NEW UPDATE!
You may recall back in April I blogged about a bunch of the sports I was currently competing in. While IBM basketball league didn't fair so well and I failed to make the finals for just the 2nd time in 8 years, today I am here to write to you about the upcoming city tournament for my pool league!
You may recall back in April I blogged about a bunch of the sports I was currently competing in. While IBM basketball league didn't fair so well and I failed to make the finals for just the 2nd time in 8 years, today I am here to write to you about the upcoming city tournament for my pool league!
Back in April, my Tuesday night 8-ball team (nicknamed "The Dollar Menu") was fighting for 1st place overall and it came down pretty much to the last night, but we were victorious and we won the session as well as a bid into the Tri-Cup tournament. That tournament actually occurred over Memorial Day Weekend while I was in New Orleans, but fortunately my team did well enough without me to qualify for the City Tournament, where the winners will have a chance to play in Vegas!
Below you will find the bracket. I'm really excited to play in something like this, although it could encompass the entire weekend, depending on how we do. Wish us luck! Who could of thought a bunch of beginner type players could make it this far in just their first year of APA pool league!?
TOURNAMENT RESULTS:
On Friday night, our team played The Outlawz. I put players up mostly based on how they were feeling that night, but as team captain I'm still very strategic in the order and matchups I want my players to get. Unfortunately, every player I sent up that night against this team lost, and we found ourselves in the losers bracket coming back Saturday afternoon.
Our next match was Saturday at 2:30pm. As team captain, I'm always an advocate of trying to give every player a chance to play in the tournament, so I put up 2 new players against team South Tucson Deadstrokes (yes, STDs lol). The two players I sent up lost and our team quickly found ourselves down 0-2, 1 loss away from tournament elimination. I hadn't played my strongest player Erica yet, and while most captains would probably do so here, I decided at that point that I just wanted a chance to play since I hadn't yet. I ended up playing a 5 (I'm a 3, but don't forget I was Top-Gun in city last year...if they had a Top Gun for city). I ended up "Racklessing" the guy 2-0 (that's where they don't get a chance to break a rack). I was happy that team finally won a match, but the news I heard next would be most surprising. Apparently the other team had to forfeit the final two matches because their 4th player was already playing in a different match and their 5th was never going to show up to begin with. So we ended up advancing to the next round! It was super lucky on my part that we advanced, since had I played Erica instead where she would have to win more games, that 4th player might've been able to play after all. Nonetheless, we took the win and stayed for our 7pm matchup against Yup!.
For the 7pm match I continued to strategize, still trying to pick each matchup to give our team the best chance to win. Chris ended up winning the first match and there was one player left on our team who had not played all weekend, so I let Vanessa play the 2nd game in a 3-2 race. She ended up winning as well! And for the final match I put up Tyler against a 6 (because I wanted to save Erica for later if needed), but Tyler ended up winning as well, so we went 3-0 and advanced to Sunday!
After a late night of partying Saturday night, I headed back to Clicks on Sunday around 11 to find that Anthony had lost the first match against team 8 Balls of Fire. He was pretty exhausted all weekend from having to drive from Vegas just days earlier and wasn't playing well throughout most of the tournament. I put Erica up next so she could go to work for a few hours and she solidly won her matchup. The next player was a 3, but I knew she was a Top Gun for her tier in her league, so I put myself up. It was a good battle but I ended up taking that match and Chris took the next so we won 3-1 and found ourselves in the semifinals!
At 2:30pm we found ourselves against The Outlawz once again. This time I threw new players at them they had not seen before and we started out even at 1-1. I put Erica up against a 4, but their 4 played very well and was able to steal that match from our team. :( Tyler was up 4th and found himself up against another strong 4 that ended up winning and taking the series 1-3. I was left on the bench but was saving myself for the possible sudden death match. :/
All in all, I was really proud of my team and how far we came, just series away from Vegas in our first year playing pool league. We're still getting better and I'm sure we'll have more chances in future years if we all stay together. We're already on our way as we're in 1st place again this session through 5 weeks. The APA city tournament was a lot of fun and I'm glad I could be a part of it; I love competing!!!
