Toni Alcinas , in the attic of his house in Campos (Mallorca) looking askance at the router so that it does not fail and trying to focus on the target and hundreds of thousands of people watching him from his sofas, live, through Sky Sports in Reino United or DAZN in Spain, the United States or Japan. It is the Unibet Home Tour. The competition that, in full confinement, brings together the best darts players in the world and that is having remarkable success in several countries. Their appeal is logical: they are the protagonists of always doing the usual, although the action does not occur in a pavilion, but through streaming from their homes. But it also has its cons.
First, it requires good internet connections and that, in a town bar sport, where most of the players still reside, is complicated. One of them, Gary Anderson , top 10 of the PDC world ranking and world champion in 2015 and 2016, has already been eliminated due to his poor wifi signal. Others, such as the Spanish Cristo Reyes, who lives on the outskirts of La Laguna (Canary Islands), had to resign before starting.
«I passed the miracle cut. I live in the countryside in Campos and I don't get the hang of it so I thought I didn't pass the test. They called me from the organization on Skype, they made me focus on the target and they said yes, that everything is fine, but I don't know if it will last every day that it competes, "explains Alcinas, the only Spanish participant in the tournament, which details the format of the same. There are 32 groups of four shooters each and one group is played every day, all against all. The first one goes to a single elimination phase and the 16 that remain after will play the grand final.
Will the distance be respected?
But doubts remain. For example: if participants are only required to focus on the target with the camera of a laptop or a mobile, how does the organization ensure that they shoot from 2.37 meters? He can't say for sure, of course. If a player wanted to get closer, he could do it, but it would be very rare for a professional. We already have the mechanics caught and changing the distance would multiply the errors. It is like a free kick in basketball, although you could not believe that many in the NBA took a step forward, "says Alcinas, number 61 in the world ranking, which premiered on the Unibet Home Tour this Friday against the English Darren Webster , Andy Hamilton and Bradley Brooks .
Her concerns: her router, that her dogs do not make noise and not waking up her six-month-old daughter, who will be sleeping at that time. His goal: to entertain himself in confinement and, at the same time, to earn a bonus in the midst of crisis. Owner of a mechanical workshop with his father, he assures that in the last month he has only had to repair the car of some health worker, little more.
"This tournament from home does not give prizes, it is supposed, but it does pay 500 pounds - about 575 euros - to each participant, so it will help me fill the fridge," says the Spaniard who started playing at 18 in a bar "like everyone" and ended up competing for everyone. The United States, Japan, China, England and Germany and now, in the loft of his own house.
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