Blog entry from 2023-10-16
On 16 October our new tournament format for five pins club teams starts its first championship cycle. Teams from Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Poland take part. The total endowment is € 1,800 and will be divided among the four best-placed teams. First, a basic round is completed in round robin mode, from which the six best teams advance to the play-offs. The play-off is played in a knockout system and consists of two semifinals followed by a final. The two best teams after the basic round are seeded for the semifinals, the four other teams promoted to the play-offs play for the two remaining semifinal places.
All matches are played in a relay format with 3 players per team. A match consists of 3 relay stages. In each new stage, a different player on both teams takes their turn, so that each player completes exactly 1 stage. The basic round is played on 150 points with the relay stages first to 50, 100 and 150 points. The team that reaches a stage first receives 1 relay point. In the basic round, the number of wins before the relay points before the general average counts for the ranking. The basic round is scheduled until 7 January 2024, the date and details for the play-off will still be published.
Playing billiards the way you know it, but without limits and with a positive contribution to environmental protection.
The teams play all their matches at home at their own home locations. We connect the teams, their tables and the game action into a common league, online via our patented system for remote billiards with laser technology. This means that all matches are home games, which means there is no need to travel to away games. This in turn means lower pollutant emissions, less time required and lower costs than traditional championships with local home and away games.
An environmentally friendly and international league tournament cannot currently be realized in a more progressive way. All participating teams can be proud of this positive contribution to the further development of billiards. There is more information about this on our Impact campaign page.
Even the players within a team are not tied to the same location.
It may sound curious what possibilities the MWS technology opens up: Not only opposing teams can be connected with each other remotely. Even players who are at different MWS locations can be connected to each other to form a joint team - and that even in one and the same match. It is easily possible for all players of a team to complete their relay stages from different locations. The best practical example is team Yoshikigoi, which is made up of the geographically dispersed Driessen family. Captain and veteran Ernest Driessen plays at his private location in Turek (PL), while his sons Ernst-Jan (Helmond, NL) and Jeroen (Komorow, PL) do their stints from their locations.
As always: We stream all matches live, in full HD and for free!
Within the tournament period (basic round until 7 January 2024), Team League matches are continuously shown on our live sports platform. The match and broadcast dates are arranged by the teams themselves and announced on our platform. The date for the play-off has not yet been set and will be published as soon as it is fixed.
To the live sports platform with live streams and broadcast dates
Who can beat the Italians?
Pizza, pasta, dolce vita ... Italians can do many things really well, and that includes Cinque Birilli. At World and European Championships, Italy traditionally has a lock on the medal places. The breadth of their sporting tops statistically suggests a large and good base, which can also be found in many Italian clubs.
Nominally the strongest player is "5 Pins Doctor" and MWS coach Luca Marzio Garavaglia, who competes with his equipe for team CSB Olona 96 Ospite (Corteolona e Genzone, IT). However, it remains to be seen if and when one or more favorites will emerge to win the title. The innovative league format is new for all players and teams, so it is not yet possible to assess how well the individual players will adapt to it.
These are the participating teams and their regular players:
- ASD La Biglia Modica (IT / Modica): Luca Aprile, Giuseppe Alasso, Danilo Minardo
- BBC Basel (CH / Basel): Ernestino Steiner, Gerry Innarella, Cosimo Antonazzo
- CSB Olona 96 Ospite (IT / Corteolona e Genzone): Luca Marzio Garavaglia, Sergio Losi, Claudio Bernardini
- Innsbruck Birilli Hunters (AT / Innsbruck): Jimmy Riml, Friedrich Nordmann, Peter Sparer
- Innsbruck Birilli Junkies (AT / Innsbruck): Frank Ofner, Sergio Parasiliti, Harald Saska
- Momentums Züri (CH / Zurich): Andreas Tschander, Gerd Stam, Mike Wapf
- Primo Acchito (IT / Schio): Angelo Covallero, Mirco Faccin, Alessandro Rossi
- Yoshikigoi (PL / Turek): Ernest Driessen, Ernst-Jan Driessen, Jeroen Driessen
