Blog entry from 2021-01-18
The international tournament format of the Royal Pro Home Tour made a stop on January 16/17 at 9 MWS locations in 4 countries. A three cushion tournament and a five pins competition were played, with a total prize money of € 1,000 to be won. The defending champions were the two top-class athletes Andreas Efler (5P) and Markus Dömer (3C).
It was close and intense. A competitive match mode and a tight schedule challenged the players. They offered the fans exciting entertainment on the screens at home. The competitions were played via the MWS system, all matches were broadcast live and freely available on our streaming platform.
Both competitions were played in round robin tournament mode with set system match format. The draw gave the athletes hardly time to rest, the intensity of the matches took much energy. Competition toughness and endurance were required. The games of the five pins tournament were played on 2 winning sets of 60 points each, the three cushion matches were played on 3 winning sets in the rapid 3 points open end format: current runs are never interrupted when the set distance is reached, but always played to the end. As soon as a player has at least 3 points in a set, that set is "sharp". Then the opponent must at least equalize this score with his next inning in order to stay in the set. The set is played until a player can no longer meet the requirement "equalize or overtake" and thus loses the set.
The three cushion tournament on Saturday (January 16) could not have been more exciting. On the start were the nominally strong German players Markus Dömer, Lukas Stamm and Tay-Dien Truong, the Austrians Zoran Gajs, Jimmy Riml, Pirmin Volger and top favorite Andreas Efler, as well as with Kim Bengtsson a player from Denmark. Every participant won at least one match, but no participant remained without a match loss. The favorites throughout suffered their losses early and thus inadvertently created increased tension until the end, as they now all had to rely on support from others. Efler, Stamm and Dömer at halftime had the best prospects of winning the tournament. After his second defeat, Markus Dömer was eliminated from the three-way battle for the title. The three-way battle turned into a remote duel between Lukas Stamm and Andreas Efler. Stamm set the pace and finished the tournament with 6 wins and a set ratio of 70.37%. Efler had to follow and win his last game against Zoran Gajs 3:0 in sets to finish ex aequo with the same score as Stamm. Efler countered with a strong performance and won his game against Gajs with 3:1, but ultimately it was not enough for the tournament victory. Therefore the Berlin Lukas Stamm was able to cheer a deserved triumph and was happy about his won prize money of € 250. Andreas Efler won € 150, Markus Dömer € 100.
Results of the three cushion tournament (PDF)
The next day (Sunday, January 17) the five pins tournament took place. Four participants started, defending champion Andreas Efler (Hinterbrühl, AT) was also the top favorite. Jeroen Driessen (Turek, PL), Sergio Parasiliti (Innsbruck / Location 1, AT) and MWS mastermind Jimmy Riml (Innsbruck / Location 2, AT) competed with him for the title. Efler and Riml dueled for the title in a real final after both had won their previous matches sovereignly. After equalizing set victory in their final match, the MWS chief, who was in his best playful manner, won the deciding set against Efler, thus the tournament and € 250 in prize money. Andreas Efler won € 150, Jeroen Driessen € 100.
Results of the five pins tournament (PDF)
We network billiard tables and players at different venues to form a common, semi-virtual tournament room. Players from different locations meet virtually in a multimedia conference circuit and play real billiards with cues and balls at the real table and in real time. This allows players to take part in the tournaments at their home locations / from home without having to travel to a tournament venue. In addition, the final tournaments of our new Home Tour series are currently limited to 1 participant per location, so that, for known reasons, each participant can play alone at their own table.
We sincerely thank the tournament sponsor Royal Pro.
