19-553: The World Doubles Championship , also known as the Hofmeister World Doubles (1982–1986) or the Fosters World Doubles (1987) for sponsorship purposes, was a non- ranking team snooker tournament held from 1982 to 1987 as the major doubles event. Created to capitalise on the growing popularity of televised snooker, as well as to offer a slightly different version of the game, the event
38-399: A prize money list for the 2014–15 season , with prize money earnings in events carrying ranking status contributing to a players ranking. 1976%E2%80%9377 snooker season The 1976–77 snooker season was a series of snooker tournaments played between September 1976 and May 1977. The following table outlines the results for the ranking and the invitational events. John Virgo
57-472: A seeded player lose their first match they would receive only half the points allocated to the non-seeded losers in that round. The World Championship continued to award more points than the other events but under the "open era" system the allocations often varied between other events too, with the UK Championship traditionally having the second-highest tariff. The ranking point schedule was replaced by
76-484: A tie-break when players were on equal ranking points. When the game went open for the 1991–92 season , the ranking point allocations (devised by the WPBSA chairman on the back of a cigarette pack) were altered by several factors to accommodate the influx of new players. The tie-break system was dropped but the system remained basically the same with players awarded incrementally more points for each successive round; should
95-635: The 2010–11 season , rankings have been updated after every ranking tournament. The world rankings were formerly based on point tariffs set by the governing body, but this system transitioned to a prize money list for the 2014–15 season . The rankings determine the seedings for tournaments on the World Snooker Tour , organised by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), and who gets an invite to prestigious invitational events. Tournaments open to
114-441: The 2010–11 season , the system was revised to incorporate ranking updates after every tournament—instead of once a season—in an effort to make the rankings more reflective of current form. The current system utilises a two-year "rolling" format where points from tournaments in the current season replace the points from corresponding tournaments of two seasons ago. The seedings for tournaments change from tournament to tournament:
133-507: The World Snooker Tour . First introduced in the 1976–77 season , world rankings are maintained by the sport's governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association . Each player's world ranking is based on their performances in designated ranking tournaments over the preceding two years. Until the 2009–10 season , rankings were updated once annually, following the World Snooker Championship . Since
152-583: The "Order of Merit" for the 1975–76 season . The system was very basic, with seedings based on the results of the last three World Championships, and rankings were formally introduced in 1976 after the World Championship for the 1976–77 season using the same criteria. By the 1982–83 season many more tournaments were being contested, and it seemed reasonable to take those results into consideration too. The Professional Players Tournament and International Open were awarded ranking status, working on
171-469: The 1975–76 season and based on just World Championship results, awarded the winner five points, the runner-up four, semi-finalists three, and so on down to one point for players who lost in the last 16. The world rankings, introduced in the following year, used the same allocation. Subsequent tournaments that were assigned ranking status worked on the same system but with the World Championship from 1983 onwards carrying double points. The ranking point allocation
190-417: The WPBSA is assigned a ranking, whether they are active on the circuit or not. Prior to the introduction of the world rankings, the previous year's winner and runner-up were allocated the top seedings in the World Championship, held annually. As more tournaments were added to the calendar and more players joined the circuit in the 1970s, it became increasingly necessary to seed the tournaments, precipitating
209-430: The battle for the number one spot, top 16 places, and tour qualification intensified. The introduction of the rolling rankings in 2010 facilitated updates to the seeding list throughout the season. Various "cut-off" points are selected at convenient stages during the season where the rankings are "frozen" and used as seedings for the next few tournaments, until the next revision. The original "Order of Merit", created for
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#1732790388509228-451: The defending champion is allocated the top seed followed by the reigning world champion and the remaining seeds are taken from a "seeding list". When the official rankings were only calculated once a year the seedings for tournaments—with the exception of the top two seeds—followed the official rankings. Players and pundits closely tracked the ranking points earned during a season; the "provisional rankings" (which had no official status in
247-418: The end of the 1980s, other more significant events were making up the snooker calendar and the tournament was eventually abandoned. Four of the six tournaments were won by the pairing of Steve Davis and Tony Meo . Snooker world rankings The snooker world rankings are the official system of ranking professional snooker players to determine automatic qualification and seeding for tournaments on
266-525: The final stages of the World Championship and the Masters , so as well as interest in who will be number one , there is typically a lot of interest in which players are likely to maintain or acquire "top 16 status". Players are awarded ranking points according to the round they reach in ranking tournaments —specially designated tournaments that carry ranking status. Every professional member of
285-421: The game) were the rankings based on the ranking points accumulated in the previous season, combined with those accumulated thus far in the current season, and as the season progressed they converged on the official rankings for the following season. The provisional rankings gave an indication of a player's form, and as the season approached its dénouement, the provisional rankings would become a source of tension as
304-427: The membership are often played in two stages—a qualification stage and the "venue stage"—usually at different locations. In tournaments with a "tiered" format players come into events in different rounds based on their ranking, and in some cases the top players in the sport are seeded through to the venue stage and do not have to play a qualification match. In particular, the top 16 ranked players automatically qualify for
323-523: The same system; the Classic carried ranking points from the 1983–84 season , the UK Championship and British Open from 1984–85 . The revised system was now based on only the two previous seasons, and updated annually after the World Championship. While the ranking point allocations have undergone modifications down the years the basic system remained the same up until the 2009–10 season . For
342-751: Was initially staged at the Crystal Palace in London , sponsored by Courage Brewery through their Hofmeister brand. 29 pairs entered the event, which was played from the last 16 in London. Due to poor attendance of the inaugural event it was moved to the Derngate in Northampton . In 1987 the sponsorship of the event was moved to the Fosters brand, but the sponsorship contract expired the same year. By
361-467: Was later revised slightly with winners of all bar the World Championship now receiving six points, runners-up five, down to one point for the last 32; the World Championship more or less stayed as it was with ten points for the winner, incrementally reduced by two points for each preceding round, but now awarded one point for the last 32 in line with the other tournaments. In addition to ranking points, merit and frame points were also awarded which were used as
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