| Venue: | Capital Venue |
| Location: | Gloucester |
| Country: | England |
| Format: | Qualifying School |
| Qualifiers: | 8 via the 2 events |
| Previous: | 2013 |
| Next: | 2015 |
The 2014 Q School was a series of two snooker tournaments held at the start of the 2014–15 snooker season. An event for amateur players, it served as a qualification event for a place on the professional World Snooker Tour for the following two seasons. The events took place in May 2014 at the Capital Venue in Gloucester, England with a total 8 players qualifying via the two tournaments.
The 2014 Q School consisted of two events with 8 qualification places available. Previously there had been three events with a total of 12 places available. The entry fee was reduced from £1,000 to £600.[1] [2] The two events had 145 entries competing for the eight places on the main tour, four players qualifying from each of the two events. All matches were the best of seven frames.
The first 2014 Q School event was held from 10 to 15 May 2014 at the Capital Venue in Gloucester, England. Craig Steadman, Chris Melling, Zhang Anda and Tian Pengfei qualified.[3] [4] The results of the four final matches are given below.[5]
The second 2014 Q School event was held from 16 to 21 May 2014 at the Capital Venue in Gloucester, England. Liam Highfield, Michael Georgiou, Lee Walker and Michael Leslie qualified. Wells had previously held a tour card.[6] [7] The results of the four final matches are given below.[8]
A Q School Order of Merit was produced for players who didn't qualify from the two events. The Order of Merit was used to top up fields for the 2014–15 snooker season where an event failed to attract the required number of entries. The rankings in the Order of Merit were based on the number of frames won in the two Q School events. Players who received a bye into the second round were awarded four points for round one. Where players were equal, those who won the most frames in the first event were ranked higher.[9] [10]
The leading players in the Q School Order of Merit are given below.[10] [11]
| Rank | Player | Event 1 | Event 2 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eden Sharav | 20 | 23 | 43 | |
| T2 | Ashley Carty | 18 | 22 | 40 | |
| T2 |  Alex Pagulayan | 18 | 22 | 40 | |
| 4 | Jamie Clarke | 23 | 15 | 38 | |
| 5 | Daniel Wells | 15 | 19 | 34 | |
| 6 |  John Sutton | 20 | 12 | 32 | |
| 7 |  Chen Zhe | 17 | 15 | 32 | |
| 8 | Oliver Brown | 14 | 18 | 32 | |
| 9 | Joe O'Connor | 9 | 21 | 30 | |
| 10 | Duane Jones | 23 | 6 | 29 |
The following table shows the rankings of the 8 qualifiers from the 2014 Q School, at the end of the 2015–16 snooker season, the end of their two guaranteed seasons on the tour, together with their tour status for the 2016–17 snooker season. Players in the top-64 of the rankings retained their place on the tour while those outside the top-64 lost their place unless they qualified under a different category.[12] [13] [14]
| Player | End of 2015–16 season | Status for 2016–17 season | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Money | Ranking | |||
| 42,999 | 68 | Qualified through the 2016 Q School | ||
| 12,757 | 91 | Amateur | ||
| 45,816 | 65 | Qualified through the Asian Tour Order of Merit[15] | ||
| 74,616 | 48 | Retained place on tour | ||
| 44,716 | 67 | Qualified through the European Tour Order of Merit[16] | ||
| 28,591 | 76 | Qualified through the 2016 Q School | ||
| 32,833 | 74 | Qualified through the European Tour Order of Merit | ||
| 11,422 | 93 | Amateur | ||