The 2019 Championship League was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament, taking place from at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry (Group 1–6) and at the Barnsley Metrodome in Barnsley (Group 7 and the Winners' Group), both in England. It was the 12th staging of the tournament. David Gilbert made the historic 147th maximum break in his group 5 round robin match against Stephen Maguire. It was Gilbert's second professional maximum break (he achieved his first in the 2015 Championship League), and it was the sixth consecutive year that a maximum was made in the Championship League. During the round robin matches, Neil Robertson recorded his 600th career century in Group 1, and Ding Junhui his 500th in Group 7. And during the Winners' Group round robin matches, John Higgins made his 750th career century break, and Judd Trump also recorded his 600th. John Higgins was a two-time defending champion, having retained his 2017 title with a 3–2 victory against Zhou Yuelong in the 2018 final. However, Higgins lost 3–0 to Martin Gould in the semi-finals. Martin Gould went on to win his second Championship League title, beating Jack Lisowski 3–1 in the final. Tournament Format The Championship League event sees 25 professionals (including substitutes; 28 players in 2019) take part, with players earning prize money for every frame won. Matches are best of 5 frames, and the league is played from January to March 2019. The competition runs over eight groups, each consisting of seven players. From each group the top four qualify for a play-off, and the winners of the first seven play-offs qualify for the winners group. The bottom two players of each group 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, and the winner of the Winners' Group play-off takes the title and a place at the 2019 Champion of Champions. Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for the 2019 Championship League is shown below. Group 1–7 Winner: £3,000 Runner-up: £2,000 Semi-final: £1,000 Frame-win (league stage): £100 Frame-win (play-offs): £300 Highest break: £500 Winners' Group Winner: £10,000 Runner-up: £5,000 Semi-final: £3,000 Frame-win (league stage): £200 Frame-win (play-offs): £300 Highest break: £1,000 Tournament total: £177,800 Group 1 Group 1 was played on 1 and 2 January 2019. Neil Robertson was the first player to qualify for