The jewel in the crown of professional darts appears on our screens once again with the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship. A fortnight's worth of tantalising tungsten is presented from the iconic Alexandra Palace in north London, with the side attraction being the hordes of smashed punters in various shitty fancy dress costumes they got off eBay for extortionately high prices chanting rubbish and chucking plastic beer glasses at one another.
As is tradition, the reigning champion features on opening night, and Michael van Gerwen kicks off his quest to retain his world title and claim a third in match 3. The tournament begins with two big Willies in the shape of insatiable sex god Steve Beaton and the Republic of Ireland's #1 William O'Connor. The Bronzed Adonis is in good form heading into the tournament, but the Magpie is a dangerous player and it's surprising to think this is his first time at the Worlds.
Two men with big BDO links follow as ex-number 1 James Wilson plays reigning Winmau World Master Kryzysztof Ratajski. The newly monikered "Lethal Biscuit" is the #32 seed, so this is prime opportunity for the near ever-present Euro Tour participant to claim a big upset. Poland's Ratajski fucked off the BDO Worlds to play here, much to the relief of the xenophobes over there.
MVG then starts his Worlds against 2012 Lakeside winner and recently crippled Christian Kist. Even if the Lipstick's arthritis hadn't been playing up, you'd be hard pushed to see him defeat Mighty Mike, who hasn't lost on television since the start of October and appears miles above the rest.
Closing the opening night are a duo with a grand total of zero Ally Pally wins in Welsh rugby roidlet Gerwyn Price and 20-year-old PDPA qualifier winner Ted Evetts. The Iceman has failed in his last three attempts to get past the last 64, and a repeat of SuperTed's PDPA performances could see Price's barren Worlds run continue.
Coverage starts at 7:00pm UK time on Sky Sports Darts (SS Arena).
>Tonight’s matches (best of 5 sets; first to 3 legs in a set) Steve "PHWOARRRRRRRRRR" Beaton (25) v William "Thieving Bastard" O'Connor James "Limp Biscuit" Wilson (32) v Krzysztof "BDO Humiliator" Ratajski MvGOAuTism (1) v Christian "Never been" Kist Gerwyn "Gurning" Price (16) v Ted "Box Head" Evetts
Once again MVG is the outright favourite with the lads at Billy Hill, being 4/5 to defend the title. Just 9 of the field are under 100/1, including the other 4 World Champions in the draw (Gary Anderson at 6, Phil Taylor at 10, Adrian Lewis and Raymond van Barneveld at 50) with major winners Peter Wright at 8, Daryl Gurney at 40 and Mensur Suljovic also at 50. Such have been the achievements of Rob Cross this year that he is 5th favourite at 14s despite his capitulation against Jonny Clayton at the Players Championship Finals. The widest odds are 5000/1 for nobody qualifiers Alen Ljubic of Croatia and Xiaochen Zong of China.
Ties of the first round at Bob Potter's dump include Mark McGeeney against Martin Adams and Ross Montgomery against Scott Waites. There was also the hilarious lie in pic related from the BDO Facebook page.
Sebastian King
So you know Ted Evetts won the PDPA qualifier on 27th November, but who else got through?
Compared to the absolute shitshow of last year which featured 4 elderly cloggers who had absolutely no chance of making it past round 1, it was a far more youthful and watchable trio of qualifiers this time around: out of the 8 quarter-finalists, just one was over 30 years old.
After Josh Payne lost the World Youth Championship final to Dimitri Van den Bergh, this opened up a third qualification spot. The two joining SuperTed were Northern Ireland's dullard Brendan Dolan and Welsh gawper Jamie Lewis; the finger-twirling bore survived 4 match darts from the Welsh #4 in the semifinal and fought back from 4-2 down to win 5-4. The newly nicknamed "Lights Out" Lewis then defeated hungry York skeleton Chris Quantock 5-3 with the History Maker getting hammered 5-1 by Evetts in the final. It's slightly annoying Dolan is here but let's face it: it's better than watching a pissed Mark Frost job to a humiliating loss again, isn't it.
