The World Championships is the most prestigious event a darts player could wish to play in. Going to Q-School and winning that Tour Card, the dream of reaching that prestigious stage feels so much closer, but it doesn’t just happen automatically.
The first route of qualification is through the PDC Werner Ranking Ladder, where the top 40 players in the world (based off the 2-year Order of Merit) after the final ranking event before the World Championships will confirm their spots, with the top 32 of those being seeded.
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The next level of qualification is through the ProTour Order of Merit, which is where fairytales are often made. This is a ranking of every player who isn’t in the top 40 on the main Order of Merit, but is based off just 1-year, and only includes prize money earned in Players Championship or European Tour events, essentially the most in-form players who aren’t yet qualified.
This ranking is currently topped by the likes of Cristo Reyes, Sebastian Bialecki, Kim Huybrechts and Beau Greaves (pictured), but also includes a lot of lesser-known names.
With the amount of counting events being limited, it makes the potential cut-off straight forward to predict. As it stands, Andy Boulton sits in the 40th and final spot on £24,000, this is after 26 of 34 Players Championships’, and 10 of 15 European Tours. At the current rate, the cut-off will be around £31,500 at the end of the season, so with a bit of a buffer, anyone over £33,000 at the moment is already safe for the show piece event in December.
This means a debut for the likes of Tom Sykes, Tom Bissell, and Darryl Pilgrim, Joe Hunt will also be making his debut, despite having had all his success on the ProTour as a top-up players from the Challenge Tour! It also means that Maik Kuivenhoven will finally return to Ally Pally, having missed out by one spot in both of the last two years. Wales’s Rob Owen will also be returning after being forced to cling onto his Tour Card from his living room last Christmas.
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At least 27 spots are already confirmed, but there a lot of potential shocks in the remaining spots, currently occupied by the likes of Jimmy van Schie, David Sharp, Shane McGuirk and Henry Coates, none of whom have played at Alexandra Palace before.
Current Standing For PDC Darts World Championship Qualification
In all the talks of debutants, it must mean that some people are currently missing out. Five-time World Champion Raymond van Barneveld is the highest ranked player not currently in a spot, sat on £21,500, needing a big end to his year to return to the greatest stage of all for a twentieth time. Ally Pally favourite Scott Williams is also sitting uncomfortably at the moment, down in 66th place on £18,000, just above Dimitri Van den Bergh on £16,750.
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There is still a lot of time to go, but a lot of these players won’t be at the European Tours’, so only have eight more events to get themselves above the chopping line before it’s too late!
Images: PDC
Graphic: DartsWorld
