The Top 8 Tournament is played annually to determine who will compete for the title of Irish Champion. The tournament takes the form of an eight-player double elimination. The top four finishers each year automatically qualify for the following year’s Top 8 tournament with the remaining places filled by qualifiers.

Rules | Previous Tournaments

The standings in this year’s tournament are shown below:

Qualifying round 1: 2pm, Saturday 11th January, OGS

A: Eoghan Barry bt Shinuito
B: Ruari McCloskey bt John Gibson
C: Chris Rafferty bt Niall Tuohy

Qualifying Round 2: 2pm, Saturday 18th January, OGS

D: Philippe Renaut v Piotr Gawron
E: Kevin Farrell bt Eoghan Barry
F: Alex Delogu bt Ruari McCloskey
G: Chris Rafferty bt Tiberiu Gociu

Top 8 round 1: 12noon, Saturday 25th January
Roman Pszonka bt Kevin Farrell
Philippe Renaut bt Michael Thai
Alex Delogu bt James Hutchinson
Matei Garcia bt Chris Rafferty

Round 2 (winner’s bracket) 4:30pm
Alex bt Roman
Matei bt Philippe

(loser’s bracket)
James bt Kevin
Michael bt Chris

Round 3 (winner’s bracket) 12 noon, Sunday 26th January
Matei bt Alex

(loser’s bracket) 10am, Sunday 26th
James bt Philippe
Michael bt Roman

7/8th playoff
Kevin bt Chris

Round 4 (loser’s bracket final) 2pm
James bt Michael

5/6th playoff
Philippe bt Roman

Championship play-off KGS 15th February, 10am
James bt Alex game here

Standings after play-off:

Qualified for championship Matei Garcia, James Hutchinson
3rd Alex Delogu
4th Michael Thai
5th Philippe Renaut
6th Roman Pszonka
7th Kevin Farrell
8th Chris Rafferty

Matei then beat James 2-0 in the final.