Two-time winner Gary Anderson made it through to the third round of the World Championship with victory over Brendan Dolan on Irish Night at Alexandra Palace.
The hotly-anticipated second-round meeting between Dolan and Anderson failed to live up to the pre-match hype as the Scotsman hit seven maximums to surge through with a confidence-boosting win.
Newcastle star Callan Rydz recorded the biggest win of his career by knocking out Steve Lennon on debut, while William O'Connor did not have to work too hard en route to a place in the next round.
Precocious talent Keane Barry gave us a glimpse into the future of darts with an impressive performance against veteran Vincent van der Voort, who used all his experience to come through unscathed.
Gary Anderson 3-0 Brendan Dolan
Anderson missed much of the first half of the season to resolve a back problem, but he put his past problems behind him as he rediscovered some of the form which saw him win the title here in 2015 and 2016.
Northern Irishman Dolan - famous for being the first player to achieve a nine-darter in the World Grand Prix's double-start format - enjoyed his best run at Ally Pally 12 months ago when he reached the quarter-finals, but he failed to trouble Anderson, who rampaged his way through to the third round in a blizzard of blistering darts.
Anderson opened by winning five legs on the spin, including a majestic 144 checkout, before Dolan held throw. The Scot soon wrapped up the set thanks to double four. He pinned double 10 for a break of throw in the third set before completing the win on tops.
Steve Lennon 2-3 Callan Rydz
Rydz, was making his Worlds debut and the early nerves were clear as day with Lennon sweeping through the opening set in style. The World Cup finalist crashed in a 128 checkout on the bull to move 1-0 up.
'The Riot', who won the 2019 Challenge Tour Order of Merit, bounced back with a clean sweep of legs. The 21-year-old then piled in his third maximum before landing double eight to reel off his sixth leg in a row and move one set away from an upset victory.
But Lennon won the next with the fourth consecutive whitewash set of the match. The world No 38 then took out 61 to break the sequence in the third leg of the fifth set before sending the clash into a final leg decider.
Lennon missed two darts at double 18, and those misses proved costly as Rydz nailed double two for a stunning upset win. He will next play Dutchman Danny Noppert in the second round on Thursday evening.
Vincent van der Voort 3-0 Keane Barry
Barry, 17, became the third youngest player ever to play at the Worlds behind Mitchell Clegg and Max Hopp. And the teenager gave an accomplished performance against the Dutch veteran.
'The Dutch Destroyer' Van der Voort, 43, was playing at his first World Championship when Barry was born in 2002. He was now taking part at his 13th World Championship and he showed his experience by holding his throw throughout to win the first set.
He then sunk 66 in the deciding leg of the second set to open up a two-set cushion on the Irish youngster. Van der Voort completed the win after sweeping through the third set without dropping a leg to set up a meeting against Dave Chisnall next.
William O'Connor 3-0 Marko Kantele
O'Connor continued his superb year by seeing off Finland's Kantele, who was making his fourth World Championship appearance.
'The Magpie' has already won a Players Championship, reached the World Cup final for Ireland and last eight at the Players Championship Finals.
He wasn't quite at his best, missing 21 darts at doubles, but O'Connor did enough to cruise to a scrappy victory and set up a second-round meeting with one of the tournament favourites and back-to-back Grand Slam of Darts champion, Gerwyn Price.
Check out daily Darts news on skysports.com/darts, our app for mobile devices and our Twitter account @skysportsdarts. The action is on Sky Sports Darts with live coverage from Alexandra Palace until the final on New Year's Day.