>Former major finalists Wes Newton, Andy Hamilton and Mark Walsh will all have to go to Q-School after losing to Aden Kirk, Ryan Murray in the last 128 and Mick McGowan in the last 64 >PCF upsetters Mickey Mansell and Steve Hine as well as utterly disgusting individuals Andrew Gilding and Robbie Green also all lost in the last 64 to Jeffrey de Graaf, Kirk Shepherd, Nathan Aspinall and Evetts >Paul Nicholson's hopes of following up his Players Championship Finals appearance were dashed after a last 32 exit to Lewis
Jack Robinson
Finally, it's that time again! 2 1/2 weeks of darts ahead, and it starts with Steve Beaton. What more could you ask for?
Lucas Rogers
was refreshing like mad! its here!
Jaxon Collins
Yes yes yes
Nathaniel Rogers
COMFY
Daniel Moore
cheeky fiver on /ourguy/ Zong
Jackson Anderson
is it possible for a taylor mvg final?
Alexander Davis
Yep.
Would have to get past Gando in the QF though.
Ethan Wilson
Yes, but I have a feeling Phil will choke in the second round vs. Justin Pipe
Camden Cook
taylor mvg final to decide who is the true GOAT, nothing would be comfier
Jaxson Ramirez
What irony if your almost 3 decades long wild ride really would end against the guy whose wild ride never ends.
Jackson Cox
Ah yiss, comfy Darts before Christmas
Ayden Bailey
>Adonis up first gonna be a fun night
Tyler Hill
/casual/ here
How fucked am I?
Ayden Wilson
COMFY O M F Y
Ryder Hill
i dont understand american gambling sites
are you betting on him to win the tournament or win his first round?
Caleb Howard
The whole tournament @ 50/1
Andrew Nguyen
It's a risky bet.
Barney doesn't have the best first round tie, and Kyle Anderson could easily do him in Round 2.
>tfw watching the snooks but no comfy /147/ thread
Jace Thompson
>Philth's """"last"""" tournament
Carter Campbell
The fuck is Mardle smoking in that predictions article? Have they and the bookies conspired to pimp out Dana to him in return for that? That being said that bit of the draw Kim's in is probably the weakest to a semi final spot, but its banking on Clownman to not turn up and Lewis not to either, the latter always seems to play well here. Id give Norris and Whitlock evens against him as well on recent form. And yet he thinks he could be runner up? The mans off his head.
Looks like the darts has finally caught up with the rest of the Sky rebrand.
Blake Cook
...
Cameron Barnes
...
Gabriel Taylor
what was his end game here?
Grayson Martin
Anything interesting happen in the tournament so far?
Cameron Campbell
ARRRR
Michael James
ronnie destroying the numptys
Asher Jackson
need my guy bruguier to shock the world and win it all
Juan Bell
Not watched darts all year. Is it just MVGWINSLOL now?
Jordan Perry
He's unbeaten on TV since October but didn't win every major this year.
Adam James
BEATON ON SKY SPORTS DARTS NOW
Easton Perez
>tfw no /CUBE/ to block MVG's path
Matthew Jones
Also, who the fuck is Rob across?
Hunter Baker
Yeah, rip
David Allen
*cross That was a fun night
Caleb Kelly
not getting da beetus?
Dominic Peterson
Rob Cross you mean.
Breakthrough star of the year: won a Tour Card through the Challenge Tour in 2016, won 4 Players Championships and was seeded #1 for the Players Championship Finals, made the European Championship final and is odds on to reach the top 16 after less than a year as a professional.
Ayden Young
So then fellas
>who will win the title? >who do you want to win the title (realistically) >who do you want to win the title regardless? >who don't you want to win? >random players you want to do well
Brayden Watson
Bazza's English MVG clone
Hunter Sanders
MVG RVB RVB Snakeshite I’m out of steam now
Brandon James
>MVG >MVG or Gando >Mensur or BUNT MAN >Pheel >Hendo, DVdB, Schindler
Sebastian Evans
here's this years cheat sheet
Joseph James
And the 2018 World Darts Championship starts now.
