Championship League

In the invitational, non-ranking version, 25 professionals take part. There is no audience. Players earn money for every frame won and there are also prizes for being a semi-finalist, runner-up and winner of each group, with more money involved in the winners' group. In the first two years all matches in the group stages were the best of four, meaning that the matches could end in a draw as all the four frames were played, and the semi-finals and final were best of five. Since 2010 all matches are best of five. The competition runs over eight groups, each consisting of seven players. From the league stage of the first seven groups the top four qualify for a play-off, the winner of which qualifies for the winners' group. The bottom two players of each league are eliminated and the remaining four move to the next group, where they are joined by three more players until the seventh group. The winners play in the final group with the champion taking a place in that year's Premier League Snooker until 2012,[3] and in that year's Champion of Champions from 2013.

In the ranking version, 128 players take part in 32 rounds of group matches with each group consisting of four players. There is no audience. All matches are the best of four with three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw. The 32 players that top the group tables qualify for the group winners' stage, consisting of eight groups of four players, and the eight winners from the group winners' stage qualify for the two final groups. The winners of these two groups play a best-of-five final. The champion takes a place in that year's Champion of Champions.

There have been twelve maximum breaks in the history of the tournament, ten in the invitational version and two in the ranking version as follows:
Note: numbers in parentheses are the order from the official list of maximum breaks.

1. On 8 January 2014 by Shaun Murphy[lower-alpha 1] against Mark Davis in a Group 2 league match. (103)[4]
2. On 5 January 2015 by Barry Hawkins[lower-alpha 1] against Stephen Maguire in a Group 1 league match. (111)[5]
3. On 10 February 2015 by David Gilbert[lower-alpha 2] against Xiao Guodong in a Group 7 league match. (114)[6]
4. On 25 February 2016 by Fergal O'Brien[lower-alpha 2] against Mark Davis in a Group 6 league match. (118)[7]
5. On 10 January 2017 by Mark Davis[lower-alpha 2] against Neil Robertson in the final frame of the Group 3 final match. (127)[8]
6. On 2 March 2017 by Mark Davis[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 3] against John Higgins in a Winners' Group league match. (129)[9]
7. On 26 January 2018 by Martin Gould[lower-alpha 2] against Li Hang in a Group 6 league match. (135)[10]
8. On 26 March 2018[lower-alpha 4] by Luca Brecel[lower-alpha 2] against John Higgins in a Group 7 league match. (136)[11]
9. On 22 January 2019[lower-alpha 5] by David Gilbert[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 6] against Stephen Maguire in a Group 5 league match. (147)[12]
10. On 4 January 2021 by Stuart Bingham[lower-alpha 7] against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in a Group 1 league match. (165)[13]

1. On 13 September 2020 by Ryan Day[lower-alpha 1] against Rod Lawler in a Stage 1, Group 2 league match. (158)[14]
2. On 30 October 2020 by John Higgins[lower-alpha 8] against Kyren Wilson in a Stage 3, Group 2 league match. (159)[15]

• Tournament possible maximum total (since 2013): £205,000[1]

Note: The champion receives a total of £33,000 (£3,000 + £4,000 + £6,000 + £20,000).

• Tournament total: £328,000[2]