FANTASY SNOOKER 2017/2018 LAUNCH

With the first big event of the snooker season, the China Championship, just a few days away it is time to launch this season's Fantasy Snooker competition. With a new season comes a few additional rules, that with the existing rules will add to the excitement of the competition.


NEW RULES: 

-  The first new rule of the season is the addition of 3 "captain’s picks" to use during the season. Captain’s picks can only be used on one of the two players that you pick for a tournament and these will earn double points for the selected player. Captain’s picks cannot be used in the UK, Masters and World Championships (Double Points events in their own right) but with a maximum of three to use this effectively means there will be double the amount of double points events this year. 

     - As well as picking two players for each tournament in turn, ALL participants must pick two "season long picks". These players are picked before the first event (China Championship) and cannot be changed at any point of the season, so pick wisely. The catch with these season long picks is that one of them must come into the China Championship with a world ranking between 33 and 64 and the other must be a player outside of the current top 64. These players will earn points throughout the season in addition to tournament specific picks (excluding qualifying events or heldover matches). Current world rankings can be found here: http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?template=31

     - Finally, I will be playing along in a "Beat the Boss" style. What this means is that I will pick players in the same way as you competitors in order to set a bench mark. At the end of each event players will then get bonus points based on how they perform Vs myself. For example beating me by 1-10 will gain 2 bonus points and beating me by 11-20 points will gain 3 bonus points, with a winning margin of over 20 points gaining 5 bonus points. Anyone who earns 20 or more points less than me in a "gameweek" will receive a 1 point penalty. 

       CONTINUING RULES:

        -  Participants can pick any two players they wish, but each participant can only pick the same player a maximum of three times over the course of the seasons featured events. 

TOURNAMENTS TO BE INCLUDED

        - China Championship

        - Indian Open

        - World Open

        - European Masters

        - English Open

        - International Championship 

        - Champion of Champions

        - Irish Open

        - UK Championships (DOUBLE POINTS)

        - Scottish Open

        - Masters (DOUBLE POINTS) 

        - German Masters

        - World Grand Prix

        - Welsh Open

        - Players Championship 

        - China Open

        - World Championships (DOUBLE POINTS)

POINTS SCORING:

-   Match Win: 5 points

-   Match Win by 3 frames or better (5-2, 4-1, etc): 2 bonus points

-   Player Century: 2 points

-   147 break by player: 5 bonus points

-   Semi-Finallist: 2 points 

-   Runner-Up 5 points

-   Tournament Winner: 10 points

The final task is for me to pick my players for the first event as part of "Beat the Boss". 

For the China Championship my selections are: Stephen Maguire and Michael Holt

Meanwhile, my season selection from the 33-64 ranking bracket is: Hossein Vafei 

Finally, my season selection from the Outside Top 64 ranking bracket is: Robin Hull 

The deadline for all China Championship and season-long picks is before the first matches in the China Championship in the early hours of Wednesday 16th August.