constantly feeds unprepared players into a brutal tour, but then throws away any improvements they made, can only do more harm than good.
And I’ve already demonstrated that the knockout draw structure used by both the UK and Asian Q School isn’t the fairest option.
Are we getting the best players from these Q Schools? No.
Nevertheless, the draw was efficient, and I’m sure the Thai organisers will stage an excellent event. The problem wasn’t caused by them.
I agree with you about this instance BUT don’t you think that the Asian federations will learn from the experience? They will know that these Q-schools will be held in coming years and they might adapt their strategy. There are only 4 places, but maybe they might consider getting some of their relegated players back in Asia to play in these events. Of course, the rule is that you have to live in Asia and it will be interesting to see how this is “understood” by WST. Would a player whose family lives in China, who has a house there but stays most of the time in the UK for obvious reasons, be eligible? Also if Gao Yang – for instance – failed to re-qualify immediately, would he be advised to stay in the UK, maybe play as a top-up, or will he be advised to come back to China, play in the CBSA events and then try to get back on tour via the easier Asian Q-schools?