Stage one is complete at the 2016 China Yushan CBSA “Sanlig Cup” China Billiard World Championship, and the players enjoyed a day of relaxation before stage two begins on Thursday morning. Wednesday was all about a celebration of the event, and the event organizers pulled out all of the stops for this celebration.
The celebration started with the closing of the roads of Yu Shan, so that the players could be loaded on buses and driven to the opening ceremony venue. The streets were lined with flags showing each nationality participating in the event, as well as “Welcome” and “Good Luck” signs in front of numerous businesses. The city came out in droves as tens of the thousands of locals lined the streets to take pictures of the stars of cue sports.
With the arrival of the players at the venue, they were led down a red carpet to a huge banner for the event, with each player stopping to add their autograph to the banner.
The players and select fans were then led into an auditorium for the actual opening ceremony, which started with a handful of speeches from billiards dignitaries from the CBSA, WPA and Star Billiards.
With the speeches complete, the crowd was entertained by a series of performances by local singers, dancers and acrobats that celebrated the event, as well as the Chinese heritage.
Finally, the top billiards dignitaries retook the stage for the ceremonial opening break to start the main stage of this prestigious event.
Play in stage two kicks off at 9am on Thursday morning local time. That is 9pm EST Wednesday night.
A few photos from the qualifications and opening ceremony are available already by clicking on this link or on the photos tab.
We will have online brackets and streaming of select matches throughout all four days of the event.
