Billiards top moves to Seoul for Survival

SEOUL - The European billiards top players are moving rapidly from the Stahlpalast in Brandenburg to the Grand Hilton in Seoul this week to meet other players from the world top. The second Survival 3C Masters starts on Thursday after Frédéric Caudron won the first event in February. The system is known: 24 players, with four players in one match and a special score sytem.

From Thursday, May 9th  to Sunday, May 12th the 20 best players in the world and four invited players will meet in Seoul to face each other in the traditional survival system.

The twenty players based on the ranking:
Dick Jaspers (Ned)
Frédéric Caudron (Bel)
Jae Ho Cho (Kor)
Semih Sayginer (Tur)
Tayfun Tasdemir (Tur)
Quyet Chien Tran (Vie)
Marco Zanetti (Ita)
Eddy Merckx (Bel)
Murat Naci Coklu (Tur)
Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (Vie)
Jérémy Bury (Fra)
Jung-Han Heo (Kor)
Sameh Sidhom (Egy)
Dinh Nai Ngo (Vie)
Haeng-Jik Kim (Kor)
Sung-Won Choi (Kor)
Eddy Leppens (Bel)
Dani Sánchez (Esp)
Torbjörn Blomdahl (Swe)
Martin Horn (Ger)

That means: 12 Europeans, 7 Asians and 1 player from Africa. The 4 players with a wild card are the Koreans Myung-Woo Cho, Wan-Young Cho, In-Won Kang and Dong-Ryong Kim.

The prize money is 241,600 dollars, including 50,000 for the winner, 21,000 for the number two, 18,000 and 15,000 for third and fourth place. The losers of the semi-final are rewarded with 10,000 dollars.

On the starting day, the two players on top of each of the 6 games are immediately qualified for the quarterfinals. The last two of each of the six games play in the second chance matches the next day. In these three matches, the three winners and the best second will join the best 12 from the qualification to enter the quarterfinals. Then, followed by four matches with four players, the best two of each advance to the semi-finals.

The matches last 45 minutes before and 45 after the break, there is a 30 seconds time clock and the players can use three time-outs each match. Each player receives 30 points at the start of the session. If a player loses his 'credit' during the first session, he has the option of waiting for the start of the second session or he can finish the session with the 30 points in advance. In case of a tie between players, an extension is played according to the UMB rules.

All the matches are broadcast for free on all four days for Kozoom members.