History
As more players started to compete on the circuit in the 1970s, it became increasingly necessary to seed the tournaments, precipitating the "Order of Merit" for the 1975/1976 season. The system was very basic, with seedings based on the results of the last three world championships, with the winner awarded five points, the runner-up four, and so on down to one point for players who lost in the last 16. Rankings were formally introduced in 1976 after the World Championship for the 1976/1977 season, using the same criteria.
By the 1982/1983 season many more tournaments were being contested, and it seemed reasonable to take those results into consideration as well. The Professional Players Tournament and International Open were awarded ranking status, working on the same system but with the world championship from 1983 onwards carrying double points. The Classic carried ranking points from the 1983/1984 season, and the UK Championship and British Open from 1984/1985.
The ranking point allocation was revised slightly with winners of all bar the world championship now receiving six points, runners-up five, down to one point for the last 32; the world championship more or less stayed as it was with ten points for the winner, incrementally reduced by two points for each preceding round, but now awarded one point for the last 32 in line with the other tournaments. In addition to ranking points, merit and frame points were also awarded which were used as a tie-break when players were on equal ranking points. The revised system was now based on only the two previous seasons, and updated annually after the world championship.
When the game went open for the 1991/1992 season, the ranking point allocations were altered by several factors to accommodate the influx of new players. Since then, the tie-break system has also been dropped, but the system has remained basically the same up until the 2009/2010 season, with players awarded incrementally more points for each successive round, the world and UK championships carrying slightly more points than the other events, and the rankings updated annually after the world championship. For the 2010/2011 season, the system was revised once more to incorporate ranking updates after every tournament—instead of once a season—in an effort to make the seedings for tournaments more reflective of current form.
Read more about this topic: Snooker World Rankings
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