Van Barneveld’s potential route to claiming a Tour Card at 2021 PDC Q-School

More than six hundred darts players will make an attempt next week to claim one of the 29 available PDC Tour Cards at 2021 Q-School. Raymond Van Barneveld is one of the players involved.

The five-time world champion starts his comeback on Monday in Niedernhausen, Germany, at European Q-School. Winning a Tour Card is necessary for Van Barneveld to return to the PDC ProTour which begins again shortly after Q-School.

First qualify for the final stage

Since Van Barneveld did not have a Tour Card last year, Barney has to start in the newly set up first stage. At this stage, players must qualify for the final stage, where the Tour Cards are distributed.

The first stage is divided into two groups due to the number of participants. Van Barneveld is in Group 1A, consisting of more than 120 players.

As a result, Barney will be play from Monday 8 February to Wednesday 10 February. He can qualify for the final stage in two ways.

The first option is to reach the last four on one of the three days. If that does not work, the five-time world champion must ensure that he wins as many points as possible. Every win in a full round (without byes) earns one point. The 43 players who accumulate the most points from Monday to Wednesday will also participate in the final stage.

Battle for Tour Card starts during the final stage

So a total of 55 players from Barney’s group will advance to the final stage. The same applies to Group 1B. Players in this group will play from Thursday, February 11 to Saturday, February 13.

In total, the first stage provides 110 players for the final stage. There are eighteen players who have directly qualified for the final stage. These are players who held a Tour Card last year or finished in the top 16 of the Challenge Tour or Development Tour Order of Merit.

This means that the field for the final stage (14-17 February) consists of 128 players. A tournament is played every day, where the winner of the day receives a Tour Card. These are the first four chances for Van Barneveld to claim a Tour Card.

Again, players can take points with full round wins. The last Tour Cards are distributed with these points. All points count towards the European Q-School Order of Merit. The number of Tour Cards available through this ranking has not yet been confirmed by the PDC, but it is likely that there are eight or nine available.

Last year between seven and fourteen points was enough for a Tour Card.

Should Van Barneveld reach the final stage and not become an outright winner, the five-time world champion claiming fourteen victories has a good chance of a Tour Card. Fourteen victories equates to about four Quarter-Finals.