PDC Players Championship

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) stages the most lucrative darts events on the planet. Any professional dart player who believes they have what it takes to compete at the highest level and wishes to commit to a gruelling circus of events wants to be part of the 128 players that regularly participate in their events.

The PDC Players Championships consists of thirty induvial mini-tournaments. Played behind closed doors with only the PDCTV cameras and DartConnect live scoring, these events are the training grounds to become a champion. Only players with a PDC tour card can play, a total of 128.

 

PDC Tour Cards

In January each year, the PDC stage Q-School (qualifying school) for players to earn a two-year tour card, allowing them to play in PDC events.

A player in the top 64 by PDC Order of Merit retains their tour card for a further year. Players in the bottom half of the PDC Order of Merit come January and have held a tour card for two years or more lose their cards. To continue to play, the player must attend Q-School and win their card back.

Q-School is not shown on TV or streaming sites. The only way you can have a glimpse is via the online scoring DartConnect platform the PDC uses to score each round. However, if a player is lucky enough to earn a tour card, the work to become a champion has just started.

Players that compete in these events have a lot of downtime between each round, and it has become notable for players to play online games on their smartphones to relieve the tension that can build up when playing. If you also like to play these games, you may find justuk.club bets a website worth visiting.

Many former BDO/WDF players that enter the PDC arena will find no easy matches. Unlike the former BDO and the current WDF, fewer Opens may give the semi-pros easy wins. Very few BDO/WDF players have transitioned to the PDC and immediately made a significant impact on the PDC ranked players.

 

PDC Order of Merit

The PDC Order of Merit is the ranking system used by the PDC. It consists of a rolling two years of prize funds winning a player has earned. Winning the World Darts Championship will earn a Player £500,000, and that value will remain part of their ranking along with other prize money they may have earned for two years before, eventually falling off their tally. Hence the pressure mounts for players to retain titles and equal, if not better, their performance when they play in the tournaments in successive years.

Hence, a player that wins the World Championship in 2021 has to win again in 2023 to retain the same monetary figure in 2023.

 

The Players Championship Finals

Not all of the stages of PDC events feature all 128 tour card players. Some only feature the top 32, while others consist of the top 16 and qualifiers. The PDC World Series and Premier League are showcase events, non-racking; hence any money won here doesn't form part of a player's Order of Merit Ranking. The Players Champions finals require players to compete in the thirty rounds or undividable tournaments. Each of these tournaments has a £100,000 purse the winner receiving £25,000. After the final tour event in this sector has been played. The top sixty-four play in the Players Championship Finals.

The Players Championship finals have been held at the Butlins Minehead resort for the past several years. Fans grab the available tickets quickly, and they are sold out within minutes. Hence, being a PDCTV registered member can give you the priority to purchase live event tickets to most PDC tournaments.

The Player Champions finals 2022 has a prize fund of £600,000. Defending Champion, and World Champion Peter Wright, will again be one of the favourites to win the title. However, with the depth of players regularly hitting 100-plus averages, this year's event will be hard to call.

Michael van Gerwen, Gerwyn Price, and Nathan Aspinall are likely to be in the mix, but out of this trio, Michael is the only one to have lifted the Player Championship Trophy in the past. He has also won the tournament six times more than any other player.