Professional pool’s version of “Chicken” is about to get real.

Or, at least, it seems that way.

The World Nineball Tour Hanoi Open is set for early October, and the World Pool Association (WPA) has classified the Matchroom-promoted 9-ball event as the first fully “unsanctioned” event of the year and has, once again, informed players that participation will come with consequences.

If you recall, the turf-protecting WPA issued a similar warning exactly one year ago, issuing a statement that gave pro players roughly five months to decide on which side of the WNT/WPA fence they chose to reside. The cutoff at that time was March 1, 2024, which coincided with the conclusion of the WPA-sanctioned World 10-Ball Championship in Las Vegas.

Subsequently, the WPA, hoping to continue negotiations with Matchroom to find an amicable alternative to forcing players to make a choice, effectively lifted that ban by opting to “sanction” Matchroom events through the year, including the U.K. Open, European Open and U.S. Open. Except, of course, the Hanoi Open. According to the WPA at the time, the sanctions (which Matchroom publicly dismissed) were in recognition of events that had been sanctioned the year before.

And, so, according to the WPA’s August statement issued to all players, any players that strike a ball in anger once the Hanoi Open begins will be suspended and forfeit their WPA license. (I had no idea players had licenses with the WPA! Are they like ID cards?) The punishment is banishment from WPA events for six months, after which they must submit a request for reinstatement and pay a $500 fine. (I was so hoping a confessional where players ask for forgiveness was part of the process. That would have been cool!)

But the war of words amped up in August, when a group of players loyal (or so it seemed) to the WNT shared a mostly scripted condemnation of the Asian Confederation of Billiard Sports’ (ACBS) threat against players and promoters in Asian playing in or producing “non-sanctioned Billiard Sports events.” The ACBS has been the most active and intimidating of the WPA continental member federations, threatening everyone but maintenance staff for involvement in any event in Asia not stamped with the ACBS’ imprimatur. In fact, the ACBS has spent most of the past year trying to prevent the Hanoi Open from taking place and has issued bans against players all over Asia for various infractions. In retaliation for non-sanctioned events, in June the ACBS suspended a number of billiards and snooker players from international competitions — including the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and the World Three-Cushion Championship — for six months.

The association’s particularly vengeful stance on Vietnam is hardly surprising, seeing that, on the heels of last year’s wildly successful Matchroom/WNT Hanoi Open, Vietnam is suddenly the hottest market on the planet for pool. “If you’re going to run an event in Vietnam, damn it, it’s going to go through the WPA!” is the new WPA mantra.

Long story short, the statements released by WNT players in support of their Asian contemporaries, condemned the ACBS threats and each player vowed to not participate in a WPA-sanctioned event for the remainder of 2024 or until the player bans were lifted. Among the players were German superstar Josh Filler and Austria’s Albin Ouschan.

Imagine the reaction of those players, then, when both Filler and Ouschan showed up three weeks later at the WPA World 8-Ball Championship in New Zealand.

Not surprisingly, both players were summarily skewered on social media for not living up to their words and embarrassing their WNT contemporaries. Both players issued statements rationalizing their changes of heart for reasons ranging from financial hardships to contractual commitments. The social media roasting was especially harsh against Filler, whose brashness at the table has made him a player either loved or loathed. But in his somewhat remorseless response to social media’s reaction, Filler did say that, following the Hanoi Open, “if the WPA bans me afterwards, ok, that’s what it is then.”

The World 8-Ball Championship did offer a glimpse into a list of players that may well choose to avoid the Hanoi Open and stick with events approved by their own national federations until the issue is resolved. Included among the players skipping Hanoi will be the bulk of the Polish contingent (save for maverick Wiktor Zielinski), Greece’s Alex Kazakis and Estonia’s Denis Grabe, all currently ranked in the WNT top 100.

Those players opting to skip the Hanoi Open appear to be safe from losing status in the WNT, at least for the time being. That could change over time as more WNT events are skipped.

In the meantime, players and fans alike will anxiously await the doom and gloom that threatens to follow the completion of the Hanoi Open. Matchroom and the WPA appear to be at an impasse on finding a solution, both instead hellbent on seeing this game of chicken through to its conclusion, with the game’s top players forced to choose sides.

And just when you thought the game was about to break through!