2007 Men's National Championship Recap

This years tournament was held on May 11-12. During the 2 day tournament we had 2 tables running non-stop for most of the weekend. With 15 friendly matches, 2 playoff games and the championship, there was not alot of time for anything but polish ping pong. The night started pretty slow, with only 2 new players to the game. Most of the contenders in this years tournment have played polish at one time or another. The first 4 friendly matches were on Friday night, which helped the players gain a strategy to the game and learn of their surroundings. After a brief intermission for s'mores, Tom & Jerry, sleep (for the few who could deal with the snoring) and a pancake breakfast the tournament resumed.

The Saturday morning portion of the tournament is much more crucial to the success of each player. Awards were handed out to the highest point getters in the AM friendlys as well as to the PM friendlys. The AM winners were: Renato Abrill (15 pts), Andy Fink (14 pts) and Ian Jones (12 pts). The PM winners were: Brian Stenson (19 pts), Renato Abrill (15 pts) and Ian Landis (15 pts). Andy Fink also had 15 PM pts but lost a head-to-head playoff to Ian Landis and Renatto Abrill.

The total daily points were counted up to issue each player his seed. The following players were the top 4 players in each pool of the playoff round:

Renato Abril (#1)
Andy Fink (#1)
Kyle Landis (#2)
Brian Stenson (#2)
Aaron Landis (#3)
Ian Jones (#3)
Ian Landis (#4)
Cory Landis (#4)

*All of the other 10 players qualified for the playoffs with at least 13 pts.
**It is also worth nothing that we had a father/ son duo in the tournament as well. Dave Schmell and his son Derek also had quite a showing with earning 20 pts and 17 pts respectively.

After the 2 playoff games, the following players made it into the Championship round:

Renato Abrill, Andy Fink, Cory Landis, Brian Stenson, Kevin Stenson, Kyle Landis, Brandon Brzezinski, and Ian Landis.

***It should be mentioned, that Brandon (6 seed) and Kevin (8 seed) both fought their way into the championship by defeating at least 4 other players in their playoff pools.

The final championship table had many exciting highlights, so here are some points of interest:

Brian Stenson, the tournament favorite, got knocked out on a questionable call for his third strike. The table voted unanimously that his shot did not hit the top of the table, but other game-watchers were not as sure. Brian, will clearly be back with revenge on his mind for next year.

Andy Fink and Renato Abrill, did not make the final 3 at the table, even though they clearly dominated the entire tournament. It was possible to earn 60 pts if a player won every single friendly of the tournament - Renato earned 41 and Andy earned 38. That goes to show how many times each player won at least 3rd place or better in each friendly match.

Ian Landis and Cory Landis (yes - they are brothers) were both #4 seeds going into the playoffs, yet pushed themselves onto the final table and eliminated all of the other players. It came down to these final 2 guys. With over 10 hours of polish ping pong, Cory defeated Ian to win the 2007 National Polish Ping Pong Tournament trophy. Congratulations Cory!

We will see you all again next year!