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Q Tour
Snooker tournament From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Q Tour, officially the WPBSA Q Tour, is a second-tier series of snooker tournaments immediately below the level of the World Snooker Tour, consisting of amateur and ex-professional players to compete for qualifying places to the main tour. It is organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).
Originally known as the Minor Tour, UK Tour and then the Challenge Tour,[1] the WPBSA then operated a three-level circuit with the professional main tour and the pro-am Open Tour until the end of the 2002–03 season. There was a 14-year hiatus for the event when it was partially replaced by the International Open Series (PIOS) and subsequently the Players Tour Championship from the 2004–05 season, until the 2018–19 season where it was revived as an amateur-only tour.
The series was expanded and rebranded as the Q Tour Europe from the 2021–22 season, along with other regional Q Tour franchises to form a full-fledged global development tour.[2][3]
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History
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Early editions
The concept of a secondary professional tour was first experimented with in the 1994–95 season in the form of the WPBSA Minor Tour to provide competition for lower ranked professionals, but only ran for a season.[4] A two-tiered tour structure was formally adopted from the 1997–98 season due to over-subscription of the Main Tour, where all professionals can compete in the UK Tour and the best performers could earn promotion.[1] From the 1999–2000 season, entry was limited to players not competing on the Main Tour[1] and exclusive membership was implemented from the 2001–02 season.[5] From the 2000–01 season it was rebranded the Challenge Tour.[4]
In its first season there were five events, but the number was reduced to four in the following seasons.[4] There were two official maximum breaks at the UK Tour, both in the 1998–99 season; the first was made by Stuart Bingham against Barry Hawkins in Event 3, and the second by Nick Dyson against Adrian Gunnell in Event 4.[1]
After the split with the English amateur governing body EASB,[6] PIOS became another second-tier tournament, and the Challenge Tour was subsequently axed upon completion of the 2004–05 season.
Pro-am replacement
The Pro Challenge Series was introduced for the 2009–10 season, all tour players being eligible to play.[7] Only four of the planned seven events were played before the series was axed due to low player participation.[8] The following 2010–11 season saw the Pro Challenge Series replaced by the Players Tour Championship, a series of minor-ranking tournaments that were open to the entire professional membership with an amateur leg, effectively making it an open tour.[9] They also counted towards the rankings for professionals on the Main Tour,[10] and any player who finished in the top 8 of the PTC Order of Merit was guaranteed a tour card for the following season.
Return to amateur-only event and expansion
The Challenge Tour in its initial format was revived in the 2018–19 season, consisting of ten events each played by only amateur players over one or two days; 72 players (top 64 of the Q School Order of Merit, plus eight wildcards) were fielded and there was prize money. The top two players from the Challenge Tour Order of Merit received a main tour invitation card for the following season.[2]
From the 2020–21 season, the Challenge Tour was rebranded as the Q Tour (retrospectively known as Q Tour Europe).[3][11] It was expanded to other regions in the form of Q Tour Global from the 2023–24 season.
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Format
Q Tour events are generally played over three days with the first day being an open qualifying day.
In a Q Tour Europe event, the main draw starts on the second day when the 16 open qualifiers are joined by the 48 seeded players to form a 64-player knockout competition. It consists of the top 32 eligible players from the Q School Order of Merit, another top eight junior players who are not already qualified, and the last eight places from the Asia-Oceania version of Q School.[12] In other regional events, entrants are largely local players and do not involve seedings.
Prize money
Q Tour Europe
Each Q Tour Europe event featured a prize fund of £30,000, with the winner receiving £6,000.
- Winner: £6,000
- Runner-up: £3,000
- Semi-final: £2,000
- Quarter-final: £1,250
- Last 16: £750
- Last 32: £350
- Total: £30,000
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Event finals
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Order of Merit winners
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See also
References
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