i just noticed that they have revived the World Cup for year 2005. According to the IBF calendar, it will be held in Yiyang, China in December. the World Cup (can't they use a better name?) is invitational tournament, only top 16 MS, top 12 WS, top 8 MD, top 6 WD and top 6 XD players are invited. this is rather similar to the World Grand Prix Finals which was discontinued a few years ago. very confusing indeed, can't they just name it the WGPF instead? they will start to use the 3x21 rally scoring system in the WCup 2005.
Hmm, sounds quite similar to a mini-version of the World Championship event. And to a certain extent, last year's Copenhagen Masters Invitation. If this "new" tournament is held, then what happens to the CM Invitation for this year??..
CM is of a totally different purpose though. their invitation is not based on world rankings, they are just based on what the organizing committee's preference. CM is also not an official IBF tournament. there will be no points awarded to the winners. the WCup 2005 is based on world ranking and it is an IBF sanctioned tournament. the prize money is quite handsome at US$250,000
As far as the CM Invitation, will it still be held this year??..Because i noticed on IBF website that the WorldCup event will be held just 2 weeks prior to CMI.. And do you or does anyone know who will be the main sponsor of this WCup 2005 event??Will it be solely Yonex-sponsorship??..Yah, that's quite some payday and add to that the CMI prize money..hehe
i do hope the CMI will be held. many players will go for the $ while the WCup have both prize money as well as ranking points. each CMI event only have 6 or so invitees and i think they all get paid...
yeah. i was wondering about that too. however, it also depends on the tournament format. i don't remember how the World Cup format was. but for WGPF, it was a group match -> elimination. each group have 3 players, they play against all players within the same group. then the winner of the group goes into elimination round.
Give 21-point system a chance to try World Cup or Grand Prix Final, as long as it's exciting like in 1999 and 1998 then I am all for it. Give 21-point system a chance, I think it's a better system for general viewer who doesn't have 5 hours to sit thru the whole tournament. Who knows, US may organise the 2006 Grand Prix/World Cup then we can have another BF gathering in Arrowhead Pond
LOL! Relatively speaking Badminton is the fastest sport in terms of not only play but time lapse. Watch baseball, volleyball, soccer, football, golf heck, any sport. They are all move way sllllllow.
Does that mean it will be held annually from now on or is it just that China is interested in hosting such an event? Wow!China is going to have three 6* events for 2005. I was also wondering why it is called World Cup?Will the winners be awarded cups?How was it done before in the prevous World Cups? This is too confusing.First we have the WC being held every year and now the World Cup.But it's a great news to hear....it will be nice to have a big tournament at the end of every year.
Yah, i was thinking in the same line also..What's the reasoning or motive or intention behind "reviving" this tourney, esp. near the end of the year??My guess is, marketing most likely..Also, will this be a regular annual tourney from now on??...It seems like IBF can put up any kind of "new" tournament, anytime and anywhere they wanted.. Last, sorry for *getting technical* here, but if they are using the term "Invitation", then why the top 12 or 6 or 8 ranked players/pairs in the world??..If they using an "invitation" then most likely it'll be pretty selected, not necessarily in order of top world ranking. Similar to the Asia vs. Europe Cup tournament recently held in Philippines...never mind the ramblings..
I think the word "invitation" is misunderstood in this case. It's more like a reward for players finishing at the top end of the rankings. From an IBF standpoint, it's a way for them to motivate players to compete more during the year and pick up ranking points. It's them saying "play more and play well and we will reward you with some extra $$$ at the end of the year". Other sports have this system going (golf, tennis) so why bot badminton. IBF just has to package it well; there has to be some sort of prestige/exclusivity attached to it.
i see the purpose of the WCup slightly differently. currently there is the World Championships. one of the feature of the world championship is to encourage diverse participation. there are quotas for each country. as a result, more lower ranked players are able to qualify and represent their country in the WC. the WC achieves the goal for being a annual tournament that has a broad participation. the WCup on the other hand, only "invites" the top ranked players. if the format is what i think it is (ie. a group format leads to semi-final and final elimination), then it provides a tournament for the top players to play against each other. being a group format, it allows for more clashes of top players against each other. in other words, in the WCup, almost every match will be exciting to watch. as oppose to the WC where the earlier rounds are usually seeded players against a much lower ranked one. the combination of the WC and WCup covers both broad as well as depth. and i think they will complement each other quite well. the only downside i see is that the WCup may dilute the significance of the WC. due to the more competitive nature as well as high prize money. overall, i think this is a good development, only time will tell if this can continue, but as a badminton fan, i am looking forward to the WCup this year. i only wish that it could've been announced earlier. or announced at all...
I see.... But if i think about it more, if you say "It's more like a reward for players finishing at the top end of the rankings", don't you think the "top end of the rankings" is a bit *relative*. What i meant is, why are they choosing different no. of ranked players for each field(ie. MS has 16, while the others have less, basically unequal no. of ranked players/pair across the fields)...What if a player said, hey, how come such ranked players are invited and i'm not??..So there is no "clear cut" definition.. OTOH, the WC format is more "fair" and equal by selecting the same no. of players/pairs to compete across the fields, i believe(correct me if i'm wrong).. Anyways, yah, it looks more and more like it's a marketing strategy by IBF..
hehe, that's what my wonderment is about and related to, what is and how they define "invites" or "invitation"...if they only "invite" the top 12 women singles players, then why not the next 4, like the MS??..or only top 8 MD pairs??..why not the top 12 or 16 pairs and so on and so forth??... anyways, sorry again for this silly ramblings...
Would have been fairer if IBF had specified the numbers per discipline at the beginning of the year so that players knew what to aim for. (Perhaps they do and we don't ). I suspect though, through IBF's brand of half-brained thinking, it was something conjured up at the last minute with minimal planning or thought. Hence the lack of notice or promotion. I sure hope the new marketing company IBF has hired will promote the game better.
Actually since the players are invited based on rankings i think a title like 'World Masters' would be appropriate.For what you mentioned i would say that World Championships and the World Cup will dilute each other simply because of the 'name'. Again as you mentioned Kwun i think it is a nice idea to have a World Championships in which players from a lot of countries get a chance to take part and a WCup in which the top players take part. While this is an interesting development i think it is going to cause a lot of confusion especially in the minds of those following the game as to which is the biggest tournament in Badminton.Hopefully this does not happen.
