The Players Championship Finals is a prestigious PDC darts tournament and the 2019 event will be the twelfth since its inception.
The Butlin’s Resort in Minehead has become the spiritual home of this competition, with 64 leading players heading to Somerset to compete and there is a prize fund of £500,000 available which includes a £100,000 first prize.
The tournament runs over three days between 22-24 November, with the top 64 players from the 30 Players Championship events making an appearance. However, the seedings often look strange considering that it largely depends on performance in these events.
Quite simply, this is a straight knockout tournament where the 64 players all compete in the first round and these matches are the best of 11 legs. Therefore, it’s a race to six legs and there’s no time to make a slow start.
The second round matches are also the best of 11 legs, while the sixteen players remaining in the competition then enter a knockout phase where the matches are played over the best of 19 legs.
The same applies to the quarter final games before the semi-finals are over the best of 21 legs and the final is over the same distance so it’s a simple case of reaching the 11 leg figure to claim the title.
Can Anyone Stop MVG in Minehead?
Michael van Gerwen has had a typically exceptional year and he recently landed the Champions League of Darts title to the World Grand Prix, Premier League Darts, The Masters and World Championship crowns which have already been lifted.
The Dutchman’s record in this tournament has been excellent over the past five years. He won three consecutive Players Championship Final titles between 2015-2017 before finishing runner-up in last year’s event.
MVG was beaten by Daryl Gurney on that occasion and there was a glimmer of hope for the competition considering that Peter Wright was in a commanding position in the Champions League of Darts final recently although Snakebite was unable to get over the line against this fearsome opponent.
Iceman Top Seed in Minehead
Gerwyn Price is the number one seed for this tournament and the Welshman will love the fact that he’s got this accolade after proving to be the consistently high performer in the Players Championship events during the course of the season.
Iceman has also been coming back to better form and played well in the recent Champions League where he was narrowly edged out by Van Gerwen at the semi-final stage, with that 11-10 defeat giving him plenty of encouragement even if the defeat must have hurt at the time.
Similarly, Wright will feel as though a first major title since that UK Open triumph in 2017 is just around the corner, with Snakebite coming agonisingly close in the recent Champions League and he’s starting to be regarded as the perennial bridesmaid considering how many runner-up accolades he has.