The Great White Blog

The top 100 players ranked from Stage 1 to Stage 8 qualified to participate in the Grand Final on December 18 to determine the World Soft Tip Champion and the winner of 1,000,000 HKD.  I played 6 out of the 8 Stages and my final overall ranking was 13.  So how did I do at the Grand Final??

Myself, Robert Heckman, Scotty Burnett and John Part all travelled to Hong Kong and arrived a couple of days early to prepare.  Friday was spent Christmas shopping at the market with Scotty and our friend, Patrick. Later that night, we were invited to go to a Dartslive opening at CoCo Duck bar.  Dartslive is tops when it comes to hosting a party!!  They attracted a large crowd including all the North American players.  We all had a great time eating, drinking, shooting darts with the locals and just hanging out! 

Saturday was the qualifier for the final 16 participants which would make up the 64 competing for the 1,000,000 HKD.  We wanted to check out the hall and see the setup and wish the four Americans good luck on their quest to qualify.  The hall was unbelievable!  TV cameras were being setup and the size of the venue was huge.  I could feel the excitement building!  This was not going to be your normal final event tournament.  I went back to the hotel early that night to relax, eat and sleep in preparation for Sunday’s big day!! 

One problem with being one of the top 16 seeds, you did not know who your draw would be in the top 64 until after the qualifier.  Knowing there would be some dangerous floaters coming out of the qualifier, this made me nervous.  A text from Rob confirmed just that!  I would be playing top Japan player, Akinobu Hamada in the first round.

Sunday, December 18

Up at 6:00 am, showered, breakfast and I was ready to begin my practice routine.  Practiced in the room until 8:45 am and we were at the venue for registration at 9:00 am play to start at 10:00 am.

I was scheduled to be third up in my bracket.  While waiting for my game, I watched fellow Puma players, Burnett, MacKenzie, and Espy play their matches.  Yes, four Puma players in one bracket!!  My match started out with me racing out to a two nil lead with Akinobu winning legs three and four to send it to the fifth leg.  I won the ever important bull and held my nerve to win the match.  This really helped me build my confidence to go forward for the rest of the day.  I then watched MacKenzie (5 seed) play good friend, Scotty Burnett with Burnett pulling out a hard fought fifth leg win.

Round two against Qiao Yafei from China, I shot well and won 3-0 setting up a top 16 match with Scotty Burnett.  When the draw came out, this was what we had hoped for and was our best case scenario since we were in the same bracket.  We traded the first 4 legs and once again I was able to win the bull giving me the start and Scotty calling cricket. In the end I was able to get the win over one of the hottest soft tip players in the world in a 5th leg classic!!

After the long journey, it was then down to the final eight players including myself.  While the Dartslive crew prepared the venue for the live broadcast through USTREAM, the final 8 players were interviewed and we answered questions about our background, nickname and our thoughts for the upcoming match.  The break was 5 hours from my last match with Scotty and when the live broadcast was to begin.  I was not sure how I would be after such a long break but I was able to go back to the hotel for an hour so I could keep my arm lose and rest a bit.

The live broadcast began and the room buzzed with excitement.  This was truly an amazing time and as they announced my name, Christopher White from Canada for the walk-on, I was overwhelmed with readiness and nerves!!  All 8 players made their way to the stage for a quick Q&A session before the matches started.  My match against Shingo Enomata from Japan was the first called to the stage.  I won the bull and was the first to throw.  But if you were watching you would have saw that I started too soon and my first dart (bull) didn’t count!  Ouch!  That was a mistake I didn’t make again!  I wasn’t playing my best and I don’t know if it was nerves or the long break in between the final 16 and final 8 but I was still able to pull out a 3-1 win.  I knew I had to play better in the top 4 if I was going to beat Mr. Darts Legend, Paul Lim.  So I went in the player’s room and focused on my game.  Feeling like I can do this, I was ready when they called the match.  I walked out on stage to the cheers of “Paul Lim, Paul Lim, Paul Lim” which is understandable given he is by far the most popular dart player in Asia. I have known Paul since I was 14 years old and played him many times in both Soft and Steel so I was very comfortable playing against him. I did not want to come this far and not win the title!  However, it was not to be and Paul knocked me out of the tournament with a 4-1 win.  It was by far the worst I played all day although I am not sure if it would have mattered as Paul was great never really giving me a chance.  Of course I was happy with the top 4 finish but I was disappointed I couldn’t have gone further.  The great news is that good friend; Paul went on to win – THE WORLD GRAND FINAL CHAMPIONSHP TITLE and $130k USD!  I don’t have to tell you this but he truly is a gentleman of the game and once again proven he is the best!  Congratulations, my friend! 

My monthly trips to Hong Kong are now done until we hear about the 2012 tour dates.  I seriously hope more North Americans join this tour since it is certainly an experience you should not miss.  Thank you Dartslive for bringing this fantastic journey to dart players from around the world.   You have given us excitement at a level beyond our hopes, so thank you and I look forward to the 2012 tour!  Also, thank you to my family and my sponsors; Puma, Fit Flight and Shade Clothing cause without their support my being part of this tour would not have been possible.

Happy Holidays!