u/HelixCatus

We've witnessed perhaps the most dramatic World Championship in recent years, and after 17 days of action, 22-year-old Wu Yize emerged as China's second World Champion and the second youngest winner in the history of the tournament!

Meanwhile at r/snooker, we congratulate u/OldManOfTheSea2021 for winning the prediction tournament! They correctly predicted both finalists, but tipped Murphy instead of Wu for the title. There is actually a prediction with more points on the leaderboard, which was simply titled "Billy G World Championship Prediction". "Billy G" correctly predicted Wu as the winner, but we have to disqualify them due to not specifying the reddit username. Please remember to do so in the future, or your prediction won't count!

Shout out to third place u/Mysterious-Panda-913, as well as the fourth and fifth place u/roguerose and u/dexysmidnighthummers, who both corrected tipped Wu as the World Champion. And special shout out to u/Distinct_Pick6261 for correctly predicting all 16 first round match results, very impressive!

So that wraps it up for this season's r/snooker Prediction Tournaments, I hope you've had fun! We will return for the next season in late July, with the return of the real fourth major – the China Open. See you in the summer!

 

➡️ r/snooker 2026 World Championship Prediction Tournament Leaderboard ⬅️

🏆 r/snooker Prediction Tournament Hall of Frame 🏆

What an incredible 17 days we've witnessed at the Crucible!

Here at r/snooker, we've had more than 27,500 comments from 1,600 unique users in the live discussion threads throughout the tournament, a 25% increase in both compared to last year. Thank you for your contribution to make these threads a lively hub of Crucible chats, in the most amazing time of year for snooker fans!

This plot is an analysis to show the highlights of the tournament, according to the number of comments posted per hour in the discussion threads. Here they are:

Highlights of the 2026 World Championship: Analysis Plot

Qualifying and Judgment Days:

• Chang Bingyu makes a maximum break, but is still defeated by Luca Brecel.
• Fan favorites Luca Brecel and Jack Lisowski succumbs on Judgement Day.
• Four debutants qualify for the Crucible – Antoni Kowalski, Stan Moody, Liam Pullen, and He Guoqiang.

Last 32:

• Stan Moody surges to a 7–3 lead over Kyren Wilson, but Wilson won seven frames in a row to prevail 10–7.
• Late night Crucible drama in the early round: Shaun Murphy defeats Fan Zhengyi in a tightly-fought match that culminated in a tense decider.
• 15 of the 16 seeds came through. The only exception is Si Jiahui, who lost 10–3 to Hossein Vafaei.

Last 16:

• Two-table setup from the gods: all three Class of '92 players play at the same time during the evening session on April 25.
• The best day of snooker, so far: both John Higgins vs. Ronnie O'Sullivan and Hossein Vafaei vs. Judd Trump reach their climax in dramatic deciders on the same day, with victories for Higgins and Vafaei.
• Wu Yize displays tactical brilliance as well as incredible potting to overcome Mark Selby.
• Zhao Xintong encountered Ding Junhui in a widely-anticipated match, but Zhao came through with relative ease without playing at his best.

Quarter-finals

• Shaun Murphy continues his excellent form by defeating the defending champion and tournament favorite Zhao Xintong.
• For the 1,000,000th time in his career, John Higgins recovers from a deficit to win the match, this time over Neil Robertson.

Semi-finals

• The brilliant meets the absurd: you can write a whole book about the saga that is Wu Yize vs. Mark Allen. Outrageous potting, top-notch safety play, ludicrous 100-minute frame, disruption from "protesters", that black, and of course, a deciding frame. What did this match not have?

Final

• What happens when two of the most attacking players come up against each other in a 35-frame marathon? An incredible display of potting, breaks, and sometimes, "safety shots" that are not really safe.
• Only the fourth-ever decider in a Crucible final was won by Wu Yize with a 85 break after a do-or-die red to the middle, and he became China's second World Champion, and the second-youngest winner in history.