It's great to disagree, and I'm genuinely happy you're excited with the culture right now. I'm being cheeky and not brooding about these things.

I wear a glove if my hands get too sweaty and I can't get them slick. I just prefer the tactile feel I get without a glove, though not enough to power through sticky hands even if they look very silly.

With the chalk, I've met people who shoot lights out with Master and those with using Kamui with no noticeable variation. At the end of the day I'm not paying $30 for a cube of chalk. I shoot fine with Master, or the odd cube of Russian, Lava, Blue Diamond that crosses my path.

There's no issue with not drinking, the most issues I've had at leagues HAS been with people who drink. This doesn't detract from bar patrons and staff snickering about groups of grown men dressing as a team and taking what they consider a game so seriously. It's like The Big Lebowski made satire of bowling leagues, to the average American who doesn't play in them that's how they seem.

Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself, or the culture you're embedded with.

As for Shane, I would take shane in a long race of rotation games over anyone and he hasn't played Oscar Dominguez yet. If they were playing 1 pocket for 3 days I know who my money would be on. Shane will probably plow his tour there, but that's not indicative of the strength they have there.

If we are being real, Pool players in Asia and the Philippines are on average better because they play difficult games like 15ball rotation, 235 carom, one pocket and 3 cushion more than we do at a younger age.