The 2024 Championship League Invitational (officially the 2024 BetVictor Championship League Invitational for sponsorship reasons) was a professional non-rankingsnooker tournament, which took place from 2 January 2024 to 13 March 2024 at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England.
John Higgins was the defending champion, having won the tournament for the fourth time after beating Judd Trump 3–1 in the final of the 2023 event.[1][2] He was defeated 3–0 by Joe O'Connor in the Winners' Group semi-finals.
A total of 25 players were initially invited to the event, with the matches played behind closed doors without an audience. Players earned prize money for every frame won, as well as being semi-finalists, runner-up, and winner of each group, with more money involved in the Winners' Group. Since 2010, all matches were played as the best of five frames.
The tournament was played in a round-robin format, consisted of eight groups of seven players. The top four players in each group qualified for a play-off, with the winner entering the Winners' Group. The bottom two players in each group were eliminated, and the remaining four moved to the next group, where they were joined by three more players. This format was played for each group, from one to seven. In each group, the players were ranked by the number of matches won, then by most frames won, and then by least frames lost. If two players were tied by these criteria, the player who won the match between them was ranked higher in the table. The group play-off semi-finals were contested between the 1st and 4th place players in the table, and between the 2nd and 3rd place players in the table. The Winners' Group was played at the end, and its play-off winner became champion of the tournament.[4][5]
Groups 1 and 2 were played from 2 to 5 January. Groups 3, 4, and 5 were played from 5 to 10 February. Groups 6 and 7 were played from 26 to 29 February, and the Winners' Group was played on 12 and 13 March. The champion takes a place in the Champion of Champions.[5][14]
The event was broadcast by DAZN in Germany, Spain, the United States and Brazil; Fox Sports in Australia; Nova in Czechia and Slovakia; Premier in the Philippines; Rigour Media in China; Viaplay in the Baltics, Iceland and the Netherlands; Viasat in Scandinavia; and by Matchroom.live in all other territories. It was also streamed live on the Matchroom-Multi-Sport YouTube channel.[15]
Withdrawals
There were a number of players who were originally invited to participate, who withdrew and were replaced by others. Most notable among these were Mark Allen, Zhang Anda, Zhou Yuelong, Hossein Vafaei, Jack Lisowski, Judd Trump, and Si Jiahui. There were other changes as players moved between groups, as noted in the group sections below.[13]
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for the 2024 Championship League is as follows:[4]
Groups 1–7
Winner: £3,000
Runner-up: £2,000
Semi-final: £1,000
Frame-win (league stage): £100
Frame-win (play-offs): £300
Highest break: £500
Winners' Group
Winner: £10,000
Runner-up: £5,000
Semi-final: £3,000
Frame-win (league stage): £200
Frame-win (play-offs): £300
Highest break: £1,000
Maximum possible tournament total: £205,000 (if all match results are 3–2)
Minimum possible tournament total: £152,800 (if all match results are 3–0)
Group 2 was played on 4 and 5 January 2024.[20] There were 17 century breaks[17] made in Group 2, the highest being 142 made by Ali Carter.[18]Chris Wakelin won the group and qualified for the Winners' Group.[21]
Source: Group 4 results from snooker.org and championshipleaguesnooker.co.uk[9][25] (W) Group winner
Note: Barry Hawkins and Neil Robertson finished with equal points and frames after all the league matches were completed. Hawkins won the match between them and so finished above Robertson in the table.
Group 5 was played on 9 and 10 February 2024.[27] There were 19 century breaks[17] made in Group 5, the highest being 147 made by John Higgins in his semi-final match against Fan Zhengyi, the 13th maximum break of his career.[28][18] Higgins won the group and qualified for the Winners' Group.[29]
Source: Group 5 results from snooker.org and championshipleaguesnooker.co.uk[10][27] (W) Group winner
Note: Kyren Wilson and David Gilbert finished with equal points and frames after all the league matches were completed. Wilson won the match between them and so finished above Gilbert in the table.
Group 6 was played on 26 and 27 February 2024.[30] There were 15 century breaks[17] made in Group 6, the highest being 142 made by Ricky Walden.[18]Kyren Wilson won the group and qualified for the Winners' Group.[31]
Group 7 was played on 28 and 29 February 2024.[32] There were 16 century breaks[17] made in Group 7, the highest being 147 made by Joe O'Connor in his league match against Elliot Slessor, the first maximum break of his career and the 200th in professional snooker.[33][18] O'Connor won the group and qualified for the Winners' Group.[34][35]
Note: Ronnie O’Sullivan played in the first day's matches, then subsequently withdrew and did not compete further. He was not replaced by another player, and the group continued as a six-player group with the matches already played against O'Sullivan omitted.[12]
Group 7 league matches
28 February
Pang Junxu 0–3 Jak Jones
Joe O'Connor 2–3 Jordan Brown
Joe O'Connor 3–0 Sam Craigie
Jak Jones 3–2 Elliot Slessor
Pang Junxu 3–2 Jordan Brown
Jak Jones 3–0 Sam Craigie
Pang Junxu 0–3 Elliot Slessor
Jordan Brown 3–2 Sam Craigie
Results not counted after O'Sullivan's withdrawal:
The Winners' Group was played on 12 and 13 March 2024.[36] There were 16 century breaks[17] made in the Winners' Group, the highest being 143 made by Neil Robertson.[18]Mark Selby won the group and the tournament.[37]
Kyren Wilson (ENG) (147)
John Higgins (SCO) (147)
