When the annual WST Awards are allocated at the end of the season in May, the Rookie of the Year category will have strong competition and a range of possible winners.
Often in recent years there has been one outstanding candidate, such as Julien Leclercq in 2023, Wu Yize in 2022 and Pang Junxu in 2021.
But this season's batch of debutants has been the strongest in recent times, with at least half a dozen showing huge potential. With the Cazoo World Championship qualifiers on the horizon, all of these will be looking to finish their first season strongly with a Crucible appearance.
Stan Moody has earned headlines for his natural talent and fluent and style of play, and has backed that up with some impressive results, notably a run to the last 16 of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open, and a fine win over Jordan Brown on his way to the last 32 of last month's BetVictor Welsh Open. However his fellow Yorkshire cueman Liam Pullen has earned more ranking points so far, and taken scalps including Graeme Dott, Noppon Saengkham and Stuart Bingham.
Ishpreet Singh Chadha has quickly established himself as the tour's best Indian player since Aditya Mehta, his best moment coming at the BetVictor German Masters when he beat Luca Brecel on his way to the last 32. The Mumbai cueman seems confident of climbing the rankings now that he has found a footing on the circuit.
But - so far - the most impressive rookies this season have come from China. He Guoqiang leads the way having earned £49,000 already in 2023/24, climbing into the world's top 80. The former World Under-18 Champion was a quarter-finalist at the Cazoo British Open and has reached the last 16 of two other ranking events.
Liu Hongyu - winner of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Championship - is not far behind, his debut season highlighted by a tremendous run to the semi-finals of the BetVictor English Open where he knocked out Shaun Murphy, Joe O'Connor, Chris Wakelin, Mark Williams and Ding Junhui. The likes of Xing Zihao, Long Zehuang and Ma Hailong have also proved that they can compete at this level.
Looking ahead to next season, Hong Kong's Ka Wai Cheung and Hungary's Bulcsú Révész , winners of the WSF main event and junior championships respectively, will be among the rookies looking to showcase their skills.
And today in Sarajevo, the Q-Tour Global Play-Offs will come to a conclusion, with talented Welsh teenager Liam Davies among those looking to earn a tour card for the first time.
Without question, the pool of gifted youngsters from the UK, China, mainland Europe and further afield is growing year-by-year, and the cream of the crop can have realistic ambitions of challenging the dominance of the established stars at the top of the sport.