Despite losing the best part of four months and 15 events of the season due to the pandemic, the PDC have somehow made it feel as though 2020 has been as action-packed as ever before, and all of a sudden we're preparing for the crescendo of Dartmas.

Sure, the reduced crowd numbers and Covid-19-enforced restrictions will of course prevent the usual atmosphere of singing, chanting and beer throwing within the historic walls of the Alexandra Palace, but at least it'll be a lot more real and inspiring than what we've been used to consuming since July. That's not to take anything away from what the PDC and TV networks have done to fill the void, by the way.

Consequently, I doubt the lesser known players will be rattled by the World Championship stage fright factor in quite the same way as in previous years due to the experience being potentially more like the gentle Lakeside ambiance, but nevertheless, the intensity, pressures, adrenaline and stakes will be as high as ever among the heat of the oche exchanges. (Written before London went back into tier 3, but this does not affect the tips)

Ultimately the cream does rise to the top on the biggest stage of all in this long, set-play format and apart from a plethora of early-round upsets that seem to happen every year and the odd shock semi-final run here and there - or in Kirk Shepherd's case, one step further - the finalists tend to be the superstars of each era. Even when Rob Cross won to cap his dream debut season, he'd been that impressive during the previous months that he only went off as a 16/1 'outsider'.

There's no question who the three biggest superstars are right now and it speaks volumes that a Michael van Gerwen v Gerwyn Price final is 5/1 (currently Price Boosted to 8/1 by Sky Bet) and another MVG v Peter Wright showdown is 6/1, while the next possible eventualities start at 18/1 before rocketing up pretty sharply.

They've won seven of the 10 televised majors between them this season, with Price taking the majority with three if you include the World Cup alongside Jonny Clayton, but on the flip side there's only been one 'big three' final and that happened way back when MVG pipped the Iceman at the UK Open in March - just before the world would go a little bit strange.

The seven behind-closed-doors majors since the restart - as well as the partially attended European Championship - further underlined the rising standards of those lower down the rankings and an almost 'free for all' nature of top-class darts, which helped produce three maiden champions in Dimitri Van den Bergh, Glen Durrant and Jose De Sousa - none of whom needed to knockout MVG, Price or Wright along the way. Duzza did beat the trio during the Premier League regular season but their respective undoings weren't solely down to him.