The Charlotte December Loopalalooza turned out to be a mostly local event,
with only 2 players attending from out of town. That's ok, we needed to
settle some matters & we did. There were all the elements of a good drama:
upsets, interesting characters, twists & surprise endings.
U1200 RR
Five person round robin had the first major upset of the day with 10 yr old
475 Khoa Vu over 1199 Alfredo Azpurua. It was David over Goliath. Vu was
bothered by some of Azpuruas serves, but Coach/Father Van Vu had some good
advice between games. Azpurua ended up 3-1; 1121 Bill Englebreth was also 3-1,
losing to Azpurua. Khoa Vu had a final match against 346 Christian Amidi;
by winning, his record would also be 3-1. A loss would leave them both 2-2.
More interesting, if Khoa won his match, there would be a 3 way tie for
1st place making Bill Englebreth the winner. If Khoa lost his match,
the 2 way tie between Englebreth & Azourua would leave Azpurua the winner,
as he won head to head earlier.
Lesson here: Don't leave your fate to someone else.
Englebreth was rooting for Vu to no avail. Amidi won in 4.
Unrated Samuel Xin played well in all his matches but couldn't get a win.
1st: Alfredo Azpurua. ($50)
2nd: Bill Englebreth. ($25)
3rd: Christian Amidi.
4th: Khoa Vu.
5th: Samuel Xin.
U1600 RR
Group 1: 1246 Joel Mitchell from Columbia SC won over top seed 1551 Sumit Anand,
Alfredo Azpurua & Khoa Vu.
Group 2: John Pahl won over Bill Englebreth & Wei Xin.
Group 3: No show John Griffing confused matters as unrated Yishan Zhao won over
unrated Samuel Xin. Unrated players can not advance from preliminary
rr groups, so someone would get a bye in the semis.
Group 4: Dave England won over Chris Saade & Christian Amidi.
This group provided the next & even bigger upset with 346 Amidi winning
over 1200 Saade -9,6,3,-9,9.
Semi Finals
It might have looked fixed, but the 1vs4 & 2vs3 matchups, (as well as all the
other group matchups) are predetermined. Pahl received a bye while England won
over Mitchell 3-0.
Final
No strangers to each other & no excuses.
Dave England over John Pahl 8,7,9. $60 1st, $30 2nd.
U1800 RR
Group 1: Top seed Ling Fan over Sumit Anand, Dave England & Samuel Xin.
Group 2: Heiko Plankenhorn over Salil Surendran, Yishan Zhao & Chris Saade.
Group 3: 1649 Dennis Lee over 1749 Tom Griffin, John Pahl & Alfredo Azpurua.
Group 4: Unrated Min Xu over Stan Gee & Joel Mitchell. Gee advances.
Semi Finals
1789 Ling Fan over 1746 Stan Gee 8,-8,9,8.
1788 Heiko Plankenhorn over 1649 Dennis Lee 9,-9,12,-7,9.
The players lost count of the score in the 4th game & could not agree,
TD had them go back to a score both could agree on, 8-8.
Lesson: always call the score after every point.
Final
Heiko Plankenhorn over Ling Fan 8,11,-7,-9,10.
1st: $60, 2nd $30.
U2000 RR
Group 1: Unrated Min Xu over Chris OBrian & Dennis Lee. OBrian advances.
Group 2: 1749 Tom Griffin upest 1846 Van Vu & unrated Yishan Zhao.
Group 3: Tom Miller over Stan Gee & Dave England.
Group 4: Edem Komlanvi over Salil Surendran & Elias Gomez jr.
Group 5: Bilal Soylu over Ling Fan & Chris Saade.
Group 6: Elias Gomez sr over Heiko Plankenhorn & Alfredo Azpurua.
Quarter Finals
(Gr 1 & 2 receive byes, 3vs6, 4vs5)
Tom Miller over Elias Gomez sr 8,8,9.
Edem Komlanvi over Bilal Soylu 11,9,10.
Semi Finals
Chris OBrian (1878) over Edem Komlanvi (1849) 9,-9,8,9.
Tom Griffin (1749) over Tom Miller (1860) 8,12,-10,9.
Final
Chris OBrian over Tom Griffin -9,7,6,3.
1st $70, 2nd $35.
Open Single Elimination
Quarter Finals
Stan Gee over Chris OBrian 4,7,5.
Bilal Soylu over Tom Miller 8,-8,9,-9,8.
Edem Komlanvi over Min Xu -9,-8,7,7,8.
Van Vu over Ling Fan 7,-9,8,9.
Semi Finals
Stan Gee over Bilal Soylu 9,-9,-9,9,8.
Van Vu over Edem Komlanvi 7,-7,8,8.
Final
Stan Gee over Van Vu 9,8,-8,9.
1st $80, 2nd $40.
U3400 Doubles
3 groups of 3 teams sent the winner to a final 3 team RR.
Finals
John Pahl/Min Xu won over Stan Janardhanan/Chris Saade & Stan Gee/Yishan Zhao.
1st: $60.
U3000 Doubles
Semi Finals
John Pahl/Chris Saade over Dave England/Joel Mitchell.
Ling Fan/Mike Stroupe over Khoa VU/Christian Amidi.
Final
John Pahl/Chris Saade over Ling Fan/Mike Stroupe.
1st: $50
