THE second Cash Converters World Cup of Darts begins in Germany on Friday, as Raymond van Barneveld and Vincent van der Voort bid to take the title back to the Netherlands.
The tournament was introduced to great success in December 2010, with the top two ranked players from 24 nations defying a foot of snow to compete in north-east England.
The hosts' team of Phil Taylor and James Wade were stunned by Spanish pair Antonio Alcinas and Carlos Rodriguez in the second round of the event as the colourful pair went on to reach the semi-finals.
They would be denied at that stage by the Netherlands, as van Barneveld and his then partner Co Stompe went on to take victory with a triumph against Wales in the final.
That success is van Barneveld's only televised triumph since 2007, but after losing in the first round of the World Championship before Christmas he is determined to bounce back in style.
"The last World Cup was a brilliant memory for me," said van Barneveld. "I loved every minute of playing with Co and I can't wait to play with Vincent this time.
"We're determined to keep this title. I'm practising every day and I played really well in Spain last weekend, and this year I want to prove a lot of people wrong - I'm not finished.
"Losing in the first round of the World Championship to James Richardson was one of the saddest things in my career.
"I know what I can do but I was lazy last year, not practising much. I needed two or three weeks to recover and I said to myself that now I'm going to work hard and prove that I'm still top class."
Taylor will be partnered by World Champion Adrian Lewis in this year's tournament, with the Stoke pair set to open their challenge against either Canada - featuring three-time World Champion John Part - or Hungary.
"I'm excited," said Taylor. "I've not played since the World Championship so I'm itching to get back up there, and I'm looking forward to playing with Adrian.
"It was disappointing to lose early on in the last World Cup but this is a new chance. Adrian's obviously in great form because he's just won the World Championship again, and it should be good fun."
Lewis has overtaken James Wade to become world number two in the past year to replace the left-hander in the English pairing, and is hoping to continue his run of success in Hamburg.
"I've been so used to playing against Phil that it might take a little bit of time getting used to playing with him!" he joked.
"I'm really looking forward to it and it would be a fantastic competition to win, although there are some great teams out there."
The World Cup of Darts will begin on Friday afternoon with eight first round matches which will feature the teams ranked 9-24.
Canada's John Part and Ken MacNeil play the Hungarian pairing of Nandor Bezzeg and Kristian Kaufmann in the opening game, before Ireland's William O'Connor and Mick McGowan play the Malaysian duo of Lee Choon Peng and Amin Bin Abdul Ghani.
American duo Darin Young and Gary Mawson play the Philippines' Christian Perez and Lourence Ilagan, while Austria's Mensur Suljovic and Dietmar Burger play the New Zealand team of Warren French and Preston Ridd.
Sweden's Magnus Caris and Dennis Nilsson meet the Japanese pairing of Haruki Muramatsu and Morihiro Hashimoto, while the South African team of Devon Petersen and Shawn Hogan take on the 2010 semi-finalists Spain, who are again represented by Alcinas and Rodriguez.
Finland's Petri Korte and Marko Kantele play Croatia's Boris Krcmar and Tonci Restovic, and the final first round game sees Gibraltar's Dylan Duo and Dyson Parody meet Denmark's Per Laursen and Jann Hoffmann.
The first round will be played in a Doubles format of the best of nine legs, with the second round comprising Singles games to be played on Friday night and Doubles matches on Saturday afternoon.
England play Canada or Hungary, with the winners progressing to meet either Germany, USA or the Philippines in the quarter-finals.
The Welsh pairing of Mark Webster and Richie Burnett meet Finland or Croatia as they bid to emulate their run to the 2010 final, when Webster was partnered by Barrie Bates.
However, their potential quarter-final opponents would be either Scotland - represented by Premier League champion Gary Anderson and colourful Peter Wright - Spain or South Africa.
Number two seeds Australia, represented by Simon Whitlock and Paul Nicholson, will play either the Republic of Ireland or Malaysia in the second round, with the Belgian debutants Kim Huybrechts and Kurt Van De Rijck playing Sweden or Japan.
Northern Ireland's Brendan Dolan and Michael Mansell play Gibraltar or Denmark, with the Netherlands meeting Austria or New Zealand in their second round tie.
The tournament will continue throughout the weekend with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals played with a mixture of Singles and Doubles matches.
The event will be screened live on Sky Sports HD in the UK, on RTL7 in the Netherlands, Fox Sports in Australia and OSN Showtime Network across the Middle East & North Africa, and is also available outside of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands through LIVEPDC.TV.
Click here for the full Schedule of Play in our Cash Converters World Cup of Darts NetZone