The 2023 PDC Asian Championship will take place in Japan this weekend, as Christian Perez bids to defend his title in the $100,000 event.
The second staging of the PDC Asian Championship is taking place in Shimonoseki City, as Asia's leading stars compete for the coveted title, one of three spots available in the 2023/24 Paddy Power World Darts Championship and a place in the Grand Slam of Darts.
Philippines ace Lourence Ilagan - who finished top of the 2023 Asian Tour Order of Merit - will headline this year’s 48-player field, alongside his World Cup partner and reigning PDC Asian Champion Perez.
Tomoya Goto, Paolo Nebrida and Reynaldo Rivera - who sealed their World Championship qualification along with Ilagan last month from the Asian Tour rankings - will also feature in this weekend's showpiece.
Singapore icon Paul Lim is one of the 16 seeded stars in Shimonoseki, with former World Cup of Darts semi-finalist Haruki Muramatsu among the Japanese representatives eyeing glory on home soil.
The 48-player main event features 29 pre-qualified players - including the top 16 on the Asian Tour Order of Merit - while the Asian Championship Qualifiers on Thursday and Friday produced the remaining players.
From the original list of pre-qualified players, Xiaochen Zong, Nitin Kumar and Hussain Ali have withdrawn from the event, and will be replaced by Shota Sosogi, Sonny Millo Balagat and Nathaniel Guba, who came form the Qualifiers' Order of Merit.
The main event, which will be streamed live on PDCTV, will begin with a round-robin stage on Saturday October 7, as the 48 players are split into 16 groups of three.
Each group winner will progress to compete in the last 16 later that day, with Sunday featuring the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in a bumper Finals Day on October 8.
The PDC Asian Championship winner and runner-up will qualify for the 2023/24 Paddy Power World Darts Championship, which will take place at Alexandra Palace from December 15 to January 3.
However, if either or both players have already qualified from the PDC Asian Tour Order of Merit then the place(s) would be passed to the next-best-placed non-qualified player from the PDC Asian Championship (split by PDC Asian Tour OOM if required using standard PDC countback rules).
In addition, if no Japanese player reaches the PDC Asian Championship final, the best-placed non-qualified Japanese player from the PDC Asian Championship will also qualify for the World Championship.
The PDC Asian Championship winner also secures a place in November's Grand Slam of Darts in Wolverhampton, where Perez competed in 2022.
Any ties will be split by the PDC Asian Tour Order of Merit if required, using standard PDC countback rules. If one or both of the PDC Asian Championship finalists are Japanese, this place will pass to the PDC Asian Tour Order of Merit.
2023 PDC Asian Championship
Seeded Players
1. Lourence Ilagan
2. Tomoya Goto
3. Paolo Nebrida
4. Reynaldo Rivera
5. Man Lok Leung
6. Lok Yin Lee
7. Jun Matsuda
8. Paul Lim
9. Rosendo Jr Lubaton
10. Alexis Toylo
11. Christian Perez
12. Mohd Nasir Bin Jantan
13. Haruki Muramatsu
14. Tatsunami Mitsuhiko
15. Sonny Millo Balagat
16. Keita Ono
Remaining Qualifiers
Rizwan Ahmed
Kenichi Ajiki
Cher Kai Ang
Seigo Asada
Ryusei Azemoto
Kam Weng Cheng
Raymond Copano
Shailender Singh Dixit Thakur
Nathaniel Guba
Xicheng Han
Yuanlun Han
Mitsumasa Hoshino
Hasan Jaafar
Ting Chi Royden Lam
Jinwook Lee
Kai Fan Leung
Takashi Makino
Jemel Modesto
Altantulkhuur Myagmarsuren
Sho Okano
Chaiyan Paiaree
Motomu Sakai
Toyokazu Shibata
Sandro Eric Sosing
Shota Sosogi
Kota Suzuki
Alex Tagarao
Jenn Ming Tan
Koichiro Terao
Andersen Tjoeng
Tomoya Tsumura
Yuki Yamada
Group A
Lourence Ilagan
Rizwan Ahmed
Takashi Makino
Group B
Tomoya Goto
Jinwook Lee
Koichiro Terao
Group C
Paolo Nebrida
Ryusei Azemoto
Kam Weng Cheng
Group D
Reynaldo Rivera
Alex Tagarao
Kenichi Ajiki
Group E
Man Lok Leung
Kai Fan Leung
Raymond Copano
Group F
Lok Yin Lee
Tomoya Tsumura
Shota Sosogi
Group G
Jun Matsuda
Sandro Eric Sosing
Yuki Yamada
Group H
Paul Lim
Shailender Singh Dixit Thakur
Yuanlun Han
Group I
Rosendo Jr Lubaton
Sho Okana
Altantulkhuur Myagmarsuren
Group J
Alexis Toylo
Jemel Modesto
Nathaniel Guba
Group K
Christian Perez
Chaiyan Paiaree
Kota Suzuki
Group L
Mohd Nasir Bin Jantan
Jenn Ming Tan
Andersen Tjoeng
Group M
Haruki Muramatsu
Mitsumasa Hoshino
Hasan Jaafar
Group N
Tatsunami Mitsuhiko
Ting Chi Royden Lam
Seigo Asada
Group O
Sonny Millo Balagat
Toyokazu Shibata
Cher Kai Ang
Group P
Keita Ono
Motomu Sakai
Xicheng Han
2023 PDC Asian Championship
Prize Money
Winner - $15,000
Runner-Up $7,000
Semi-Finalists - $5,000
Quarter-Finalists - $3,000
Last 16 - $2,000
Second in Group - $1,500
Third in Group - $1,000
Total - $100,000
Format
Round Robin (Last 48) - Best of nine legs
Last 16 - Best of nine legs
Quarter-Finals - Best of 11 legs
Semi-Finals - Best of 11 legs
Final - Best of 13 legs