Well, the ink wasn’t even dry on the long-awaited Matchroom/World Pool Association peace treaty when promoters began scurrying about, firing out event announcements like a Jayson Shaw runout, in attempts to quickly fill the dance cards of all the players who’d just earned their tournament freedom.

No fewer than five major events were trumpeted all over social media, listing a total of 11 distinct competitions to be staged the second half of the year throughout Asia and the United States.

Not surprisingly, a number of those events created clashes with previously announced tournaments, all high-profile events that varied in prize funds from $40,000 mid-level purses to $450,000-plus majors.

Equally not surprising, fingers were pointed in numerous directions regarding who had actually procured dates and/or announced their events first.

In most cases, the truth is somewhere in the middle. While the majority of announcements Predator-promoted events did, indeed, come in June, dates on the WPA calendar have been held for months as “To Be Determined.”

As for Matchroom’s World Nineball Tour events, several events, while not yet formally announced, are events that were previously staged in the same locations and times.

The WPA has certainly known about the events being planned and the potential date clashes since the beginning of the year and likely discussed those possibilities with promoters. Additionally, since there was no guarantee that the WPA and Matchroom would, indeed, reach a truce, the WPA wouldn’t have been in position to push others to move their dates, particularly since WNT events, even post-truce, technically don’t have WPA sanction anyway. They are only “ratified,” with is the equivalent of a hall pass. And that distinction was Matchroom’s preference.

Regardless, top players will have plenty of big-money, high-visibility opportunities in the third and fourth quarters of 2025.

The biggest conflicts involve a string of events in October — the WNT Hanoi Open and the Predator-promoted WPA Men’s World 8-Ball Championship and Men’s World 10-Ball Doubles Championship twin bill in Indonesia in early October, followed by the Qatar 10-Ball World Cup and Matchroom’s Reyes Cup and new WNT Philippines Open the last two weeks of the month.

While the prize funds for the Indonesia events have not been announced, the 2024 Men’s World 8-Ball Championship was $250,000, exceeding the $200,000 purse in Hanoi. The new doubles event in Indonesia was likely created to sweeten the pot for players on the fence.

The late October clashes present another huge decision for top players. The Reyes Cup running Oct. 16-19 and Philippines Open scheduled for Oct. 21-26 in Manila, while the Qatar 10-Ball World Cup is slated for Oct. 20-30. The 2024 Qatar event featured a $450,000 prize fund and $100,000 top prize. Given the likelihood that the first four or five days of the 10-day Qatar tournament will consist of qualifiers, top invited players scheduled to participate in the Reyes Cup would not be affected.

At the same time, any player for Team Asia and whoever its opponent turns out to be (Team USA or Team Europe) would justifiably be expected to stick around for the Philippines Open. Would any player consider passing up a spot in the Reyes Cup for a chance at Qatar’s $100K top prize? Truthfully, not likely, considering the guaranteed money of the Reyes Cup and a chance to pad those earnings over the next week without ever having to leave town.

Surveying the cluttered schedule, WPA President Ishaun Singh commented that, “This is our new future.”

For many of the top players, the problems make them think more about the past than the future.

“It’s not the first time we’re experiencing this, but it’s unfortunate that they didn’t learn from the past,” reigning World Pool Champion Fedor Gorst said on an episode of Billiards Digest Live. “My first thought is that the promoters don’t care as much about us.”

“It’s really poor that [the promoters] clash, considering what the players have been through since this started,” Shaw said. “The whole point was to get this all sorted so we can have the best players at all the big events. I understand the dates were already in place for some events, but it’s just poor to have this drag on another year.”

Decisions will be difficult for many of the top players, with contractual obligations, promoter loyalty, national federation restrictions and title importance all likely to play roles in those decisions.

“A lot of the player will chase the bigger money now, and I totally understand that,” said Shaw. “I’m over it, if I’m totally honest. I just keep my head down and play whatever I decide and not get involved.”

“These are tough decisions top players are going to have to make,” echoed Gorst. “The players are going to split up. I think the players are going to decide last minute because with some of the events, like the World 8-Ball, they haven’t announced anything about the event. Nobody knows the payouts, or other details.”

Singh might be right. Perhaps this is the new future. But it certainly doesn’t have to be. I believe the WPA, which is busier and healthier than it has ever been, now has the power and leverage to impact the 2026 calendar in a positive way. It can, to an extent, force the hands of the game’s biggest promoters, to work together for the common good when it comes to the tournament calendar.

Let’s hope they take advantage of that influence and opportunity because everyone’s dance card is too full!