BWF Super Series

The BWF Super Series is a new badminton tournament introduced by Badminton World Federation (BWF) in order to improve the quality of the sport. It was launched on December 14, 2006 and implemented in 2007. [http://www.badminton.org.au/index.php?id=22&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=136&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=2&cHash=26fb36d8a5 BWF Launches Super Series] ] The second-tiered badminton tournament is played in twelve countries, with successful players invited to the Super Series final held at the year end.

Features

Prize money

All Super Series tournaments will offer a minimum prize of USD$200,000. [ [http://www.badders.com/news/item/848/New-Super-Series-to-raise-prize-money-&-profile New Super Series to raise prize money & profile] ] The Super Series will offer the prize money regardless of the round from which a player is ousted, unless they go out in the qualification round. This is a new concept in badminton tournaments, and already implemented at the first Super Series held in Malaysia. [ [http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/1/13/sports/16562581&sec=sports First round losers to take home RM1,050] ]

Specifically, the prize money is distributed via the following formula: [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20070628054422/http://internationalbadminton.org/documents/prize+money+distribution+7.pdf BWF Super Series - Proposed Distribution of Prize Money] ]

$Total\; prize\; money\; imes\; frac\{Percentage\}\{100\}$

Start 2008 season, the women's winners will receive the equal prize money amount as men's winners. [ [http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/12/18/sports/19786980&sec=sports Female badminton winners to get same purse as the men] ] As announced, all the single winners will receive 7.5 percent while all the double winners will receive 6.9 percent of total prize money. [ [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/newscontent.asp?pageid={221A0F42-8C98-4787-9A37-F3E45DB0DA99} Gender Equality - BWF walks the talk] ]

World Ranking points

To standardize all the badminton tournaments, BWF also implemented a new World Ranking in 2007. Points will be calculate based on the results or the round a player reaches, including the qualification round. This ranking points also use as Super Series Ranking to determine the players for Super Series final. [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20070628054422/http://www.internationalbadminton.org/documents/WRPoints12000roundoffDec22.pdf New World Ranking Points] ]

No nationality separation

Starting in 2007, players from the same nation are not separated in the main draw of the tournaments. All but the top two seeds will not be divided into two draws as they were before. [ [http://www.badders.com/news/item/852/No-more-nationality-separation No more nationality separation] ] The top Chinese player Lin Dan has criticized the rule change. [ [http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/1/16/sports/16579699&sec=sports China’s Lin Dan hits out at BWF over rule changes] ]

Entries

Only 32 players/pair will be played in the main round, as oppose to the minimum 64 players/pair in the past tournaments. Among the 32 players/pair, only 8 players/pair will be seeded in each category. Each category will have 28 players/pair going through automatically regarded by world ranking. While the another 4 spots will be decided in the qualification round with at least 64 players/pair participate. [ [http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2006/12/18/sports/16351538&sec=sports Badminton: BWF spice things up] ]

Each Super Series tournament will be held in six days, with the main round in five days. However, qualification round players/pair have to play four rounds before proceeding to the main round.

Start September 2008, each tournament will only allow 16 players/pairs to play in the qualifying rounds, instead of 32 players/pairs in the past tournament to avoid a big strain between the qualifiers. [ [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/news1.asp?pageid={10797C62-90B0-455F-BE03-1A11C3B85F9B} Changes to Qualifying Rounds] ]

Umpires

Start 2008, each Super Series tournaments must present eight international certificated and accredited umpires, as opposed to the 2007 where each tournaments can present local umpires, [ [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/newscontent.asp?pageid={44F7A8FC-2050-4FD6-908E-63595EDC23DE} BWF push for international umpires at Super Series events] ] after the outcry of several players during the 2007 tournaments. [ [http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/Sport/2100627/Article/index_html Badminton: Neutral umpires for fairplay] ]

Tournaments

(not to be confused with China Open and China Masters, two different tournaments in the only country permitted by the BWF to hold two tournaments in a season)

uper Series final

Super Series final is a season ending badminton tournament which will be held in nearly end of the year in one of the fixed venue in the world. It includes the world's best players by the Super Series ranking. Only top eight players in the Super Series ranking will be participating, but it will offer USD $500,000 in prizes, more than two times the prize money awarded in Super Series tournaments. [ [http://super-series-news.newslib.com/story/5478-3229972/ Badminton-IBF announce introduction of new Super Series] ]

If two or more players are tie in ranking, the selection of players will based on the following criteria:
*The players which participated in the most Super Series tournaments;
*The players which collected the most points in Super Series tournaments starting July 1.

The 2007 final, however, was postponed to an indefinite time in 2008 BWF calendar. [ [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/newscontent.asp?pageid={B36E210D-E4E2-4ABC-84D6-7A84A0EEEFB6} Super Series Finals 2007 to be confirmed] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.bwfsuperseries.com/ Official website]