6.6 Ratification of the 2015 World Tour official documents
The following changes were presented and proposed:
The rationale behind the changes is to make the events more
attractive for the TV and media especially in the Super Series.
Further investigation in sport presentation should follow, in order to
have the events presented in a more professional and consistent way,
including fixed schedule for the last 3 days with more matches on 1
table.
Suggested change in the playing system for the Super series: 32
players in the main draw (16 seeded and 16 qualified).
The minimum prize money has been raised in all 3 tiers; in the 2015
calendar there are 6 Super, 6 Major and 11 Challenge Series events
plus the Grand Finals.
For the Challenge series the number of days is set to 5 days and 6
events, whereby TV production needs to be secured for at least 1 day
(before it wasn’t compulsory).
For the Grand Finals the prize money will be redistributed: from
USD1,000,000 to USD500,000; the incentive didn’t result in an
increased interest in qualification. However, with the redistribution
each tour event will have more prize money, and the total fund for
the World Tour is increased to USD3,000,000 (USD240,000 increase
compared to 2014).
The documents were ready for distribution.
7-EC-12-2014
The Executive Committee ratified all the proposed changes and modifications
related to the GAC Group 2015 World Tour. Any possible future changes for 2016
and beyond will be analyzed after a review of the Series.
6.7 Ranking system 2015 and testing:
For the 2015 World Ranking System a new Bonus category, B5 –
“Regional Events and Other Open International Competitions (all age
categories)”, will be introduced.
In the B4 Bonus Points category the “Multi-Sport Competitions”
should not be listed to avoid not being complete, instead only the
general reference has to be kept.
A compression of the January 2015 ranking will be performed (last
time done in 2010) in order to make the gap between players
smaller, which allows more dynamics in terms of movements.
The conditions to enter on the World Ranking List will be relaxed,
which will result in achieving initial player status easier and increase
the overall number of players on the List.
In relation to the 4 months inactivity period it was noticed that the
status of these players was confusing as they were not allocated a
nominal position, but they still appeared on the World Ranking List
and if participating at a certain events they were considered on the
seeding list. 3 different options were presented:
a) To continue with the current system;
b) To put on a separate list the inactive players, i.e. to create and
Inactivity List, from which the inactive players would still be
considered for seeding, but not for the selections, qualifications and
invitations for specific tournaments); and
c) Players with 4 months inactivity are shaded and receive an
inactivity warning, but keep their ranking position and consequently
are considered as active players in terms of seeding, selection,
qualifications and invitations, which was the former system.
8-EC-12-2014
The Executive Committee approved the 2015 World Ranking System with all the
presented changes, and decided to create an “Inactivity List”: Players with 4
months inactivity (grey shaded) are indicated on a separate list. Players on the
“inactivity list” are considered for seeding purposes, but not for selections,
qualifications and invitations to specific tournaments.
A comprehensive analysis with different testing calculations shall be
carried out based on the assumption that the World Ranking system
doesn’t support in the best possible way the ITTF competition
properties, which makes it very difficult to sell them effectively.
The system needs to be reviewed together with the Athletes
Commission as some anomalies are occurring, for example the
participation at the World Tour has a minor impact on the World
Ranking List.
The proposal is to test different ranking systems that will be run in
parallel to the current one allowing comparisons.
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There will be 5 different tests to be run, 3 of them proposed by the
Athletes Commission.
A working group will be nominated composed by the following
members: the President, 1 representative of the Athletes
Commission, 1 staff member, the Technical Commissioner. For the
future it is recommended to involve also other external stakeholders
and coaches, journalists and players from different levels/strengths in
order to get an as objective picture as possible.
No major changes should be adopted before the 2016 Olympic
Games.