The inaugural staging of the PDC Asian Championship gets underway on Thursday, as the sport’s leading Asian stars battle it out for the $15,000 top prize in Fukuoka, Japan from September 22-25.
The landmark $100,000 event will see players from across the region bidding to claim one of four spots in the 2022/23 Cazoo World Darts Championship.
The 48-player main event will be preceded by two days of Asian Series qualifiers on September 22-23, with four qualifying events taking place across the two days.
There will be almost 200 players competing in the qualifying events on Thursday and Friday, which includes 88 players from Japan and a further 40 from Mongolia.
The last four players from each qualifier will secure their place in the main event, alongside a further ten players from the Asian Series Order of Merit.
They will be joined in Fukuoka by 22 pre-qualified players, including the eight players who represented Japan, Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong at this year’s World Cup of Darts.
Singapore’s legendary star Paul Lim headlines this year’s showpiece, as the 68-year-old eyes a 27th World Championship appearance in December.
Lim – a former World Cup of Darts quarter-finalist – will compete alongside his Singapore team-mate Harith Lim and six-time World Championship qualifier Lourence Ilagan in the main event.
The enigmatic Ilagan claimed seven PDC Asian Tour titles between 2018-2019, and he will be among the leading contenders for the title this weekend.
Regional qualifiers were also held across the continent to determine the remaining pre-qualified players, with China Premier League participant Zhiwei Lin moving straight through to the main event.
The PDC Asian Championship begins with a round-robin stage on Saturday, and the action will be played across eight boards, with the players split into 16 groups of three.
Each group winner will then progress to compete in the last 16 later that day, with Sunday’s bumper session featuring the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
The four semi-finalists will qualify for the 2022/23 Cazoo World Championship, with the winner also guaranteed a place in November’s Cazoo Grand Slam of Darts.
The PDC Asian Championship will be streamed from Thursday to Sunday through PDCTV for all subscribers worldwide - subscription options will include a $1.99 Day Pass and $4.99 Event Pass.
Felix Darts’ YouTube channel will also stream the action from the qualifiers across Asia.
2022 PDC Asian Championship
Confirmed Qualifiers
Paul Lim (Singapore)
Harith Lim (Singapore)
Lourence Ilagan (Philippines)
RJ Escaros (Philippines)
Lee Lok Yin (Hong Kong)
Ching Ho Tung (Hong Kong)
Toru Suzuki (Japan)
Tomoya Goto (Japan)
Christian Perez (Philippines)
Tay Zhao Cheng (Singapore)
Basem Mahmood Mohamed (Bahrain)
Purevloov Tungalag (Mongolia)
Mitsuhiko Tatsunami (Japan)
Man-Lok Leung (Hong Kong)
Zhiwei Lin (China)
Syed Mohd Abdul Mannan (India)
Kam-Weng Cheng (Macau)
Tan Jenn Ming (Malaysia)
Kim Yong-Seok (South Korea)
Yan Bin Chen (Taiwan)
Chaiyan Paiaree (Thailand)
Hussain Nadir Abdulla Ali (UAE)
Schedule of Play
Thursday September 22 (1100 start)
Asian Series Qualifiers 1-2
Friday September 23 (1100 start)
Asian Series Qualifiers 3-4
Saturday September 24 (1100 start)
Round-Robin Stage
Last 16
Sunday September 25 (1200 start)
Quarter-Finals
Semi-Finals
Final
Prize Fund ($US)
Winner: $15,000
Runner-Up: $7,000
Semi-Finalists: $5,000
Quarter-Finalists: $3,000
Last 16: $2,000
Second in Group: $1,500
Third in Group: $1,000
Total: $100,000
Format
Asian Series Qualifiers: Best of seven legs
Round-Robin Stage: Best of nine legs
Last 16: Best of nine legs
Quarter-Finals: Best of 11 legs
Semi-Finals: Best of 11 legs
Final: Best of 13 legs
In the Asian Series Qualifiers, players will receive one point per victory from the first full round drawn without Byes to form the Orders of Merit. Any ties will be split as follows based on all match results: Leg Difference, Legs Won, Legs Won Against Throw, Tournament Average, Play-Off.
Any withdrawal of a pre-qualified player will be replaced by an additional player from the Asian Series Order of Merit.