Qualifying …Updated with one more match

In the two open events its all about qualifying. With less than 25% of the teams qualifying and about a third in the the CNTC making it through to the knockout phase is not all that easy and every year some of the favored teams don’t make it.

In the CNTC after 20 rounds things are very tight around the last two qualifying spots. Rayner is in 7th with 326 which gives them a bit of head room but 8th through 11th are tightly bunched. 8. Jotcham 319 VP 9. Gamble with 316 VP Team 3 10. Ather 313 VP Team 1 11. Korbel 312 Rayner looks safe with two easier matches to finish their round robin. Both Gamble and Jotcham has two opponents who haven’t had a good week although if I had to play against a spoiler I would not want to play against team 20 Daniel Lavee, Jeff Smith, Anton Blagov, David Sabourin, Samantha Nystrom who are one of Gamble’s last two opponents. Both Ather and Korbel have greater challenges. Good luck to all.

Starting tomorrow there is Vugraph so I should have some more interesting blogs. I will also have a chance to talk to some of the players this evening and watch the Hall of Fame ceremony. Eric Murray will be making a speech which is always an interesting experience. The Senior Team Championships starts tomorrow. It is the second most challenging event of the week. We won’t know the entrants until tomorrow but many of those from the CNTC who did qualify will play and there will also be some new entrants. For example, Mike Yuen tells me he is coming from British Columbia to play.

Update: One more match.  Some teams are locks but there are at least 9 times in a battle for the 9 spots.

1. Gartaganis 2. Todd 3. Whiteman 4. Janicki. are well placed or locks for a qualifying spot

5. Thurston 366 6. Rayner 363 look good but there is some risk

7. Hanna 358 Tied 8. Gamble and Altay 352 are fighting it out for a spot (notice that there are one two many teams in the top 8!)

10. Jotcham at 345 needs help to make it.

One more match and we move on to the knockouts

In the Flight B Liu has a mammoth lead but there is a battle for the fourth and final playoff spot

In the Womens the pretournament favorites are in 1, 2 and 3 Cimon, Smith and Demme and it looks like Huang will be fourth.  With four of eight qualifying the round robin was a bit of a laugher for the top teams.