Of 150 of the world's best amateur snooker players at the world snooker championships in western Sydney, it all came down to two teenagers.
Following several knockout rounds akin to the Australian Open, 16-year-old Stan Moody from England faced off against 19-year-old Ma Hai Long from China on Saturday.
Ma took out the final, but Moody could hold his head up high as he had won the junior competition the week before.
The results mean both players receive tour cards, allowing them to become professional snooker players for two years.
For Ma, the win was an incredible occasion because it was his first overseas tour.
He never felt his young age was a barrier to success and gained in confidence as the tour progressed, he said via a translator.
Local young gun shines
Australia had their own young guns at the event, including 17-year-old Jayden Dinga from Brisbane.
Dinga has never been able to have a beer at the pub and challenge his mates at the pool table, but he is already one of Australia's best players of cue sports.
He started playing snooker when he was just six, using an unorthodox technique to reach the table.
"I played with the cue over my shoulder; it looked very weird, but it was the only way I could reach," he said.
This was his first time competing at the world title event, but he has previously won the national junior championship five times.
He finished school last year and hopes to kickstart a professional career.
He intends to spend this year "fully committed and focused to snooker".
Gender is no barrier
The championship is an open tournament where young players like Dinga can play against experienced heads of all ages and genders.
World Snooker Federation president Jason Ferguson says Australia has a strong history of female players, including Tweed Heads electrician Jessica Woods.
Woods says she got into snooker at age 13, thanks to her father and older brother.
"They dragged me in to play snooker with them and I just never stopped, basically," she said.
Woods has gone on to take out the International Billiards and Snooker Federation under-21 girls world title in 2014 and has been a mainstay on the amateur circuit since.
She says for a while she would compete at women's events but was not permitted to compete in open events because of her gender.
Things have improved since and despite being a male-dominated sport, Woods says men are very welcoming when playing female players.
"It wasn't that long ago that women couldn't play in these events," Woods said.
"It's not like tennis or something where they've got a massive physical advantage over you."
There is still some way to go, as prize money for women's tournaments is often less than the men's, and some snooker rooms around the world don't allow women to enter.
"Even in the UK, there was one. There was a league, and the female couldn't go to the clubhouse and play because it was a male-only," Woods said.
Woods says attitudes like this lead to male dominance of the sport which has a chilling effect on female participation.
"If you're a young girl and you go into a snooker room, generally there's going to be around 50 other males and no females," she said.
"It can be hard for young girls to get into the sport for that reason."
A world game
The game might be associated with going to the pub in Europe or the United Kingdom, but the sport also has a large representation in Asia.
Six out of the final 16 contestants at the open championship were from Asia, including the winner, and competitors from Thailand, Hong Kong and Nepal.
Mr Ferguson says the World Snooker Federation has six major events in China and recently held a major event in Hong Kong with 9,000 spectators.
"The television signal from the World Snooker Tour goes to 1.8 billion homes, with a dedicated following of around 500 million viewers," he said.
"I put that up against any other sport."
