User:DLManiac/2021WC

The 2020/21 PDC World Darts Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2020/21 William Hill World Darts Championship) is the 28th World Championship organised by the Professional Darts Corporation since it separated from the British Darts Organisation. The event is taking place at the Alexandra Palace in London from 15 December 2020–3 January 2021.

Peter Wright is the defending champion, after defeating Michael van Gerwen 7–3 in the 2020 final.

Steve Beaton played in a record 30th consecutive World Championship (including the BDO version), breaking the record he jointly held with Phil Taylor, but lost in the first round to Diogo Portela.



Background and qualification
The 2020/21 PDC World Darts Championship will be the 28th World Darts Championship to be organised by the Professional Darts Corporation; and the fourteenth to be held at Alexandra Palace, London. It will be held between 15 December 2020 and 3 January 2021, the culmination of the 2020 Professional Darts Corporation season. 96 players will compete in the championship, with the thirty-two highest ranked players on the PDC Order of Merit being seeded to the second round, and the next thirty-two highest ranked players from the 2020 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit and thirty-two players from the various qualifiers going into the first round.

UK government regulations following the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom allow Tier 2 areas, including London, to hold sporting events with up to 1,000 spectators indoors. The Professional Darts Corporation have announced that the World Championship will be the first PDC event in the United Kingdom to allow fans, since the UK Open in March 2020. Fans attending the event will not be allowed to wear fancy dress and 'football style' chanting will be prohibited. With London subsequently moving to Tier 3 on 16 December, it meant that the tournament would be held behind closed doors for all sessions barring the opening night.

Michael van Gerwen, the runner-up in the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship and winner of the 2014, 2017 and 2019 championships, is top of the two-year PDC Order of Merit and number one seed going into the tournament, having won the UK Open and Players Championship Finals titles in 2020. The reigning champion from 2020 Peter Wright is second seed, having additionally won the 2020 European Championship; and 2020 World Grand Prix champion Gerwyn Price is the third seed. As well as Van Gerwen and Wright, three other previous PDC world champions have qualified as seeds, two-time champions Gary Anderson (13th seed) and Adrian Lewis (21st seed), and 2018 champion Rob Cross as 5th seed. Two champions of the BDO World Darts Championship qualified as seeds; three-time BDO champion and 2020 Premier League Darts winner Glen Durrant is the 12th seed with 2014 BDO champion Stephen Bunting in 26th.

The top seeds below Van Gerwen, Wright and Price are 2019 World finalist Michael Smith, Rob Cross, 2019 UK Open champion Nathan Aspinall, 2020 Grand Slam and European Championship finalist James Wade, 2019 World Grand Prix finalist Dave Chisnall and 2020 World Matchplay winner Dimitri Van den Bergh. 2020 Grand Slam of Darts winner José de Sousa is seeded 14th.

Damon Heta, in his first full year as a full PDC tour card holder, is the highest-ranked non-seed on the 2020 PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit. Two-time BDO World Champion Scott Waites has qualified for the PDC World Championship for the first time, and is one of two former BDO Champions to qualify through the Pro Tour, alongside Steve Beaton, the 1996 BDO champion, competing in a record-breaking 30th consecutive World Championship.

As well as Waites, six other players from the Pro Tour are making their PDC Championship debuts; Mike De Decker, Martijn Kleermaker, Maik Kuivenhoven, Jason Lowe, Ryan Murray and Derk Telnekes. Other players to qualify via the Pro Tour include 2020 World Grand Prix finalist Dirk van Duijvenbode and 2012 PDC World Championship runner-up Andy Hamilton.

The international qualifiers were heavily impacted by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, with a number of qualification tournaments being cancelled. The North American Darts Championship was cancelled, with the place being given to Danny Lauby, the winner of the 2019 CDC Continental Cup. The cancellation of the Oceanic Masters resulted in a second place being given on the Dartplayers Australia tour; and the cancellation of the New Zealand championship saw the place instead being given to the top player on the Dartplayers New Zealand tour, Haupai Puha. The qualifiers for India and South America were both cancelled, with the Indian place going to the Indian Darts Federation number one Amit Gilitwala, and the South American place being given to Diogo Portela, who had won the South American qualifier the three previous years it had been held.

The PDC Asia Tour was fully cancelled, with the four places being awarded to the winners of one-off qualification events in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and The Philippines. The Tom Kirby Irish Matchplay as well as qualifiers for Southern Europe, Western Europe, and Central Europe were not held in 2020; with these places being given to the final Pro Tour holders qualifier. One further change saw the two qualification events for female players being replaced with the new, four-event long, PDC Women's Series, with the top two players over those events – four-times BDO Women's World Champion Lisa Ashton and Deta Hedman – qualifying for the World Championship.

The final six places – four from uncompleted qualifiers and two as planned – were given to the winners of an event for Tour Card holders held at the conclusion of the PDC Series. Four places were reserved for players from the UK and Ireland and two from the rest of the world; a change from previous years where the places were unassigned. The six players to get through the qualifier included Jamie Lewis, a former World Championship semi-finalist.

Thirteen players from international qualifiers will make their PDC World Championship debuts; Bradley Brooks, Cameron Carolissen, David Evans, Edward Foulkes, Amit Gilitwala, Dmitriy Gorbunov, Deta Hedman, Nick Kenny, Danny Lauby, Haupai Puha, Toru Suzuki, Di Zhuang and Niels Zonneveld.

Martijn Kleermaker withdrew from the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19 on 20 December. As the first alternate Josh Payne had been in close contact with someone who had also received a positive test; Kleermaker's first round opponent Cameron Carolissen received a bye.

Qualifiers
The top 32 from the PDC Order of Merit will begin the competition in the second round. The 32 highest ranked players on the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit (not already qualified) and 32 qualifiers from around the world will begin in the first round.