Leo Russell
>who will win the title? MvG >who do you want to win the title (realistically) Gando >who do you want to win the title regardless? Mens or Shitlock. >who don't you want to win? Gurney. Imagine him on stage with the trophy crying rivers. >random players you want to do well Hendo, Steve Lennon, Sexy Steve, and Adrian Lewis, because we need prime Lewis as a counterweight to MvGwinslol
Gabriel Young
Lads. It's happening.
Elijah Williams
Yes, I’d like to see Lewis in the final to be honest.
Anthony Campbell
Johnny Part looking very trim.
Nathaniel Russell
Good stream?
Kayden Brown
The BBC America site has it for the Yanks.
Jace Mitchell
>that MVG vs Barney semi
Thomas Sullivan
>who will win the title? MVG >who do you want to win the title (realistically) Cross >who do you want to win the title regardless? Cross still but Beaton/Hendo/Pipe/Jeff Smith would all be hilarious. >who don't you want to win? Pheel >random players you want to do well Dobey, Pipe, Wade, Anderson etc., you get where im going here. Someone to knock feel out before the final basically.
Elijah Anderson
MVG Phil Mensur Gurney, Chizza (is he even a threat) Pipe, any American, Wade, BvdP
Daniel Hall
Chizzy is as threatening to a major as Terry Jenkins was.
wew, live with no sign-in. Huge move. Have always thought this sport had the biggest upside out of all of them. Relatable players, game of skill, good atmosphere which is the biggest of them all (realistically, the atmosphere bit is why all of these soccer bandwagoners love ____ til I die, not because they actually enjoy the sport)
Joshua Howard
espn3 has had the premier league and the Worlds for the last few years, this is the first time in a bit they've not broadcast the WDC
Owen Phillips
The wikipedia page for the tournament says its delayed? Hope not
but no one watches ESPN3. Even when I had access to ESPN3 I'd forget about it and use the easier 'illegal' streaming sites anyway and its literally one-click and comes with the british commercials for some extra fun
in that case its a shame, but the streaming is huge. hd on a real platform (not the garbage that is espn3) makes it so much more accessible. at least its better than "eleven sports", which is also on go90 but still more of a pain if you've seen all of the commercials on that channel.
Brandon Cook
DICKS OUT
Dylan Jenkins
Fuck off then and make a /147/ thread then
Why do you snooker faggots always talk about that gay shit on here?
Connor Watson
DICKS OUT, LADS
Evan Scott
PHWOAR
Dominic Cox
Girlfriend just walked in and is now leaving me
Gavin Jones
Get in lad. 14 days of darts without interruptions.
Camden Torres
My body is ready!
Bentley Brown
Sky gone all out on the graphical revamp.
Wyatt Bell
BORING BORING TABLES
Tyler Martinez
>Studd actually saying "the sexiest man in darts" about Beat ABSOLUTE MADMAN
David Perry
You think they will do this awesome Yaya Kolo chant again? I really enjoy that one.
Luis Torres
Every year the same dilemma, watch the tv broadcast with shit Danish commentator or go through the trouble of streaming with equally shit but at least entertaining Brits.
Nathan Allen
Wonder if this lad's chant will catch on.
Oliver Thomas
Same here. German commentator especially crap today, but TV quality pictures without delay is a strong argument..
Elijah Richardson
...
Luke Howard
>sid waddle
Austin Parker
inb4 beaten Beaton
Nolan Carter
>Paddy darts
Carter Ramirez
>Not going for the bull for 164 >"muh setup" >miss 6 at doubles >lose leg >the city of O'Connor
Henry Lee
>winner of this plays Chizzy/Vincent DOUBLES DOUBLES NOWHERE
Ayden Gutierrez
Cruel desu, O'Connor throwing decent darts at dubs, but they're just not going in.
Carson White
>the city of O'Connor
Julian Baker
kek
William Williams
>adverts but I already paid obscene amounts for sky...
Landon Morales
yfw Taylor loses in round 2
Nathan Fisher
>O'Connor throwing his flights into the crowd after set 1 R A T T L E D
