Championship League is a professional snooker tournament, devised by Matchroom Sport. The tournament was originally held at the Crondon Park Golf Club in Stock, Essex, from its debut in 2008 until 2016. From 2017 it has been held in Coventry, Barnsley, Milton Keynes and Leicester.
John Higgins is the reigning champion of the invitational tournament and Shaun Murphy is the reigning champion of the ranking tournament.
History and format
The event was introduced in 2008 by Barry Hearn to provide additional competition and as a qualifier to the Premier League Snooker series.
A ranking event version of the tournament began from September 2020, played in a different format to its invitational, non-ranking counterpart and open to the entire World Snooker Tour.
In June 2020 there was a one-off, round-robin, non-ranking edition of the tournament, played in another different format, held in Milton Keynes.
Invitational version format
In the invitational, non-ranking version, 25 professionals take part. There is no audience. Players earn money for every frame won and there are also prizes for being a semi-finalist, runner-up and winner of each group, with more money involved in the winners' group. In the first two years all matches in the group stages were the best of four, meaning that the matches could end in a draw as all the four frames were played, and the semi-finals and final were best of five. Since 2010 all matches are best of five. The competition runs over eight groups, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a play-off, the winner of which qualifies for the winners' group. The bottom two players of each league are eliminated and the remaining four move to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. The winners play in the final group with the champion taking a place in that year's Premier League Snooker until 2012, and in that year's Champion of Champions from 2013.
Ranking version format
In the ranking version, 128 players take part in 32 rounds of group matches with each group consisting of four players. There is no audience. All matches are the best of four with three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. The 32 players that top the group tables qualify for the group winners' stage, consisting of eight groups of four players, and the eight winners from the group winners' stage qualify for the two final groups. The winners of these two groups play a best-of-five final. The champion takes a place in that year's Champion of Champions.
Maximum breaks
There have been twelve maximum breaks in the history of the tournament, ten in the invitational version and two in the ranking version as follows:Note: numbers in parentheses are the order from the official list of maximum breaks.
Invitational version maximums
On 8 January 2014 by Shaun Murphy against Mark Davis in a Group 2 league match. (103) On 5 January 2015 by Barry Hawkins against Stephen Maguire in a Group 1 league match. (111) On 10 February 2015 by David Gilbert against Xiao Guodong in a Group 7 league match. (114) On 25 February 2016 by Fergal O'Brien against Mark Davis in a Group 6 league match. (118) On 10 January 2017 by Mark Davis against Neil Robertson in the final frame of the Group 3 final match. (127) On 2 March 2017 by Mark Davis against John Higgins in a Winners' Group league match. (129) On 26 January 2018 by Martin Gould against Li Hang in a Group 6 league match. (135) On 26 March 2018 by Luca Brecel against John Higgins in a Group 7 league match. (136) On 22 January 2019 by David Gilbert against Stephen Maguire in a Group 5 league match. (147) On 4 January 2021 by Stuart Bingham against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in a Group 1 league match. (165)
Ranking version maximums
On 13 September 2020 by Ryan Day against Rod Lawler in a Stage 1, Group 2 league match. (158) On 30 October 2020 by John Higgins against Kyren Wilson in a Stage 3, Group 2 league match. (159)
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for both the invitational and ranking versions of the Championship League is shown below.
Invitational version prize fund
Groups 1–7
Winner: £3,000
Runner-up: £2,000
Semi-final: £1,000
Frame-win (league stage): £100
Frame-win (play-offs): £300
Highest break (from 2011 to present): £500
Winners' Group
Winner: £10,000
Runner-up: £5,000
Semi-final: £3,000
Frame-win (league stage): £200 (£300 in 2011 and 2012) Frame-win (play-offs): £300 Highest break (from 2011 to present): £1,000