2024 European Tour

[thegentle]

The Pro Tour qualifier will be longer too

96 players for 10 places

5 matches

3 or 4 matches I make it, with a preliminary round, then a round of 80, 40 and finally 20

[oche balboa]

The Pro Tour qualifier will be longer too

96 players for 10 places

5 matches

3 or 4 matches I make it, with a preliminary round, then a round of 80, 40 and finally 20

Of course

[TheMalteseDart]

What a dreadful change. The euro tour is absolutely crucial for players outside of the top of the rankings to keep their tour cards, now with only 10 places this is going to become even harder, as Safc has already pointed out, this is only going to further increase the gap between the top boys and the rest. You only have to look at Scott Mitchell’s tour experience and lack of ET qualifications to see how important it is towards the overall order of merit.

The qualifying system was bang on and was the perfect way to give lesser players a chance to learn and grow in stage matches, fuck this

I don't think it'll be that much harder, if at all, to qualify for these events for the lower ranked players, almost all of the top 32 players will be exempt from the qualifiers and there will ultimately be more tour card holders qualify for each event, but as the first round is seeded, it will be harder for those players to go on runs. I'm a fan of Dimitri, but by the sounds of it, he's a lucky lucky boy to get free first round cash for the first few events at least. The Associate qualifiers were a bit of a joke because of the schedule, but still, if I were a player like Baetens or Plaisier (who hopefully will have tour cards very soon!) who went on runs last season without a tour card, I'd be sick

I’m not sure I agree that it’s not harder, 24 spots for tour card qualifiers outweighed the fact that there’d be some tough players in the draw who won’t be there this time, I’ve just clicked through a few of the qualifying lists from last time and you’ll generally always see that there’s more than 10 in the 24 outside the top 32, so on balance more difficult even with the likes of Bunting and Gurney who’d get through them a lot no longer having to due to their being 10 spots instead of 24, in my opinion

[DeepFriedRat]

Imagine how somehow even worse this news would've been in the days where Hopp, Evans, Miss Keegan, Yozza, Capybara etc were clogging the top 32s

[Cooking with Sanchez]

Sneaking Evans in there

[DeepFriedRat]

Sneaking Evans in there

Great player

But he was synonymous with a weak era of the top 32 imo

[TheMalteseDart]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

[The Thorn]

Porter is a cunt

End of

[Emulsfier]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

To summarise the summary,

Fuck Matt Porter.

[Emulsfier]

Fuck off Thorn, beat me by nanoseconds.

[Rogg]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

Does point 5 hand power to the lower players to make up the difference?

[TheMalteseDart]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

Does point 5 hand power to the lower players to make up the difference?

Yeah, i think it’s been the case for a while though. The pro tour events ideally should have no challenge tour fillers but there’ll be loads now. Someone 100th in the world like Adam Warner isn’t gonna complain if it helps him win a pro tour, but they won’t be considered as prestigious now and because of that how long until the PDC make a change to them again which could end up screwing the little guys more

[Rogg]

I find it very difficult to get a feeling for the whole of it to be honest. Malanax stop it.

[thegentle]

ISneaking Evans in there :Dioi

Great player

But he was synonymous with a weak era of the top 32 imo
[/quote]
Not sure if it was a weak era for the top 32 really, if you look at the recent Worlds, Razma, who had a much poorer 2023 compared with 2022, snuck in with one of the lowest amounts needed to be top 32 for a long time, and that's with increased prize money. Evans has now slipped out, but he's a dangerous unseeded player as Aspinall found out, Hopp was good back then, Brown has mostly been a similar level to Evans if not quite so dangerous, and Yozza was a great player before the injuries kicked in. Wattimena has reached higher than any of those players, even though he's always been bang average

[thegentle]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

How does it make the Challenge Tour less appealing? Q-School yes, but the Associate qualifier was nothing to do with the Challenge Tour, if anything, you could argue it means it's more important to do well on the Challenge Tour as the only Associate players who will get opportunities to play on the tour will be those top-up players when tour card holders pull out of ProTours

[thegentle]

Would like to see the top Challenge Tour players being eligible for the qualifiers tbf, they used to have something like that

[TheMalteseDart]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

How does it make the Challenge Tour less appealing? Q-School yes, but the Associate qualifier was nothing to do with the Challenge Tour, if anything, you could argue it means it's more important to do well on the Challenge Tour as the only Associate players who will get opportunities to play on the tour will be those top-up players when tour card holders pull out of ProTours

Okay Q School then. Wonder if 850 would be the number of entries if this was announced 3 weeks ago

[thegentle]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

Does point 5 hand power to the lower players to make up the difference?

