Van Boening loses to Orcollo in 3-day 10 Ball challenge 😱
The Filipino demolished "Captain America" 90-70 at home turf.
SHARKS IN MANILA, PHILIPPINES, IS A PRIVATE BILLIARD CLUB known to hold and live stream high-quality (both in terms of players and video format) pool action. Recently it hosted Shane Van Boening and Dennis Orcollo in a three-day 10 Ball, race-to-90 matchup dubbed “Battle Siege.”
Although details of the terms weren’t disclosed, it’s probably safe to say that for SVB (and his backers, if any) to spend the money to travel all the way to Manila, he must’ve felt pretty good about this challenge. After all, he’s recognized as the top player specifically in 10 Ball. His break is known to have elevated the game of 10 Ball, and there’s no shortage of online videos discussing and analyzing his breaks and technique.
Orcollo and team, of course, knew this. In a straight-up long race of 10 Ball, SVB would be the clear favorite to win. For Battle Siege, then, it was agreed that the player has to play a push shot after each break. This was to eliminate SVB’s advantage.
Besides SVB’s vanished break advantage, the truth is he also had a lot more adjustments to make going into this challenge as this took place in the Philippines.
The final score in favor of Orcollo, 90-70, was telling. The push-shot rule definitely made a difference — a huge difference, in fact. When have we ever seen SVB losing a long 10 Ball race by 20 games?
According to online discussions and comments about the event, most people were not fans of the push-out-after-break format. It seems like seeing break-and-runs were preferred, considering both players are about equally skilled. Fans had expected a close back-and-forth match, but the push-out rule often killed the momentum and many complained it was “painful” to watch.
Looking at the score gap and fans’ reactions, it’s unlikely this format will be repeated again, especially if any money was involved.
LUCA BRECEL WINS CAZOO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. The Belgian faced Mark Selby (four-time champion) in the final and led the scoring throughout, although Selby came within striking distance a few times. Selby even executed a 147 in the 16th frame — the first in the world final. In the end Brecel finished off 18-15, becoming the first player from mainland Europe to win at the Crucible and the fourth non-Brit. Bercel took home that fancy trophy and of course, £500,000 in prize fund. Watch highlights here.
KO PING-CHUNG IS MALDIVES OPEN CHAMP. All three Ko brothers from Taiwan were invited to the WPA-sanctioned Maldives Open 10 Ball Championship. It was the middle brother who slayed Johann Chua (Philippines) in the final to capture the title.
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