Players qualified for the event by winning important tournaments since the previous Champion of Champions. Entry was guaranteed for the defending champion, winners of rankings events and winners the following non-rankings events:
2015 Masters,
2015 Championship League,
2015 World Grand Prix and
2015 World Cup. Remaining places were then allocated to winners of
European Tour events (in the order they were played) and then, if required, to winners of Asian Tour events and then, winners of the
2015 Six-red World Championship,
2015 Snooker Shoot-Out and
2015 World Seniors Championship. The following players qualified for the tournament: Eight players were seeded. Seedings were determined in early October, before defending champion and top seed
Ronnie O'Sullivan withdrew from the event. Other seeds were based on the latest
world rankings (revision 3).
Mark Allen was ranked higher than Higgins in these rankings (revision 3) but hadn't qualified at that time. ==Main draw==