The WPA World Eight-ball Championship (W8BC) is a professional eight-ball pocket billiards (pool) tournament that is sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association. From 2004 until 2012 was held in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates and organized by Ahmed Ibrahim and Mithaq Jalali. For the next few years the tournament was not held, however it was announced by the WPA in 2016 that the 8-ball championship would be returning in 2017; it will be organized by Eric Ding and held at the Olympic Centre in Jinan, China.
A total of 64 participants compete in the event, which typically has a total prize purse over US$100,000 (over $200,000 as of 2011). The competition has also been referred to as the Etisalat World 8 Ball Pool Championship and the Damas World 8 Ball Championship, among other variations, for sponsorship purposes, and appears in various spellings ("8-Ball", "8ball", "Championships", etc.).
Format and history
As of 2010, the 64 players are divided into 8 groups of 8 players. In each group, the players play in double-elimination until 4 of them remain. Every match in this round is a race to 8. The 32 players play in single-elimination format. Matches are races to 10. The last 2 players play final in a race to 13.
The 2011 WPA World Eight-ball Championship was held 19–26 February at the Fujairah Exhibition Centre, with prize monies totaling $205,000. In the men's division, Dennis Orcollo of the Philippines won first place, 10–3 versus Niels Feijen of the Netherlands, while Spain's David Alcaide took third, 9–2, from the United Kingdom's Darren Appleton.