Seoul, Mai 12th ,2019
In the second Survival tournament of 2019, world champion Dick Jaspers had some scary moments. He was almost eliminated on the second day, sneaked into the quarterfinals as lucky loser and breathed a sigh of relief. From then on, he played stronger and stronger. Three Koreans could not stop him on the final Sunday.
The Survival format, with four players at the table, keeps producing surprising results. This edition in Seoul was no different, with big names like Sayginer, Tran and Merckx going out early. Two Belgians made a strong impression on the first day: Leppens and Caudron. But both went out in the quarterfinals, along with Coklu, Horn, Tasdemir, Ngo, H.J. Kim and S.W. Choi.
The level of play was high in the Grand Hilton hotel. Marco Zanetti ran a 22, and Murat Naci Coklu impressed with a 3.267 average in the group stage. Dani Sánchez, about to be eliminated, saved his skin with a last-chance run of 13.
Two Korean players made a name for themselves, going deeper into a major tournament than they had ever gone before: Wan Young Choi and In Won Kang. The latter even made it to the final group of four, where he was joined by Jung Han Heo, Jae Ho Cho and world number 1 Dick Jaspers.
The Dutchman had shown his dominant class in the semi, with two runs of 12. He could not repeat that performance in the final, where Heo and Cho were always in the hunt. But in the end, his steady scoring proved to be too much for the Koreans, and Jaspers won yet another title. It’s all he has done in 2019, isn’t it? The Dutch Masters, the European Championship, and now the second 3CC Masters Survival. What a year.
Final standing of “Seoul”:
- Jaspers $ 50.000
- Jung Han Heo $ 21.000
- Jae Ho Cho $ 18.000
- In Won Kang $ 15.000
5-8th place: $ 10.000
9-16th place: $ 7.000
17-24th place: $ 5.200
Best match: Murat Naci Coklu: 3.267
High run: Marco Zanetti, 22.
Seoul, Mai 8th. 2019
Second Survival event of 2019 about to start
The Grand Hilton in Seoul, South Korea will receive the best 3-cushion players in the world this week, for the second edition of the Survival series in 2019, the fourth in its history. The Survival series, a UMB / Kozoom initiative, has quickly built up a reputation as an exciting format where, as the name suggests, only the strongest will survive. The 2018 Survival tournaments were won by Dani Sánchez and Dick Jaspers, and earlier this year Frédéric Caudron won the first Survival event of 2019.
Four players are at the table in two sessions of 45 minutes. For every point they make, three points are added to their total and one point is deducted from the score of their three opponents. A single high run can dramatically change the outcome, no player is safe until they have… survived.
As usual, twenty players have been invited to this event based on their position on the world ranking:
Jaspers, Caudron, Cho, Sayginer, Tasdemir, Tran, Zanetti, Merckx, Nguyen, Coklu, Bury, Heo, Sidhom, Ngo, Kim, Choi, Leppens, Sánchez, Blomdahl and Horn. The four invited players are Myung Woo Cho, Wan Young Choi, In Won Kang and Dong Ryong Kim.
Prize money in Seoul is once again considerable. The winner will go home with 50.000 dollars, second prize is 21.000, third is 18.000, fourth 15.000. The numbers 5 – 8 will receive 10.000, numbers 9 – 16 win 7000 and finally 17 – 24 still get 5.200.
Play starts on Thursday 9 May, the “second chance” round is on Friday the 10th. The event will be concluded on Sunday the 12th. All matches can be seen on Kozoom.