By the players! For the players! >> The OQBA strongly believes in this motto! In that same spirit, we decided to start a friendly cooperative effort to launch a new billiards tournaments league: the Ontario-Quebec Billiards Association Championship League.This is a Tournaments League fueled by the love of the sport!
In that same spirit, we do not take much if any cut at all on every tournament, which allows us to really maximize the payouts and in turn attracts a lot more players.
We (Jason Hubert and I, Mathieu Charlebois) had the idea once we saw there was serious traction in the area for a tournament format like this, so much so that collaborations formed quickly to get this going, and the results speak for themselves ;)
For now this is a handicap format tournament that includes up to Semi-Pro players, and next year there will be at least one "Pro-Challenge" event which will feature a unique tournament format which is designed for the Professsional level players only, on top of our regular league tournaments...
We have 6 tournaments a year in regular season, plus one final in May with a large cash prize added with collaborations from our friends and from our sponsors. With the help from friends and fellow players in the community, we can proivide quality services with the Live Streams, the Web Site, the social media presences and all of the complicated technical bits for basically free/in a collaborative effort... It is by the players, and for the players... We want to see good sportsmanship at all calibers and levels so we aim to please as many people as we can with door prizes, raffle draws, best in rank prizes and multiple level payouts that will entice newcomers and offer challenges to all calibers of play. The more people in the pool, the bigger the payouts of course =).
Rules, Handicaps and Fees
All of our tournaments are run under the following rules and handicaps:
- 9-Ball game
- Double elimination up to the final
- No Soft Breaks - 3-balls passed the side pocket or made
- 9 Ball on the break does not count
- Call shot on the 9
- ALL fouls
- Handicaps
The handicaps are as follows:
Rank |
Races to |
Entry fee |
Season |
Tournament |
B or lower |
5 |
40.00$ |
15.00$ |
15.00$ |
A |
6 |
40.00$ |
15.00$ |
15.00$ |
AA |
7 |
60.00$ |
15.00$ |
15.00$ |
AAA |
8 |
60.00$ |
15.00$ |
15.00$ |
Semi-Pro |
9 |
80.00$ |
15.00$ |
15.00$ |
Seasonal Fee
Each 15.00$ Seasonal Fee is payable once per OQBA Season. It is used to fund the organization's operational requirement for a 1Stat License. Click here for more information on what is included with your 1Stat Seasonal Fee.
Tournament Fee
Every 15.00$ Tournament Fee is payable every tournament. It is used to fuel the OQBA itself by giving us the means to operate every season.
Tournament Fee Explained
15$ = 3 OQBA Functions
- 5.00$ #1 -- goes to buy the different trophies we give out at each Tournament throughout the Season;
- 5.00$ #2 -- goes to the director(s) for the often 20+ hours of work that is required to direct each tournament over the 2 days, and for the preparation work prior and after each event as well;
- 5.00$ #3 -- goes into the league's "Operational & Evergreening" account which is used to pay for the different operational requirements over time like:
- Buy operational furnitures like pens, pencils, envelopes, highlighters, printer ink, printer paper, etc;
- The OQBA website and social media fees;
- Software license fees like Office and Photoshop;
- Monthly fees like YouTube Premium and XSplit;
- Buying new and replacing broken equipment like cameras, computers, wiring, etc
The intent of this self-funding mecanism is to ensure the continuation of the OQBA for the coming years...
Sadly the Pro format and the Challenge of Champions are no longer avaibale in the OQBA...
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The OQBA main circuit is reserved for Semi-Pro and lower ranked players only...
However, if you are ranked Pro and would like to participate, we have a challenge for you too!
- 5 000$ added!
- Double Elimination
- 9-ball
- Call Shot
- All Fouls
- 9 ON THE SPOT (testing concept for more even matchups)
- Winner Break
- A-Side = Races 9
- B-Side = Races to 7
- 150.00$ Pro entry fee, 125.00$ for any other class
- 25$ Pro-Membership Season fee, + 5$ for the pot (+30$ on first tournament)
The prize?
- A uniquely designed, custom made trophy with your name on it
- Your name permanently displayed on all our platforms as an OQBA Pro-Challenge winner
- 1st place gets his/her entry fee paid for another Pro event
- Bragging rights!
So... Do you think you have what it takes to win it all and become an OQBA Challenge of Champions winner?
Ha! We dare you to try!
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The OQBA Seasonal rankings are based on your positional finish every tournament you play!
If you finish in the top 16 players during a tournament, you will get 2 points or more. Anything below 16th position gets 1 point.
Example:
1st |
17 |
2nd |
16 |
3rd |
15 |
4th |
14 |
5th - 6th |
12 |
7th - 8th |
10 |
9th - 12th |
6 |
13th - 16th |
2 |
17th and below |
1 |
In order to bring a fresh take to our tournaments, we decided to change things on many fronts and provide new services to our players:In order to bring a fresh take to our tournaments, we decided to change things on many fronts and provide new services to our players:
Your player statistics will be tracked and updated for each tournament that you participate in. We will try to provide you with more "Calculated" statistics (ex: % of wins vs A AA AAA, % of break and runs, etc), and the scoring sheets have been updated to account for those as well. 1Stat will be calculation season standings and player rankings.
Here is an example of the new scoring sheets, with explanations:
- HCP: Handicap Rank, and Races to
- R: Circle on Break and Runs
- 9: Circle if you make a 9 on the break
You will now be able to pre-register for any upcoming tournaments from our web page, or through the Facebook user group. To register for the next tournament now, visit the Tournaments & Registrations section of our site.
Open the Challonge app or website, and find the OQBA season in the list and click on it. From there you will be able to see and follow the current ongoing tournaments, as well as follow other player progress as the day goes by.
To encourage players of all levels to join, we are offering a prize for both best performances in the B, A and the AA classes of 50$ each tournament, guaranteed, and a small trophy. If more players come, we may even increase the prize!
Because of our collaborators, our sponsors as well as small management fees, we are able to provide good prize money for our tournaments. We prefer to offer better payouts and attract more players, than take a salary for the work we do off-tournament.
As well, we will be returning most if not all of the profit money from the tournaments into the final of the 2022-23 season in May of next year.
During every tournament, we will be live streaming matches on 2 tables, through our new Facebook page OQBA - Streams - ABQO. The streams will be public, so that friends and families can watch without needing to become a member of the league.
We offer an active presence on multiple online platforms such as this web site, a Facebook group, a Facebook Streams page, a YoutTube Channel, etc.