Championship prize set at 100 million won; 10-team format retained
Doubles format changed to scotch doubles for Set 2
The professional billiards PBA Team League is set to enter its seventh season.
The Professional Billiards Association (PBA), led by President Yoon Young-dal, announced it will hold the "Welcome Savings Bank PBA Team League 2026-2027 Gwangmyeong Tour (Round 1)" at the Gwangmyeong Citizens' Gymnasium in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, from July 5 to 9.
The seventh season will follow the same format as last season, with five rounds in total. The championship team will receive a prize of 100 million won ($64,800), while the runner-up will take home 50 million won.
The postseason MVP will receive 5 million won, and each round MVP will receive 1 million won. Round 1 will be held in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province; Round 2 in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province; and Round 3 in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province.
The league will again feature 10 teams this season. Although SK Rent-a-Car ended its sponsorship ahead of the new season, the foreign-player club Breakers has joined the league.
In the postseason, the winners of each of the five regular-season rounds advance. If a team wins multiple rounds, the next-highest team in the overall regular-season standings takes the open postseason berth.
The postseason seeding system has also been revised. Previously, postseason brackets were determined solely by regular-season standings among the five qualifying teams. Starting this season, when a substitute team advances in place of a round winner, the actual round winners are seeded into the higher brackets first — meaning any team that reaches the postseason without winning a round must work its way up from the lower bracket, including a wildcard stage.
Also, the men's doubles Set 2, which had been played in the K-doubles format — where Player A continues to shoot after scoring — will switch to scotch doubles, in which Players A and B alternate shots. With this change, all doubles matches in a single Team League game will be played in the scotch doubles format starting this season.
yjc@heraldcorp.com
