One Pocket Series 2017: Recap, my double role, and lessons learned
One Pocket (Series), the new cool!
A week ago, I’ve had the honor to win the Grand Finale of my own One Pocket tour. Sounds dubious, doesn’t it? Well, during the tournament I’m just a pool player like the rest. It didn’t feel that way, though, because I’m the tournament director as well, who doesn’t necessarily has a task during the event other than the opening and check if other people are doing what they’re supposed to do. Anyway, it was distracting and I had to get used to it during the first few tournaments, because I felt, and am, responsible for the course of the tournament. It was a new and different experience to play a tournament in this double role. Normally, I would just enter the pool hall, get a coffee, unpack my cues and start playing until someone sent me home.
Recap One Pocket Series 2017
The One Pocket Series 2017 try-out tour has been a great success, and that’s not only because I now hold the title. The first tournament was an exciting and important test to see whether or not the setup we came up with would work out the way we were hoping it would. Guess what, it did! Our hope was to get at least 24 players per event. We ended up with a waiting list for every tournament, the last tournament was fully booked 1,5 week before it even started, every tournament finished at a reasonable time, and we gladly received many positive reactions from happy One Pocketeers! This tells us there’s a great interest in our tour and that One Pocket is seriously gaining foothold like never before in the Netherlands.
There were also players who didn’t really like the shoot-out for different reasons. Some were anxious about the game being decided by only one ball instead of a game of One Pocket. Understandable, but that’s the excitement we wanted to create. Something new, a signature format for the One Pocket Series. Others thought it had nothing to do with One Pocket. I can also understand this thought, but at the same time I disagree. The shoot-out is created in such a way that it looks like an end game. Either way, I will have to take into account the criticism for next season and interview players about their needs to create an exciting tour that provides players with an attractive format.
Top 16 One Pocket Series – Grand Finale 2017
Lessons
During the Grand Finale last week I’ve learned an important lesson, or actually the thoughts I had were confirmed that day. The top 16 of the 3 open ranking events was qualified for the final day. The overall level of the players was therefore higher than during other events. When players of a higher level play against each other, it’s more likely for matches to take longer. That’s exactly what happened and that might be an issue, or an incentive for organizational change, in the future when we want to maintain a field of at least 32 players per tournament. Next to that, we can professionalize the way tournaments are being led during the day and the advertisement of the tour and its sponsors. See you all next year at the One Pocket Series 2018!
Check all the results of the OPS Grand Finale 2017 here.