Five teams have guaranteed their World Cup quarter-final spots with a round of fixtures to spare in the league phase in Wuxi.
Both Chinese units have coasted through to the last eight on home soil courtesy of four consecutive victories at the City Sports Park Stadium.
In Group D, China B’s Liang Wenbo and Zhou Yuelong have dropped only two frames so far as they have coasted past their opposition.
The duo will qualify alongside Wales, with 2018 world champion Mark Williams and Ryan Day taking on the table toppers on Friday to determine which partnership can advance as the group winners.
A similar scenario has unfolded in Group C with Scotland and Belgium already assured of a World Cup quarter-final berth.
Like in Group D, the two pairings meet in the fifth round-robin game to decide who can earn a higher seed heading into the knockout phase.
The other two groups have proven to be a little less straightforward.
While home hero Ding Junhui and Yan Bingtao’s China A are nearly sure to top Group A, the runners-up position is still up for grabs.
Currently in pole position to qualify in second place is Thailand, but Thepchaiya Un-Nooh and Noppon Saengkham have the daunting task of facing the Chinese front-runners in their last game on Friday.
A slip up could see Norway, who secured a valuable 4-1 victory over Austria on Thursday, steal a World Cup quarter-final place.
Norway meets Poland and even a 3-2 victory could be enough if the result in the Thailand versus China clash goes in the team led by Kurt Maflin’s favour.
The tightest scenario is undoubtedly in Group B, although England has one foot in the quarter-finals after accumulating 14 points so far.
Kyren Wilson and Jack Lisowski have won all of their matches so far and a 5-0 drubbing of Saudi Arabia on day four means that they should be safe.
They stand five points clear of Northern Ireland in fourth place, meaning the latter must claim an unlikely whitewash win over the English to even stand a chance of denying them.
Second place in Group B is where the drama will likely unfold with Hong Kong boasting only a single point advantage over Iran.
With the two teams set to face off against one another in the last game, it’s a simple case of winner-takes-all.
The round-robin phase sees all nations compete against each other once over the best of five frames – with two singles, a doubles encounter, and two reverse singles matches required.
Each frame won provides each country with a point in the group, with the top two countries after the league stages advancing to the quarter-finals.
