The field of pre-qualified players has been confirmed ahead of next month's PDC Asian Championship in Shimonoseki, Japan.
The second staging of the event will take place from October 5-8 at the Kaikyo Messe Shimonoseki in Shimonoseki City, as the continent’s leading stars compete for the $15,000 top prize and one of three spots in the Paddy Power World Darts Championship.
The 48-player main event on Saturday and Sunday will feature 32 pre-qualified players, including the top 16 players from the 2023 PDC Asian Tour Order of Merit.
Lourence Ilagan - who finished top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit - will headline this year’s field, alongside his World Cup partner and reigning PDC Asian Champion Christian Perez.
Tomoya Goto, Paolo Nebrida and Reynaldo Rivera - who sealed their World Championship qualification alongside Ilagan last weekend - will also feature in next month’s showpiece.
Singapore icon Paul Lim and India’s Nitin Kumar are among the other Order of Merit qualifiers, with PDC China Premier League champion Xiaochen Zong also set to star in Yamaguchi, alongside players representing countries from across Asia.
The Asian Championship Qualifiers on October 5-6 will produce the final 16 players, with the final two players from each of the four events joined by eight qualifiers from an Asian Championship Order of Merit.
The main event will then 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 World Darts Championship, which will take place at Alexandra Palace from December 15-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.
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.
The 2023 PDC Asian Championship will be streamed through PDCTV, with the Asian Championship Qualifiers being streamed through Felix across Asia.
2023 PDC Asian Championship
Confirmed Qualifiers (Asian Tour Order of Merit Top 16)
Lourence Ilagan
Tomoya Goto
Paolo Nebrida
Reynaldo Rivera
Man Lok Leung
Lok Yin Lee
Jun Matsuda
Paul Lim
Rosendo Lubaton
Nitin Kumar
Xiaochen Zong
Alexis Toylo
Christian Perez
Mohd Nasir Jantan
Haruki Muramatsu
Mitsuhiko Tatsunami
Further Qualifiers
Xicheng Han - China Mainland Qualifier
Shailender Singh Dixit Thakur - Indian Qualifier
Jemel Ching Modesto - Philippines Qualifier
Yuan Lun Han - Taiwan Qualifier
Cher Kai Ang - Singapore Qualifier
Chaiyan Ball Paiaree - Thailand Qualifier
Hasan Haji Jafaar - Bahrain Qualifier
JinWook Lee - South Korean Qualifier
Altantulhuur Myagmarsuren - Mongolian Qualifier
Jenn Ming Tan - Malaysian Qualifier
Royden Lam - Hong Kong Qualifier
Kam Weng Cheng - Macau Qualifier
Hussain Ali - UAE Qualifier
Rizwan Ahmed - Pakistan Qualifier
Andersen Tjoeng - Indonesian Qualifier
TBC - Japanese Qualifier
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
Asian Championship Qualifiers Events 1-4 - Best of seven legs (no seedings)
Round Robin (Last 48) - Best of nine legs (top 16 players from 2023 PDC Asian Tour seeded one per group)
Last 16 - Best of nine legs
Quarter-Finals - Best of 11 legs
Semi-Finals - Best of 11 legs
Final - Best of 13 legs