Recapping the 2nd annual Champions Cup event
This weekend, in Slingerlands, N.Y., brought the second annual installment of the Champions Cup. The first Champions Cup, if you remember, ended in extraordinary fashion - it was an incredibly close race for the title the whole way, right down to the wire, and ultimately the tournament ended in a straight-up tie. Two players finished with the exact same win total and spread.
This year's Champions Cup brought us... well, decidedly not that.
In Champions Cup #2, there was no close race to be found, save for perhaps the one for second place. This time, there was one player who dominated the weekend pretty much from wire to wire. In a house full of world-class players, one of them proved to be the champion of all champions. Congratulations to Matthew Tunnicliffe, this year's runaway winner.
Matthew was in command pretty much from start to finish. The weekend began with a brutal 9-game session on Saturday (and, mind you, you're facing top players every single game), but Matthew cruised through the day, going 8-1 and hardly breaking a sweat. By dinner Saturday evening, he was two games plus spread up on the entire field.
With three games to go, Matthew was 12-2; his nearest competitor Josh Castellano was three games back at 9-5, with Jason Keller and Chris Lipe another game behind at 8-6. So it was in round 15 out of 17 that Matthew clinched the tournament - with a 453-415 win over Josh, he officially put first place out of reach.
What followed was the aforementioned close race for second. Also in round 15, Jason got past Chris, 477-418, which put him squarely in the race with Josh for that #2 spot. Jason and Josh both won in round 16, which set up a head-to-head showdown in the final game. Jason took it down, 471-438, and second place was his. In the end, the top four were:
1. Matthew Tunnicliffe, 14-3, +1074
2. Jason Keller, 11-6, +590
3. Joshua Castellano, 10-7, +1140
4. Ben Schoenbrun, 9-8, +235
Many congrats are in order - and not just to the four gentlemen above who finished atop the standings. In fact, props are due to every single player who survived this gauntlet of a field - simply showing up and competing against a slate like this is an achievement. So, hats off to all the competitors.
And of course, felicitations are due to our fearless director, Terry Kang. It was Terry who originally hatched the idea for the Champions Cup, way back in the fall of 2022, and it was Terry who recruited players and promoted the event and really built this thing from the ground up. She's done an incredible job not just as a director but as a host (and a master chef!) - and all of this for the second consecutive year. In 2024, just as it was in '23, this one of the most truly special events on the CoCo tournament calendar. Terry is to thank for that.