If you're holding out for news about BEST 2020, you won't need to wait much longer, but there's the small matter of last year's final to take care of first, which will be taking place this coming weekend, February 15th and 16th. Here's a preview of the final match of the tournament from co-organiser Chris Harrison.
Our two contenders will be duking it out in a best of 17 games to see who will become BEST Champion 2019. Will it be Brett Smitheram or Wayne Kelly?
The pair have both won multiple UK majors including National Championships but neither have a BEST title in their collection to date. It's fair to say Brett has come the closest suffering narrow defeats in the final to both Mikki Nicholson and Mark Nyman. Will it be third time lucky?
Brett has also had the smoother passage into the final, despite facing a number of tough opponents and playing one match more. His record in BEST 2019 is 33-6 with an average ratings performance of 209.
Wayne has had a slightly trickier time of things, but arguably more opportunity to show fighting spirit pulling off what seemed an unlikely semi-final comeback from 4-7 down. His overall record in BEST 2019 is 25-9 with an average ratings performance of 183.
In terms of their own personal head to head they met 7 times in 2019, with Brett edging these encounters 4-3. Interestingly, whilst Brett had the upper hand in their Belfast games, Wayne went on to win the event and when Brett triumphed at SIMPLE, it was in spite of suffering a loss to Wayne on that occasion. In total, Brett won 79% of his ABSP rated games in 2019 with an average score of 455, with Wayne at 66% with an average score of 447.
This weekend will see the final chapter of what has been a great event. Will there be yet more twists and turns to come and who will lift the title?