"A complete nonsense" Snooker Shoot Out champ Burden unhappy with draw changes for upcoming season

The new 2026/27 professional snooker season breaks off in a few weeks' time with the qualifying rounds for both the revived China Open, and the Wuhan Open, with these preliminary phases held at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.

The qualifying draws were released last week, with the format being different to what we have been accustomed to over the past several years when it comes to Chinese events.

Previously, the status quo for ranked tournaments in China was a 'flat draw' system, meaning all 128 players started out in round one, regardless of their world ranking. The top ranked entrants would be seeded, facing someone positioned much lower in the global standings for the first round.

With this being the case, top snooker stars were required to attend these low-key qualifiers - usually held in England several weeks before the televised stages - in order to secure a berth for the main draw and guarantee their appearance in China.

But on both counts above, proceedings have changed for the upcoming season with all Chinese ranking events now using a 'tiered draw' format, meaning players enter the tournament at different rounds as per their seeding.

This August's China Open - which is set to be the most lucrative snooker event ever held in China with a reported top prize of £300,000 - pretty much mimics the same format currently used for the UK and World Championships. The top 16 contestants all go straight through to the 'main draw' whilst everyone else must attend the qualifiers where there are four rounds of preliminaries before the big stars strike a ball.

The Wuhan Open - which has used a flat draw for each of its previous three editions - is now tiered, with the top 16 seeds getting a free pass to Wuhan, while the remaining competitors battle for qualification spots across two-and-a-half qualifying rounds.

Speaking to a spokesperson from the World Snooker Tour, Totally Snookered understands that a tiered draw will also be in place for the Xi'an Grand Prix, International Championship, and World Open showcases later in the campaign.

Neil Robertson says the new system is a “win win for everyone”

There are pros and cons to both flat and tiered draw systems, with professionals from across the rankings spectrum split on what should be used for which events.

Following our article last week, esteemed cuesports coach Stephen Feeney - founder of SightRight - shared his thoughts on the shift to tiered draws for Chinese events, moving them in line with the format that the German Masters and all four Home Nations Series events have switched to in recent seasons.

Feeney posted on Facebook saying that the decision was a 'huge backward step' that favours the top players and is unfair to the majority of the World Snooker Tour professional roster.

Current world number two Neil Robertson - who is on the WPBSA Players Board and recently spoke about potential changes to the ranking system - replied to Feeney's Facebook post with a contrasting view.

The former world champion said: "Flat draws are better for top players and less so for lower ranked guys who draw us. This new format is a win win for everyone concerned for CHINA events. Out of the 64 players who fly out to China for these events, half come back with no profit thanks to post Covid flights that can’t be booked for a set return date in reality."

A tiered draw means that lower ranked players will face someone near them in the world rankings in their opening match, instead of potentially meeting someone at the very top of the tree. If you win a match, you earn prize money, and it gets added to your rankings total.

However, using the China Open as an example, the lowest seeds would have to negotiate nine, possibly 10 matches to win the whole tournament, meanwhile the top 16 only need to win five.

Under the new system, the top ranked players are guaranteed to be in China - therefore avoiding the bother of attending a qualifying match in England, and a potential banana skin. They will also be on guaranteed prize money coming in at a later stage, although they do still need to win a match in order to claim ranking 'points'.

No doubt tournament promoters are happy with the new arrangements, as they can sell tickets safe in the knowledge that certain big names will be scheduled to definitely be there - although there has been a system in place for many years where certain stars have had their opening round/qualifying assignments held over to the main venue anyway.

New format is ‘a complete nonsense’ says Burden

One player who will be affected by the change is reigning Snooker Shoot Out champion Alfie Burden, who is back on the sport's top-flight this campaign.

'The AB of London' - who also won the 2025 World Seniors Snooker Championship - agreed with Feeney's synopsis on Facebook, replying to him with "can’t argue with anything you’ve said there, Steve all your points are explained very well. Going back to a full tiered system is a complete nonsense. The end.

"On top of that you may as well scrap the 3 x tour events as now it’s not an even playing field to try get in the top 32 to reach the Grand Prix, so them tournaments are now a complete nonsense too."

In regards to the '3 x tour' events Burden was referring to, these are the Players Series events held in the second half of the season - the World Grand Prix, Players Championship, Tour Championship.

Qualification for these elite-field competitions - last season, historically all won by Zhao Xintong - is via the one-year list only; cumulative prize money earned from ranking events during the ongoing season.

Burden's argument is that if the top seeds win their opening match in these Chinese events, players further down the rankings must win several matches in order to simply be on a level-playing field. During last season's Players Series events, very few players from outside of the world's top 16 featured in them.