With the release last week by Matchroom Sport of the new criteria for World 9-Ball Championship player selection, the sports now has a much more clear cut view of who is and who is not invited to the touranment from North America.
Based on the guidelines used by Golf for the Masters, the new World Championship criteria and North American players qualifying look like this...
Category 1:Previous five winners of the World 9-Ball Championship
Alex Pagulayan, Earl Strickland
Category 3: Final 16 from last year's World 9-Ball Championship
Johnny Archer
Category 4:Winner and runner-up from each UPA event with a field of 48 or more players from the last 12 months ending on May 15th
Jeremy Jones, Santos Sambajon, Mike Davis, John Schmidt, Corey Deuel, Danny Basavich, Shawn Putnam, Charlie Williams, Fabio Petroni
Category 5:Winner and runner-up from the US Open and BCA Open
Gabe Owen, Tony Robles
Category 6:Top four finishers from 2004 Canadian National 9-Ball Championship
Alain Martel, Erik Hjorleifson, Luc Salvas, Jeff White
Category 7:Top 12 ranked North American players on the UPA Seeding rankings as of May 15th
Rodney Morris, Charlie Bryant
Category 8
Team USA members from the last three Mosconi Cups
Nick Varner
Using this criteria, this would be the unofficial North American players list for this year and last year's players list as a comparison.
| 2004 | 2005 |
| Tim Hall | Jeremy Jones |
| Corey Harper | Santos Sambajon |
| Earl Strickland | Earl Strickland |
| Tony Crosby | John Schmidt |
| Johnny Archer | Johnny Archer |
| Charlie Williams | Charlie Williams |
| Steve Lillis | Corey Deuel |
| Danny Basavich | Danny Basavich |
| Mike Davis | Mike Davis |
| Danny Harriman | Shawn Putnam |
| Rodney Morris | Rodney Morris |
| Max Eberle | Fabio Petroni |
| Luc Salvas | Luc Salvas |
| Chris Orme | Alain Martel |
| Alex Pagulayan | Alex Pagulayan |
| Cliff Thorburn | Erik Hjorleifson |
| Al Logan | Jeff White |
| Gabe Owen | |
| Tony Robles | |
| Charlie Bryant | |
| Nick Varner |
Please note that the players qualifying through point list guidelines are the only players from that level. (If qualifying players do not accept the invitation, the next lowest ranked player does not get the invite.)
These player lists are completely unofficial and only based on the announced criteria. Official player invitations are expected to be released in mid May.
