Back in March, I went to Phoenix to play in the APA 2022 Regionals Tournament for 9-ball. In order to qualify for this tournament, you must defeat players within your city during the "Regionals Qualiifer Boards", which I did back in late 2021.
The Regionals Tournament for 9-ball took place on Sunday March 6 and started very early in the morning at 8:30am. I played with mostly other skill level 5s being a 5 myself, and in APA a skill level 5 must race their opponent to 38 points (where each ball pocketed is worth 1 point with the exception of the 9-ball being worth 2).
My first match I actually got crushed, losing to a skill-level 5 from Suprise AZ with a final score of 19-38. Fortunately, the tournament is a single-elimination modified tournament that guarantees that you play at least two matches. One could argue that losing my first match didn't actually matter since I was going to still have to win the same number of matches the rest of the way after that first match.
My second match out of the loser's bracket, I played a skill level 6 from New Mexico and actually won pretty convincingly with a score of 38-24. I then found myself back on the winners bracket between two more skill level 5s on my way to 38-11 and 38-28 victories. I had then found myself in the finals match and played a skill level 5 from New Mexico, who I was able to defeat 38-32, the closest win of the day.
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This was second time playing in the Regionals Tournament. My first time, I played 8-ball in 2016 and lost as a skill-level 4. I actually moved up to a skill-level 5 during that tournament, which ended up costing me the finals match since I had to win one more game. Unfortunately the runner-up doesn't get anything in these tournaments.
But this was a new day and I am now qualified for the Nationals Tournament in Las Vegas! I leave today and the tournament can go all the way until Friday May 6 if I do well. There are payouts for the top 17 players (out of about 100), with first place walking away with $10,000 in prizes! :O Super exciting!
Wish me luck and stay tuned for updates!