Yeah, i think it’s been the case for a while though. The pro tour events ideally should have no challenge tour fillers but there’ll be loads now. Someone 100th in the world like Adam Warner isn’t gonna complain if it helps him win a pro tour, but they won’t be considered as prestigious now and because of that how long until the PDC make a change to them again which could end up screwing the little guys more

ProTours are not prestigious ffs, important, yes, hard to win, often yes, but they are events held in leisure centres in front of nobody. Obviously the players who come in from the Challenge Tour are not as good as the top players who put their feet up every while and again, but they are usually better than the lower ranked tour card holders who also pull out of events regularly, and occasionally you get players like Ratajski and Scott Williams who have fallen through the cracks. Found it interesting how Ricky Evans complained about this, this is the same Ricky Evans who has never won a ProTour

[ChrisW]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

Does point 5 hand power to the lower players to make up the difference?

Yeah, i think it’s been the case for a while though. The pro tour events ideally should have no challenge tour fillers but there’ll be loads now. Someone 100th in the world like Adam Warner isn’t gonna complain if it helps him win a pro tour, but they won’t be considered as prestigious now and because of that how long until the PDC make a change to them again which could end up screwing the little guys more

ProTours are not prestigious ffs, important, yes, hard to win, often yes, but they are events held in leisure centres in front of nobody. Obviously the players who come in from the Challenge Tour are not as good as the top players who put their feet up every while and again, but they are usually better than the lower ranked tour card holders who also pull out of events regularly, and occasionally you get players like Ratajski and Scott Williams who have fallen through the cracks. Found it interesting how Ricky Evans complained about this, this is the same Ricky Evans who has never won a ProTour

Probably why he complained.

[Addicks Fan]

Trying to summarise the negative factors surrounding this news:

1. Viewing spectacle - one of the main factors people say when asked why they enjoy the euro tour is the variety of players you get to see. By making 13 more mini matchplays that variety is being taken away with the same 32 players in every single one

2. Increasing the gap between the top 32 and the rest of the field. With not even having to qualify, quite simply those in the top end of the rankings will have opportunity to add money to their ranking 13 times this year, further creating a big gap between the rest of the field

3. No more associate member qualifiers. From a viewing perspective this isn’t the be all and end all. However as a player on the challenge tour, this is yet another off putting reason to have not even bothered with Q School in the first place as now there’s no opportunity to play on the euro tour. (Already seen Klaasen’s wife comment this regarding being less appealing to do challenge tour on twitter, which they’ve obviously discussed)

4. It’s still unclear whether the 16 who play on Friday but didn’t have to qualify get prize money or not as this wasn’t addressed. If they do, again it goes back to point 2.

5. Appeal of floor events - this was already a struggle point as in the last couple of years they’ve had loads of pull outs on the floor events. This will exacerbate it as now there’s even less incentive as a lot of players will be able to get the prize money they need for qualification for events as they’ll be in every euro tour event. The only reason now for playing the floor events for the top boys is for the players championship finals, which a lot of them can qualify for in the first few events

6. The euro tour is sometimes the only place for emerging players to get good stage experience, limiting their opportunities only damages this

I’m probably missing other negative consequences following this, but on reflection , this is the worst decision they’ve ever made since I’ve been watching darts

How does it make the Challenge Tour less appealing? Q-School yes, but the Associate qualifier was nothing to do with the Challenge Tour, if anything, you could argue it means it's more important to do well on the Challenge Tour as the only Associate players who will get opportunities to play on the tour will be those top-up players when tour card holders pull out of ProTours

Okay Q School then. Wonder if 850 would be the number of entries if this was announced 3 weeks ago

Yes, seems a bit sneaky to reduce the benefits of going to Q-School after the deadline for entry. Definitely disadvantages the European amateurs more, given that most Challenge Tour events take place in Britain.