The 2018 Shoot Out (officially the 2018 Coral Snooker Shoot Out) was a professional ranking snooker tournament, that took place from 8–11 February 2018 in Watford, England. It was played under a variation of the standard rules of snooker, and was the fourteenth ranking event of the 2017/2018 season.

Anthony McGill was the defending champion, but he lost to Mark Davis in the first round, after Davis made a of 102.

Michael Georgiou won his first ever ranking title, beating Graeme Dott 67–56 in the final. None of the top five players in the world rankings at the time, (Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and John Higgins) had entered the tournament.

Tournament format The tournament was played using a variation of the traditional snooker rules. The draw was randomised before each round. All matches were played over a single , each of which lasted up to 10 minutes. The event featured a variable ; shots played in the first five minutes were allowed 15 seconds while the final five had a 10-second timer. All awarded the opponent a . Unlike traditional snooker, if a ball did not hit a on every shot, it was a foul. Rather than a coin toss, a lag was used to choose which player . In the event of a draw, each player received a shot at the this is known as a "blue ball shootout". The player who the ball with the from inside the and the blue ball on its spot with the opponent missing won the match.

Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Winner: £32,000 Runner-up: £16,000 Semi-final: £8,000 Quarter-final: £4,000 Last 16: £2,000 Last 32: £1,000 Last 64: £500 Last 128: £250 (prize money at this stage did not count towards the world rankings) Highest break: £2,000

Total: £146,000 The "rolling 147 prize" for a maximum break stood at £10,000

Tournament draw All times in Greenwich Mean Time. Times for quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are approximate. Players in bold denote match winners.Note: w/d=withdrawn; w/o=walk-over

Round 1 8 February – 12:00

103–0 22–36 32–52 58–20 7–79 33–9 53–4 90–22 59–17 17–51 53–47 34–31 46–11 68–24 87–4 67–0 22–14 39–16 52–54 12–53 90–0 0–44 2–48 34–43

8 February – 19:00

w/d–w/o 0–71 47–43 65–14 79–0 44–17 77–2 32–27 70–27 31–63 19–41 35–16 24–36 55–18 35–67 53–10

9 February – 12:00

59–31 73–41 54–44 51–31 22–14 37–48 13–27 20–49 62–41 1–58 37–57 54–1 22–40 40–26 0–62 18–33 49–14 27–29 34–8 33–43 65–31 9–22 15–37 59–21

Round 2 9 February – 19:00

11–74 43–44 44–0 0–54 5–72 27–26 25–53 37–16 21–31 47–41 31–28 32–33 21–48 84–1 42–10 75–40

10 February – 19:00

45–55 18–33 2–32 36–61 63–15 81–21 56–7 27–24 35–49 95–0 51–0 25–37 10–28 47–52 10–69 68–41

Round 3 11 February – 12:00

1–71 16–45 57–26 11–64 16–26 71–1 79–0 60–0 54–9 41–51 13–31 24–17 1–84 51–29 0–80 71–9

Round 4 11 February – 18:00

47–31 33–21 48–24 40–71 34–69 64–24 61–56 6–45

Quarter-finals 11 February – 20:00

48–9 61–35 41–36 114–9

Semi-finals 11 February – 21:15 53–5 8–59

Final Final: 1 frame. Referee: Desislava Bozhilova Watford Colosseum, Watford, England, 11 February 2018 – 21:45 Michael Georgiou67–56 Graeme Dott

Century breaks Total: 2 109 Michael Georgiou 102 Mark Davis

Notes

References