The 2016 Champion of Champions (officially the 2016 Dafabet Champion of Champions) was a professional non-rankingsnooker tournament that took place between 7 and 12 November 2016 at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, England.[1] It was the fourth staging of the tournament since it was revived in 2013. In the United Kingdom the tournament was broadcast on ITV4.
With several players winning more than one tournament, there were fewer than 16 players who qualified by winning tournaments. Remaining places were allocated to the highest ranked player, not already qualified, on the one-year ranking list. After the 2016 International Championship there had only been 14 different winners and, with only one event left, Stuart Bingham, who was 8th in the one-year ranking list, qualified at that stage.[6] The final place was left for the winner of the 2016 China Championship, a non-ranking event. During the China Championship Marco Fu withdrew and Joe Perry, 9th on the one-year ranking list, replaced him. At that stage John Higgins was the only non-qualified player left in the China Championship and, since he was 10th on the one-year ranking list, he therefore became the final qualifier. Moreover, he subsequently went on to win the tournament by beating Ronnie O'Sullivan 10–7 in the final.
The following players qualified for the tournament:[7][8]
Qualified from the one-year ranking list after Marco Fu's withdrawal
Four players were seeded. The seedings were determined in early October. Defending champion Neil Robertson was the 1st seed, while Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan were seeded 2nd and 3rd respectively for being the winner of last season's Triple Crown events. As Robertson was seeded twice for winning the UK Championship, Shaun Murphy became the 4th seed for being the highest ranked player not seeded after the 2016 Shanghai Masters.[9]
