Today we see the announcement of the players draw of The first world ranking event of the season which will see 128 players at the Morningside Arena, Leicester commencing on the 18th July . Stage one will run from 18-23 July, 26-30 July and 2-6 August. Stage two takes place from August 9-12, with the third and final stage on August 13.

This season we see Hong Kong’s On Yee who is one of two women competing on the World Snooker Tour, alongside Reanne Evans. The group featuring Ronnie O’Sullivan, On Yee, Mark Joyce and Ian Burns will take place on July 20.

The World number one Judd Trump has been drawn into a group with Anthony Hamilton, Lee Walker and Rod Lawler on Friday August 6. John Higgins’ group sees a number of  International players as on July 27, he will take on Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham, Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo and Iran’s Soheil Vahedi.

By the time we reach July 29,  we see the Defending Champion Kyren Wilson  compete against Sam Craigie, Ben Hancorn and Dylan Emery.

We see each group of four players who will be compete in a round-robin format. Each match is four frames, though if the score reaches 3-0 then the fourth frame will not be played.

Players will be awarded three points for a win and one point for a drawn match. The group table standings will be determined by the following criteria, in this order:

1) Most points

2) Net frame difference

3) Result of match between the two players in question (should three or more players be tied then a mini table will be produced using the criteria above).

4) Highest break in the group.

5) If the highest break is also tied, the next highest break made by the players in question will be used.

The 32 group winners in stage one will go through to stage two.

The Final Prize money of £20,000 is up for grabs along with the Trophy but more importantly it is critical for players to start the season bringing everything they have to the table as we know this is going to be a tough season with some phenomenal players hoping to reach the number one spot .