We were all eagerly awaiting the legendary Stephen Hendry who was  set to make his anticipated comeback, but withdrew on Friday January 15 and has replaced by John Astley.    

Mark Selby ,Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are also in the draw.

The players have been split into 16 groups of eight for the initial round-robin phase.                                                    

All matches are best-of-three frames, and the top two in each group will progress to the second group stage.

We then see the second phase will feature 32 players split into four groups of eight, and the top two in each group will then progress.

The player who finishes top of the final group of eight players will be crowned the champion of the inaugural edition of the event.