Well I am sitting at the airport with 2 hours to kill so time for a blog…. I am on my way to Hong Kong to rejoin the Dartslive pro soft-tip tour called THE WORLD. If you recall I had some great success on it last year but due to some corporate conflicts I was unable to join the tour…Until now.
Headed over for Stage 5 (8 stages in all) and hope I pick up where I left off last year winning Stage 8. To say I am excited to be heading back is a understatement, for as much as it is a very long travel day (close to 24 hrs for me) I really enjoy Hong Kong and the dart fans there. It is a well ran event and you can not forget about the ultimate prize of approx. $125,000 US first prize for winning the finals.
So how did I get to return?
Well, as long as I was in a partnership with Trinidad Darts I was unable to play any Dartslive event around the world. I have always been a fan of the Dartslive machines and always gave them rave reviews but I had got caught up in a corporate battle and was the causality of this battle. As Dartslive has rapidly expanded this year around the world it became very clear to me I would me missing some of my favorite shoots around the world. They now sponsor La Rochelle in France, The WORLD, The dragon programs here in the USA and very important to me was they now sponsor the IDF World Cup in Shanghai. I LOVE SHANGHAI!!!! One of the greatest places to go visit/play….. So I had been giving the decision a lot of thought as I had been playing the D-Crown Pro Tour in Japan but they started to have a bit of money issues. Without being able to play in Japan I functionally had no where left to play high end soft tip for real money. It was a very hard decision but I made the choice to end my relationship with Trinidad and return to Dartslive. Luckily Dartslive received me with open arms and I have been getting loads of emails from fans saying they are glad I have come back J so that always makes you feel good.
I was suppose to go play the NAPDC tour to qualify for my return to the PDC World Championships but the first two events are the same weekend as the WORLD so I had to make a choice….Obviously I have chose to play Stage 5 and 6over the PDC, plus the finals for each are at the same time as well. I would say I am at 90% ready… I say 90% as I have not been playing a ton but the one good thing is I have been playing a lot of online games which has sped my return to good darts. I will be 100% by Stage 6 in a month and if it is my day I will be looking for great things this weekend. I am just glad to be back and excited to play again… so much so I need to control it a bit. I have a few events planned once in Hong Kong that should help me get ready and look to shoot a high shootout score and take a high seed.
You can watch the action live online at www.dartslive.tv/s/en/world/live
See you there!!!!!