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The PDC Darts World Series rolls on into Japan this weekend in the second World Series event of the year following Michael van Gerwen’s victory over Phil Taylor in the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters back in May.
The format for the tournament will see the eight PDC representatives play the other eight Japanese representatives in the first round in a first to six straight knockout match.
The PDC will be represented by World number one Michael van Gerwen, sixteen-times World champion Phil Taylor, current World Champion and Premier League champion Gary Anderson, two-time back-to-back World Champion Adrian Lewis, multiple major finalist Peter Wright, multiple major winner James Wade, five-time World champion Raymond van Barneveld and Premier League star Stephen Bunting.
The eight PDC stars have already been seeded, and will find out who their Japanese first round opponents will be in a pre-event launch on Friday 26th June. The Japanese players will be Haruki Muramatsu, Sho Katsumi, Masumi Chino, Morihiro Hashimoto, Katsuya Aiba, Yuki Yamada, Shintaro Inoue and Chikara Fujimori. We saw Haruki Maramatsu and Morihiro Hashimoto play in the World Cup of Darts for Japan, and were knocked out in the second round by England’s Phil Taylor and Adrian Lewis.
The eight first round ties will be played on the Saturday in the evening session, starting at 6PM local time in Japan, and then the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be played in the evening session on Sunday evening, starting at the same time.
The Tournament Draw Bracket:
Michael van Gerwen (1) v
Stephen Bunting (8) v
Peter Wright (5) v
Adrian Lewis (4) v
Phil Taylor (2) v
Raymond van Barneveld (7) v
James Wade (6) v
Gary Anderson (3) v
In a new event in November after the five World Series events have been completed, there will be a World Series finals weekend, where the players will compete to find out the overall winner of the World Series. Leading up the climax in November, there will be a league table, and the scoring is as follows.
Winner – 12 Points
Runner-Up – 8 Points
Semi-Finalists – 5 Points
Quarter-Finalists – 3 Points
First Round Losers (Last 16) – 1 Point
After Michael van Gerwen’s triumph in the Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters, going into the second World Series event, the league table is as follows.
World Series League Table:
12 Michael van Gerwen
8 Phil Taylor
5 Gary Anderson
5 Adrian Lewis
3 Peter Wright
3 James Wade
3 Raymond van Barneveld
3 Stephen Bunting
