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The tournament has a flatter structure than most tournaments, with the top 32 players all coming in at the last 64 stage (in other tournaments there are only 16 players left when the players ranked 17-32 come in, and then the 16 winners of those matches face the top 16). It has usually been the season opener under its various guises. From the [[Grand Prix 2006 (snooker)|2006 tournament]] onwards, a round-robin stage was introduced for the top 32 and 16 qualifiers [http://www.worldsnooker.com/news_editorial-18129.htm].
These two facts have made it more common to see surprise results than in most other tournaments, with players such as [[Dominic Dale]], [[Euan Henderson]] and [[Dave Harold]] all surprise finalists at the time. A player from outside the top 16 has reached the final roughly half the times the contest has been played, and few of those have become consistent stars. Until his victory in 2004 it was the only major title [[Ronnie O'Sullivan]] had not won (now, that is the case for the new [[Northern Ireland Trophy]] ranking event).
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