2016 World Championship - it's happening again!

It's that time of the year again, when all of us - the snooker loopies - are overjoyed and overexcited about the 17-days snooker marathon that will take place as usual at the Crucible Theatre from Sheffield.

32 players will take their chances in a genuine clash of styles, talent and stamina. Each and every one of them dreams of lifting the World Championship trophy and each and every one of them will try his best to do so. The battles are going to be hard, ruthless and tremendously entertaining!

What happened until now ...

The qualifiers. 8 days of snooker. Pure madness. Pure tension. The real deal. A different version of the World Championship. Only 16 prevailed.

Veterans Steve Davis and Jimmy White made an early exit from the very first round, while Ken Doherty managed to reach the third round before being knelt down by Ryan Day 10-6.

Ding Junhui had to qualify "thanks" to a poor season and losing in the first round of the recently ended China Open. But it wasn't a problem for the "Chinese Sensation" as he beat Greg Casey (10-4), Nigel Bond (10-2) and Ross Muir (10-1) - not necessarily in that order.

Thailand started crying when their local-boy Thepchaiya Un-Nooh missed to pot the final black for a perfect 147! The tragedy is that he missed it twice. Remember the UK Championship match against Neil Robertson? If not, here's the video.

Matthew Stevens will be missing this year's World Championship as he lost 10-6 to the rising sensation named Kyren Wilson, the same happening for Luca Brecel who crashed in round two in front of Liam Highfield.

What will happen next ...

The draw of this year's Betfred World Championship was made public this Thursday at 10 am (UK time) on World Snooker's official YouTube channel. It was a good stream this time. Can't complain. Of course that I opened my browser at 10:03, but I'm assuming they didn't show monkeys in the first three minutes.

Back to serious matters, the draw looks bloody interesting! The reigning champion is meeting "The Captain" Ali Carter, Maguire and McManus will cross their cues in an old-time-classic-Scottish-cue-affair, Judd Trump is facing the unpredictable Liang Wenbo while the Crucible first-timer Mitchel Mann has a special rendez-vous with Mark Allen.

And this is only the beginning. The real snooker lovers know that each match has its own special vibe and holds many mysteries, so the possibilities are endless. Truly endless.

The full draw can be checked below:

Stuart Bingham v Ali Carter