Five Thai players will be chasing glory in three categories at the BWF World Tour Finals, which starts on Wednesday in Hangzhou, China.
They are men's singles star Kunlavut Vitidsarn, mixed doubles duo Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai, and women's doubles pair Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
World champion Kunlavut, ranked sixth in the world, is in Group B with world No.4 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia, No.5 Li Shifeng of China and No.11 Anders Antonsen from Denmark.
Group B is seen as weaker than Group A which features world No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, No.2 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, No.3 Kodai Naraoka of Japan and No.7 Shi Yuqi of China.
World No.5 Dechapol and Sapsiree, who have won the World Tour Finals twice, will face No.2 Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino from Japan, No.4 Feng Yanzhe/Huang Dongping of China and No.9 Chen Tang Jie/Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia in Group A.
Dechapol and Sapsiree remain Thailand's only champions at the season-ending tournament.
World No.9 Jongkolphan and Rawinda are in Group B and will be up against No.2 Baek Ha-Na/Lee So-Hee and No.3 Kim So-Yeong/Kong Hee-Yong of South Korea, and No.4 Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan.
In the women's singles, hot favourite An Se-Young of South Korea takes on compatriot Kim Ga-Eun, Taiwan's Tai Tze-ying and Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in Group A.
In Group B are China's Olympic champion Chen Yufei, compatriot Han Yue, Spain's Carolina Marin and American Beiwen Zhang.
The top two players or pairs from each group will reach the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, Kunlavut will open his campaign against Christie on Wednesday.
Whether it's an exaggerated sense of modesty, or just his way of deflecting the pressure, Kunlavut casts himself in the role of a learner than an achiever.
Arriving at the World Tour Finals 2023 as the reigning world champion, the 22-year-old Thai refuses to consider himself one of the favourites for the season finale.
"This year my performance hasn't been uniformly good. Sometimes it's really good and sometimes it's really low. I need to see how to control my performance in every tournament. I need to work harder than before," said Kunlavut.
At his one previous appearance at the World Tour Finals in 2021, he was runner-up to Axelsen.
"I'm still young and I need to learn from the top players who can control their performance in every tournament. I'm not yet a top player. I need to find out how to play well in every tournament," said the Thai.
To some extent, the world No.6 was being unduly harsh on himself, for after his history-making feat in Copenhagen -- he became the first men's singles world champion from Thailand -- he suffered a back injury and then had a prolonged bout of fever, which affected his European season.
His post-world championships lack of form means that, despite being world champion, he has cast himself away from the spotlight in Hangzhou.
Kunlavut was reluctant to say if he was physically close to his best.
"My condition is better than before. I'm not yet 100 per cent," he said.