World professional snooker competitions can be divided into two categories: ranking competitions and non-ranking competitions (or invitational competitions). The difference between the two is that the former has ranking points, and any game may affect the ranking of players, while the latter has no points, and the competition results do not affect the ranking.
Ranking competition can be divided into regular ranking competition (also called big ranking competition) and small ranking competition. The main difference between the two is that the score of the latter is less, which is generally about 1/3 of the regular ranking competition. This season's regular ranking matches include Australian Open, Shanghai Masters, British Championship, German Open, Welsh Open, Hainan International Open (formerly Grand Prix), China Open and World Championships.
The most important thing in the regular ranking competition is the world champion, who has the highest points (the champion points are 65,438+0,000, and the prize money has been maintained at 250,000 pounds recently) and the highest prize money. Only when you win the world championship can you really be called the world champion. Followed by the British Championship (8,000 points for the champion, with a recent bonus of 6,543,800 pounds), the Shanghai Masters and the China Open (7,000 points for the champion, with a bonus of 50,000-60,000 pounds); German Open, Welsh Championship, etc. Almost (the winner gets 5000 points, and the bonus is usually 30,000-50,000 pounds). Small ranking matches are rare in the history of snooker. PTC Tournament, a new event last season, a small ranking tournament, with 2000 points for the champion. The full name of PTC Tournament is Players Tour Tournament, which is generally translated as Players Tour Tournament or Players Tour for short. There are 12 PTC stations in one season, plus PTC finals.
In the invitational tournament, the Masters (formerly known as the Wembley Masters, but now it can't be called that, because this season's Masters will be moved from Wembley to other places for the first time) is the most famous, because it has a long history and a high prize (now it is mostly the champion of 1.5 million pounds), and only the former 1.6 players are eligible to play the Masters. World Championship, British Championship and Masters are also called the three major grand slam events of snooker. Another famous invitational tournament is the Snooker Super League, which has a long history and only invites top players to participate. The tournament system is unique and popular. Other invitational tournaments are of little significance, such as Jiangsu Classic and Brazil Masters this season.
The above events all belong to the category of World Professional Snooker Tour sponsored by WPBSA (World Snooker and Billie Association).