The Top 8 tournament took place this weekend at the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin.

Philippe Renaut, Kevin Farrell, Alex Delogu and Chris Rafferty advanced from the qualifying rounds to join the four top finishers from last year, Matei Garcia, James Hutchinson, Roman Pszonka and Michael Thai.

For the first time, the tournament followed a double elimination format rather than the traditional round robin. This was generally agreed to be a success and we will follow the same format in future years.

Defending champion Matei was undefeated this weekend, winning against Chris, Philippe and Alex to clinch his place in the 2020 championship. Following a first round defeat to Alex, James managed three wins in succession to close out the losers’ bracket, defeating Kevin, Philippe and Michael along the way.

James must now play Alex for the other place in the championship. The match is tentatively scheduled for February 15th, at 2pm on KGS.

The finishing positions so far determined are:

4th Michael Thai
5th Philippe Renaut
6th Roman Pszonka
7th Kevin Farrell
8th Chris Rafferty