Order of Merit Second Round (Seeded)

' '  (Second round) (Second round) ' ' ' ' (Second round) ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' (Second round)  (Second round) ' ' ' ' (Second round) ' ' ' '

Pro Tour Order of Merit First Round
 * 1)  (First round)
 * 2)  (Second round)
 * 3)  (Second round)
 * 4)  (Second round)
 * 5)  (First round – withdrew)
 * 6)  (Second round)
 * 7)  (Second round)
 * 8)  (Second round)
 * 9)  (First round)
 * 10)  (First round)
 * 11)  (Second round)
 * 12)  (Second round)
 * 13)  (Second round)
 * 14)  (Second round)
 * 15)  (Second round)
 * 16)  (Second round)
 * 17)  (Second round)
 * 18)  (First round)
 * 19)  (First round)
 * 20)  (First round)
 * 21)  (Second round)
 * 22)  (First round)
 * 23)  (Second round)
 * 24)  (Second round)
 * 25) (Second round)
 * 26)  (First round)
 * 27)  (Second round)
 * 1)  (Second round)
 * 2)  (Second round)
 * 3) (Second round)
 * 4)  (First round)
 * 5)  (Second round)

International Qualifiers First Round
 * – PDC Women's Series (First round)
 *  – CDC USA Series
 * – DPA Pro Tour (First round)
 * – PDC Development Tour (First round)
 * – World Youth Champion (First round)
 * – CDC Canadian Series (First round)
 * – African Qualifier (Second round)
 * – UK Tour Card Holders' Qualifier (Second round)
 * – PDC Challenge Tour (First round)
 * – PDJ Japanese Championship (Second round)
 * – Indian Darts Federation (First round)
 * - EADC Qualifier (First round)
 * – PDC Women's Series (First round)
 * – PDC Asia Philippines Qualifier (First round)
 * – PDC Nordic & Baltic (First round)
 * – UK Tour Card Holders' Qualifier (Second round)
 * – Eastern European Qualifier (First round)
 * – Superleague Germany (Second round)
 * – PDC Nordic & Baltic (First round)
 * – CDC Continental Cup (First round)
 * – UK Tour Card Holders' Qualifier (Second round)
 * – PDC Asia Hong Kong Qualifier (Second round)
 * – PDC China Qualifier (First round)
 * – DPA Pro Tour (First round)
 * – PDC Development Tour (First round)
 * – South American Representative (Second round)
 * – DPNZ Order of Merit (First round)
 * – Rest of World Tour Card Holder's Qualifier (First round)
 * – PDC Asia Japan Qualifier (First round)
 * – UK Tour Card Holders' Qualifier (First round)
 * – PDC Asia China Qualifier (First round)
 * – Rest of World Tour Card Holder's Qualifier (First round)


 * Notes

Format
All matches will be played as single in, double out; requiring the players to score 501 points to win a leg, finishing on either a double or the bullseye. Matches will be played to set format, with each set being the best of five legs (first to three). A rule which has been in place for previous tournaments, where the final set had to be won by two clear legs, was removed in order to prevent sessions overrunning.

The matches get longer as the tournament progresses:
 * First round: Best of five sets
 * Second round: Best of five sets
 * Third round: Best of seven sets
 * Fourth round: Best of seven sets
 * Quarter-finals: Best of nine sets
 * Semi-finals: Best of eleven sets
 * Finals: Best of thirteen sets

Prize money
The prize money for the tournament will be £2,500,000 in total – the same as in the previous year. The winner's share will be £500,000.

Schedule
Tuesday, 15 December Wednesday, 16 December Thursday, 17 December Friday, 18 December Saturday, 19 December Sunday, 20 December Monday, 21 December Tuesday, 22 December Wednesday, 23 December Sunday, 27 December Monday, 28 December Tuesday 29 December Wednesday, 30 December Friday, 1 January Saturday, 2 January Sunday, 3 January

Draw
The draw took place on 3 December 2020, live on Sky Sports News.

Statistics
{{Notelist}}

Top averages
This table shows the highest averages achieved by players throughout the tournament.

Representation
This table shows the number of players by country in the 2021 PDC World Championship. A total of 29 nationalities are represented, surpassing the record of the 2020 and 2019 editions by one.

Television
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:100%; text-align:left" !Country !Channel
 * 🇦🇺 || Fox Sports
 * Sport1, DAZN
 * 🇧🇪|| VTM 4
 * 🇧🇷|| DAZN
 * || Sportska Televizija
 * 🇨🇿 🇸🇰 || Nova Sport
 * 🇪🇪 🇱🇹 || TV3 Sport (Baltics)
 * 🇭🇺|| Sport1, Sport2
 * 🇮🇹|| DAZN
 * || RTL7
 * 🇳🇿 || Sky Sport
 * 🇵🇱 || TVP Sport
 * 🇬🇧 🇮🇪 || Sky Sports Darts
 * {Twitch}
 * 🇪🇪 🇱🇹 || TV3 Sport (Baltics)
 * 🇭🇺|| Sport1, Sport2
 * 🇮🇹|| DAZN
 * || RTL7
 * 🇳🇿 || Sky Sport
 * 🇵🇱 || TVP Sport
 * 🇬🇧 🇮🇪 || Sky Sports Darts
 * {Twitch}
 * 🇳🇿 || Sky Sport
 * 🇵🇱 || TVP Sport
 * 🇬🇧 🇮🇪 || Sky Sports Darts
 * {Twitch}
 * 🇬🇧 🇮🇪 || Sky Sports Darts
 * {Twitch}
 * {Twitch}

† Sky Sports Arena is renamed as Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the tournament.