[Discussion Thread] 2024 UK Championship QUALIFYING - 18th to 22nd November

It's time for the start of the Triple Crown events in the 2024-25 snooker season! The UK Championship is the more recent of the prestiguous series, having started as a non-ranking event in 1977 before becoming a ranking event in 1984. Once the UK Championship starts, you know you're in the thick of the snooker season, with lots of tournaments of critical importance to players in the race to be seeded for the World Championship, as well as increasing your chances of being in the Players' Series. The UK Championship also marks the final opportunity for players to be entered into the invitational Masters in the New Year.

The defending champion is Ronnie O'Sullivan, who captured a record-breaking 8th UK title and defeated Ding Junhui -- who reached the final for the second time in a row -- in a classic final by a scoreline of 10-7. As defending champion, Ronnie is seeded through to the televised phase at the Barbican and thus doesn't play in the qualifying rounds.

All matches in the UK Championship, apart from the final, are a best-of-11. Below is the format of the Qualifying rounds:

• Round 1: Seeds 81-112 are placed in 32 specific positions of the Round 1 draw, with 113-144 drawn randomly against those seeds.
• Round 2: Seeds 49-80 are placed in 32 specific positions of the Round 2 draw. The positions are set up so that if the top seed in Round 1 wins their match, Seed 49 would play Seed 112, Seed 50 would play 111 and so on.
• Round 3: Seeds 17-48 are placed in 32 specific positions of the Round 3 draw. The positions are set up so that if the top seed in Round 2 wins their match, Seed 17 would play Seed 80, Seed 18 would play 79 and so on.
• Round 4: The final round of qualifying (basically Judgement Day), all Round 3 players will be drawn against each other in order to have 16 Qualifiers. Again, the draw is arranged so that Seed 17 would play Seed 48, Seed 18 would play 47 and so on.

All rounds of qualifying will be provided via Eurosport on the Discovery+/Max on-demand service, but the World Snooker Tour will have extensive free coverage via their Facebook page and YouTube channel. The WST coverage begins on Monday -- after the conclusion of the Champion of Champions -- with commentary provided by Dave Hendon, Phil Yates, Steven Hallworth and Ken Doherty, alongside reporting and interviews by Rob Walker. All broadcasting information can be found here: https://www.wst.tv/news/2024/november/05/watch-uk-championship-qualifying-rounds-live-online/