The Badminton World Federation (BWF), the global body of badminton, organises many prestigious tournaments throughout the year. From the BWF World Championships to the BWF World Tour, many top-ranked shuttlers put in hard yards in these competitions to rise through the rankings.

Apart from that, they also have their eyes on the BWF World Tour Finals that takes place at the end of the year. Only the best-performing shuttlers throughout the season get a chance to compete in this tournament.

So what’s the qualification system for the BWF World Tour Finals? And how many players qualify?

In this article, we’ll see how players qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals.

What is the qualification process for the BWF World Tour Finals?

See, the BWF organises the World Tour circuit, which culminates with the World Tour Finals in December every year. Now if you don’t know what the BWF World Tour is, then here’s a quick overview.

The BWF World Tour falls under the Grade 2 structure, with tournaments organised under six levels. The BWF World Tour Finals is the top level, while the remaining four levels sort of act as qualifiers for the year-end tournament.

So the top-ranked players participate in Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, and Super 300 tournaments in the World Tour circuit. This makes it the whole BWF World Tour series.

Each level has several tournaments under them, which adds up to 31 competitions. Now shuttlers have the choice to play in as many tournaments as they want, though the top 15 singles players and the top 10 doubles pairs on the World Rankings need to play in a minimum of 12 tournaments.

The participating shuttlers earn certain ranking points as per their standings in a tournament. The Super 1000 tournaments offer the maximum points, followed by the Super 750, Super 500, and Super 300.

All these players are then ranked on the BWF World Tour standings based on their total points. The more points a player accumulates, the higher their ranking will be.

So this is the whole qualification process for the BWF World Tour Finals. Now let’s see how many players make the cut.

How many players qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals?

As many as eight players/pairs from all five disciplines qualify for the BWF World Tour Finals. But there is a limit on how many players/pairs can qualify from the same nation in each discipline.

The BWF has put a limitation of two players/pairs from each nation per category to maintain a level of competitiveness in the tournament.

Now how do these eight players/pairs qualify?

As mentioned earlier, players get ranking points for playing in every tournament. The BWF ranks the players on the standings, with the top eight singles players and the top eight doubles pairs entering the BWF World Tour Finals.

Now a player may participate in all 31 tournaments to maximise their points. But the BWF considers only the top 14 tournaments played in the qualifying period where the players have accumulated the most points.

The BWF takes into account the top 14 tournaments played between the second and 47th weeks of the year, along with the 48th and 50th weeks from the previous year.

After considering this, the top eight players/pairs from each category quality for the finals.

Sometimes, the BWF grants direct qualification to the World Championships winners or Olympic winners in that particular year. The rest spots are then decided on the World Tour rankings.

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