The field of competitors includes winners and finalists from the bigger tournaments, leaders of various rankings and is supplemented by winners of the qualifying tournament held in Barnsley at the beginning of this month.
There are six Dutchmen competing with Michael van Gerwen, Danny Noppert, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Martijn Kleermaker, Gian van Veen and Berry van Peer.
The big absentee here is Raymond van Barneveld, who failed to convince at the bigger tournaments this year and missed out on one of the last eight spots in Barnsley.
World champion and titleholder Michael Smith is present. Major winners Chris Dobey (Masters), Andrew Gilding (UK Open), Nathan Aspinall (World Matchplay), Luke Humphries (Grand Prix) and Peter Wright (European Championship) are also present in the Wolverhampton suburb.
Van Gerwen won no less than three major titles last year. Besides the Premier League and the World Series of Darts, he will also defend his Players Championship Finals title at the end of November.
The Welsh duo who won the World Cup are also automatically seeded, although Gerwyn Price (Premier League and Grand Prix) and Jonny Clayton (World Matchplay), as losing finalists at majors, were eligible for placement at all.
Rob Cross (Players Championship Finals), James Wade (European Championship) and Gary Anderson (World Cup) also qualified for the Grand Slam as runners-up.
Through the European Tour, one could also qualify for the Grand Slam. Dave Chisnall won no less than three events, where one would have been enough.
Krzysztof Ratajski and Ricardo Pietreczko triumphed at tournaments in Germany respectively and are also there.
Through the Players Championship held throughout the year, Van Duijvenbode managed to qualify with three final wins and was therefore allowed to skip the qualifying tournament.
At that qualifying tournament, held on November 3rd, Noppert managed to qualify at the last minute. The other seven spots went to Stephen Bunting, Ryan Searle, Nathan Rafferty, Damon Heta, Steve Lennon, Brendan Dolan and our own Martijn Kleermaker.
Via less usual routes, the winner, Josh Rock, and losing finalist Nathan Girvan of the Youth World Cup, the winner of the Asian Championship(Haruki Muramatsu), the winner of the CDC Continental Cup(Stowe Buntz) and the winner of the Women's Matchplay(Beau Greaves) will also be present from next Saturday.
Van Veen and Van Peer managed to secure a spot via the Development Tour and Challenge Tour Order of Merit, while Fallon Sherrock, as number two on the Women's Series Order of Merit, got to prepare for the penultimate major tournament before the World Cup in December.
Last Monday, the draw was conducted. The players and players are divided into eight groups of four, in which all players will meet once over best-of-nine legs.
The top two of each group qualify for the last 16. From then on, the tournament continues in a knockout system in which best-of-19 legs are played first. The final is on Sunday evening November 19th and, like the quarter-finals and semi-finals, is played over best-of-31 legs.
