2018 European Darts Trophy
The 2018 European Darts Trophy was the thirteenth of thirteen PDC European Tour events on the 2018 PDC Pro Tour. The tournament took place at the Lokhalle, Göttingen, Germany from 12–14 October 2018. It featured a field of 48 players and £135,000 in prize money, with £25,000 going to the winner. Michael van Gerwen was the defending champion after defeating Rob Cross 6–4 in 2017's final. Van Gerwen won his third consecutive European Darts Trophy title and his 28th European Tour title in total after an 8–3 win over James Wade in the  final. Prize money. This is how the prize money is divided: Prize money will count towards the PDC Order of Merit, the ProTour Order of Merit and the European Tour Order of Merit, with one exception: should a seeded player lose in the second round (last 32), their prize money will not count towards any Orders of Merit, although they still receive the full prize money payment. Qualification and format. The top 16 entrants from the PDC ProTour Order of Merit on 12 September will automatically qualify for the event and will be seeded in the second round. The remaining  32 places will go to players from five qualifying events – 18 from the UK Qualifier (held in Dublin on 27 September), eight from the West/South European Qualifier (held on 13 September), four from the Host Nation Qualifier (held on 11 October), one from the Nordic & Baltic Qualifier (held on 11 August) and one from the East European Qualifier (held on 26 August). Mensur Suljović and Adrian Lewis, who would have been the number 6 and 7 seeds respectively, withdrew from the tournament prior to the draw. Mervyn King and Stephen Bunting, the highest-ranked qualifiers, were promoted to 15th  and 16th seed respectively, which meant an extra two places were made available in the Host Nation Qualifier. The following players took part in the tournament: