With two and a half months to go before the opening match of the World Championship on December 15th, the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) season is entering its home straight. With the World Grand Prix starting on October 3rd, the European Darts Championship, the Grand Slam and the Players Championship Finals, there are four major tournaments within eight weeks, a total of twelve events.

Plenty of prize money will be awarded at the top events in Leicester, Dortmund, Wolverhampton and Minehead, giving plenty of reason to play your way onto or off the 32-name seeding list. The crowd is even tighter in the ProTour ranking list, which is used to award 32 more World Cup tickets.

With Gabriel Clemens and Martin Schindler, two Germans are currently seeded for the second round of the World Cup at Alexandra Palace. According to the current status, Clemens would meet Gary Anderson in a possible third round, UK Open champion Danny Noppert could wait in the round of 16, just like in the first round of the World Grand Prix on Tuesday (live on DAZN and Sport1).

After a win in round two, Martin Schindler would once again have to deal with Gerwyn Price or Peter Wright, after which the Portuguese Jose de Sousa or Krzysztof Ratajski from Poland could wait.

In addition to a third German World Cup starter, who will be determined among the best national players in the Super League in November, at least Florian Hempel, who made it to the third round in his World Cup debut last year, can still qualify for a direct qualification hope for the ProTour ranking. The Cologne native is currently separated by 4750 pounds and twelve places from the desired 32nd place.

Hempel’s focus is therefore on the five remaining Players Championship tournaments from October 20th to 23rd and November 4th in Barnsley. There it is for him about the ticket to the Ally Pally. He failed to qualify for the Gibraltar Darts Trophy on October 14th.

Internationally, a dozen players can still have legitimate hopes of slipping into the top 32, including Ryan Joyce, who was a World Cup quarter-finalist four years ago. Devon Petersen, Jeffrey De Zwaan, John Henderson, Darius Labanauskas and William Borland, who delivered one of the memorable World Cup moments last year with a spectacular nine-darter, would not be there according to the current status. Familiar faces such as Steve Beaton, Ian White, Luke Woodhouse and Jermaine Wattimena will still have to defend their narrow lead in the ranking.

As every year, those who didn’t make the top 64 after the Players Championship Finals on November 27, the last tournament on the tour, still have one last chance. The last World Cup tickets will be awarded at the PDPA qualifier on November 28th. Max Hopp and Ricardo Pietreczko will have to hope for the same if they don’t take their first chance in the Super League.

Order of Merit (32 participants)

1. Gerwyn Price (Wales) £1,104,250

2. Peter Wright (Scotland) 1,075,500

3. Michael van Gerwen (Netherlands) 660,750

4. Michael Smith (England) 549.750

5. James Wade (England) 426.250

6. Rob Cross (England) 413.250

7. Jonny Clayton (Wales) 405.250

8. Danny Noppert (Netherlands) 401,000

9. Gary Anderson (Scotland) 398,750

10. Luke Humphries (England) 395.500

11. Dave Chisnall (England) 328.750

12. Ryan Searle (England) 320.250

13. Joe Cullen (England) 318.750

14. Dimitri Van den Bergh (Belgium) 317,000

15. Jose de Sousa (Portugal) 315,500

16. Nathan Aspinall (England) 314.250

17. Dirk van Duijvenbode (Netherlands) 298.750

18. Krzysztof Ratajski (Poland) 287,000

19. Stephen Bunting (England) 266.000

20. Damon Heta (Australia) 242,500

21. Brendan Dolan (Northern Ireland) 220,500

22. Callan Rydz (England) 219,750

23. Daryl Gurney (Nordirland) 218.250

24. Gabriel Clemens (Germany) 214,500

25. Chris Dobey (England) 187.500

26. Mervyn King (England) 179.750

27. Vincent van der Voort (Netherlands) 168,000

28. Ross Smith (England) 152.250

29. Kim Huybrechts (Belgium) 145.250

30. Mensur Suljovic (Austria) 144,750

31. Martin Schindler (Germany) 138,500

32. Adrian Lewis (England) 128.500

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33. Ian White (England) 123.000

34. Simon Whitlock (Australia) 122.250

35. Madras Razma (Latland) 117.750

36. William O‘Connor (Ireland) 115,250

37. Ricky Evans (England) 104.250

38. Devon Petersen (South Africa) 103,000

39. Ryan Joyce (England) 98.750

40. Martijn Kleermaker (Netherlands) 98,000

…

58. Florian Hempel (Germany) 67,500

…

74. Max Hopp (Germany) 42,500

Pro Tour Order of Merit (32 participants)

1. Andrew Gilding (England) 58.500

2. Martin Lukeman (England) 48.250

3. Madars Razma (Latvia) 47,000

4. Rowby-John Rodriguez (Austria) 42,250

5. Josh Rock (Nordirland) 37.000

6. Scott Williams (England) 35.750

7. Jim Williams (Wales) 34.750

8. Ryan Meikle (England) 32.500

9. Ricky Evans (England) 31.750

10. Keane Barry (Ireland) 30,750

11. Keegan Brown (England) 30.500

12. Simon Whitlock (Australia) 29,000

13. Karel Sedlacek (Czech Republic) 28,500

14. Danny Jansen (Netherlands) 27,000

15. Ritchie Edhouse (England) 26.000

16. Jamie Hughes (England) 25.500

17. William O‘Connor (Ireland) 25,250

18. Niels Zonneveld (Netherlands) 25,000

19. Matt Campbell (Canada) 25,000

20. Raymond van Barneveld (Netherlands) 24.750

21. Cameron Menzies (Scotland) 23,500

22. Boris Krcmar (Croatia) 23.250

23. Ian White (England) 23.250

24. Luke Woodhouse (England) 23.000

25. Jermaine Wattimena (Niederlande) 23,000

26. Martijn Kleermaker (Netherlands) 22.250

27. Mickey Mansell (Nordirland) 21.750

28. Alan Soutar (Schottland) 21,500

29. Steve Beaton (England) 21.250

30. Geert Nentjes (Netherlands) 21,250

31. Adam Gawlas (Tschechien) 21,250

32. John O‘Shea (Irland) 21.250

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33. Jeffrey De Zwaan (Netherlands) 20,000

34. Scott Waites (England) 19.250

35. Ryan Joyce (England) 19.000

…

44. Florian Hempel (Germany) 16,500

…

55. Max Hopp (Germany) 13,000

…

67. Ricardo Pietreczko (Deutschland) 11,250

…

70. Lukas Little (Germany) 10,750

…

91. Dragutin Horvat (Deutschland) 6,000