"Quick Nick" Wins World Artistic Pool Championship

By: Markus Noé

One of the Plethora of events that occurred this week at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas was the 2014 W.P.A World Artistic Pool Championship. This event which took place July 17-20 saw 26 of the worlds best trick shot artists compete in an 8 discipline format with highest overall score claiming the title.

This years winner was none other than Montreal, Québec native and world famous trick shot artist Nick "Quick Nick" Nickolaidis. I'll shamefully admit that with the abundance of events we have been covering here at Straight-Pool this one was initially off my radar. Thankfully french Canadians as they so often do support their own in droves, and picture updates of the winner from Billard Quebec filled my news feed shortly after "Quick Nick's" win. This allowed me to get in touch with the champion himself who graciously provided me with the following information.

As mentioned before this was an 8 discipline event with 5 shots in discipline for a combined 40 shots.
The participants were given a 136 page program which outlined all the disciplines, rules and available shots. Each shot had 3 options and were scored based on difficulty.With 40 points available in each discipline a possible max score was 320, something that has never been done.  Since it's inaugural event in 2000 there has never been a final score higher then 270. Nickolaidis broke this record with an impressive final score of 277.

 Straight-Pool would like to congratulate Nick Nickolaidis on adding to his impressive collections of titles with this World Championship, and wish him the best in his next event.

Top 5 

1 Nick “Quick Nick” Nikolaidis (CN) - $3500
2 Gabi “Mr. Perfect” Visoui (EUR) -$2600
3 Andy “The Magic Man” Segal (US)-$1800
4 Abram “Too Tall” Diaz (US) -$1300
5 Jamey “The Sharpshooter” Gray (US) -$1000

Discipline Champions:

Trick / Fancy Shots: Nick Nikolaidis 39 out of 40 pts.
Special Arts: Tim Chin 39 out of 40 pts.
Draw Shots: Gabi Visoiu 40 out of 40 pts.
Follow Shots: William DeYonker 40 out of 40 pts.
Bank / Kick Shots: Chris Woodrum 37 out of 40 pts.
Stroke Shots: Andy Segal 38 out of 40 pts.
Jump Shots: Jason Lynch 39 out of 40 pts.
Masse Shots: Andy Segal 37 out of 40 pts.