This year's BetFred World Snooker Championship has kicked off with some cracking matches in the first round - and so far, there haven't been any real shocks.
Out of the 16 qualifiers who joined the last 32 after having to win three gruelling matches at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, 10 of them have been knocked out so far, with only Scotland's Stephen Maguire coming through his first round and knocking out Anthony McGill, who was this time seeded as one of the top 16 players in the World.
This time last year McGill, who had had a great run in the 2015 edition of the Championship, by reaching the quarter-finals, had booked his way into a second round meeting with Marco Fu.
This year, Fu made a remarkable comeback against the Belgium Bullet Luca Brecel and was trailing 7 - 1 before clawing his way back and winning 10 - 9 in a thrilling deciding frame.
In the last two years, Martin Gould, the Pinner potter, and the 2016 German Masters champion has been knocked out in the first round as both a seed and a qualifier - this time a qualifier.
Watch twice World Champion Mark Jester Selby celebrate 40 years of the Crucible snooker in the video below since 1977...
The Fall
Last year's World Championship - by the close of the last 32 stage saw 7 out of the 16 qualifiers left in the draw.
Players Stuart Bingham, Shaun Murphy, and Aussie's Neil Robertson were all safely through last year and this year two of the three players so far are safely through to the last 16 in Sheffield at the Crucible Theatre.
This year has seen a string of Crucible debutants. Messers Rory McLeod, Chinese teenagers Yan Bingtao, Zhou Yuelong and Thailand's Noppon Saengkham have all been making their Crucible debuts in the Theatre of Dreams.
Noppon won the World Under-21 IBSF Amateur Championship in 2009 - before turning pro in 2013 and faces Neil Robertson in round one at the Crucible.
Last year, Mitchell Mann made his Crucible debut and lost in Round one to the Pistol Mark Allen.
Ding Junhui, who has had an incredible season this season by winning the Shanghai Masters, was last year a qualifier - and managed an incredible run to the final losing to Mark Selby.
This year, the Chinese Dragon has safely navigated the first round and faces his fellow Compatriot Liang Wenbo in the last 16 - after Wenbo in the end comfortably saw off Grimsby qualifier Stuart Carrington, a previous winner of the English Amateur Championship in 2013.
Carrington, 26, made his own bit of history at the Crucible though, by making three consecutive centuries in a best of 19 matches in round one.
The last two years of World Championship snooker have seen the centuries tally tied on 86 - will the record be beaten?
It was a slow start over the first two days, but for the record to be beaten there would have to be at least six tonnes made per day over the last 12 days for the record of 86 at the Crucible to be beaten, So far there's been 23 made.
Wallsend's Gary Wilson racked an incredible 147 in the qualifiers, to make his second career maximum and in his debut at the Crucible, he put on a great show of potting to compete with the five-times World Champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, on the hunt for a sixth World title to equal Steve Davis.
CLICK HERE to see the season's snooker winners so far...
