The 2024 Champion of Champions is scheduled to take place next month at the Toughsheet Community Stadium in Bolton.
The prestigious invitational, an annual fixture on the calendar since 2013, is pencilled in for November 11th to 17th, and tickets are on sale.
However, details on the qualifying criteria for this year’s edition and who will be cueing up to participate remain unknown.
While an announcement is surely imminent, it’s quite late in the day to be revealing how players will gain an invitation in 2024, and who attending fans will be there to watch.
The Champion of Champions is promoted by Matchroom Sport and doesn’t boast ranking points, meaning the 16-strong field can be determined in any way they see fit.
Normally, though, the field is set by winners from various snooker tours over the course of the last 12-month period.
Who will gain a Champion of Champions invite?
Mark Allen won the 2023 Champion of Champions with a 10-3 defeat of Judd Trump in the final – adding to his prior success in the tournament from three years earlier.
Allen has also won the Snooker Shoot Out and the Players Championship since, so the Northern Irishman will definitely receive a crack at capturing the crown for a third time.
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the record four-time Champion of Champions winner, and the Rocket will be invited again this year after a stellar 2023/24 campaign.
O’Sullivan won the UK Championship, the Masters, the World Grand Prix, and the World Masters of Snooker since last year’s Champion of Champions.
Whether or not the 48 year-old accepts his invitation will be another matter, with O’Sullivan skipping last year’s event citing health issues despite being the defending champion at the time.
Judd Trump, a winner back in 2021, is similarly a four-time winner of events across the last year or so – bagging silverware at the German Masters, the World Open, the Shanghai Masters, and the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
Former runner-up Kyren Wilson will obviously get an opportunity to go one better in 2024 following his World Snooker Championship success in May.
Other players who we’ll very likely see in the draw are Gary Wilson and Mark Selby, who have each won two titles in the last year.
Wilson secured double glory on the Home Nations series with victories in the Scottish and Welsh Opens, while Selby won the invitational version of Championship League Snooker in addition to the recent British Open.
Tour Championship winner Mark Williams, English Open champion Neil Robertson, and Championship League Snooker (ranking version) winner Ali Carter will also probably be seen in Bolton.
Champion of Champions prize money
Champion: ยฃ150,000
Runner-up: ยฃ60,000
Semi-finals: ยฃ30,000
Group runner-up: ยฃ17,500
Group semi-finals: ยฃ12,500
Total: ยฃ440,000
That only equates to nine out of the 16 spots that are usually up for grabs in the Champion of Champions draw.
In previous years, the World Snooker Championship runner-up has been included, meaning Jak Jones could feature at the tournament for the first time in his career.
There could also be places available for reigning women’s world champion Bai Yulu and Igor Figueiredo, who lifted the 2024 World Seniors Championship crown.
Luca Brecel and Reanne Evans paired up to win the World Mixed Doubles and could potentially be rewarded with places in the competition.
This week’s Wuhan Open offers one of the last chances for players not already qualified to seal their spots in the event.
The upcoming Northern Ireland Open in Belfast and the subsequent International Championship in Nanjing will likely represent the remaining two opportunities.
Shaun Murphy, Ding Junhui, Zhang Anda, Si Jiahui, John Higgins, and Tom Ford are current members of the top 16 on the official rankings list who haven’t won anything and are provisionally set to miss out.
In the past when the 16 names couldn’t be occupied by recent champions, the world rankings list has been used to top up the numbers.
Who are the former winners?
A similar Champion of Champions tournament was staged all the way back in 1978 with Ray Reardon beating Alex Higgins in the inaugural edition, before Doug Mountjoy won the prize in 1980.
It wasn’t until 2013 that the tournament was revived, and perhaps unsurprisingly Ronnie O’Sullivan emerged as the first winner of the reboot.
The Englishman has won the title a record four times, repeating his initial success in 2014, 2018, and 2022.
He has also finished runner-up twice – in 2016 when he was denied by John Higgins and again 12 months later when Shaun Murphy pipped him to the post.
Neil Robertson (2015 and 2019) and Mark Allen (2020 and 2023) are both two-time winners, while Judd Trump etched his name onto the trophy in 2022.
More details about the specific lineup for 2024 will be published on SnookerHQ.com when they are announced.
Featured photo credit: Taka G Wu/Matchroom Multi Sport
The Champion of Champions really should attempt to have as many championship winners as possible: I’d like to see winners of non main tour events given consideration if there aren’t enough individual winners to fill the tournament. Keep the top up players based on professional tour rankings to a minimum. Alternatively invite any former world champion who still holds a tour card to fill up the ranks rather than the last runner up, and highest ranking non-winners!
I like your idea of inviting former Champion of Champions winners not already qualified. That’s better than top-ups from the world rankings for sure.
Non main tour winners sounds like a fine idea, but theyre cannon fodder against the usual attendees of CoC. These guys are light years ahead, and for them it would be like playing against children. There’s no joy or competition, just a waste of time for both parties and the audience.
The criteria is unchanged from past editions. All winners of main tour events between last year’s edition and this one will be definitely be included. There’s every chance Jak Jones and the current women’s and seniors world champion will then be added. Any remaining places would surely be selected based on the rankings.
I’ve said this before but I would argue that the current Champion of Champions is its third iteration. The Champions Cup, held between 1999 and 2001, was essentially the same event.
I only base this on what Dave Hendon, who is commentating on it for ITV, said about Igor having now secured his place given there’s no chance now of 16 players qualifying through winning Main Tour events.
Yes, that’s usually the case. An official criteria would be better at this stage though.
I agree that there should be an official criteria. It reminds me of the premier league in darts where there’s no criteria, they just decide who to include.
I like the idea of expanding it to include former champions of the event and former world champions who are still competing. That would make for a true collection of ‘champions’.
Alternatively you just go back far enough to get the 16 most recent ranking event winners, regardless of the timespan.