Round 13 - Playoffs 5 of 2016 US Tak Open

This past week saw a number more exciting games. SultanPepper and Unsweet have successfully locked themselves into the top 3 for this playoff.  Trailing behind them are other playtak veterans: Simon, Abyss, NohatCoder, Turing, Ally, and Simmon. Personally, I'm particularly interested in watching the upcoming match between Turing and Simmon.

As a bit of a prelude to this, the game I'm focusing on this week is the second in the match between Turing and Tayacan. This week, I wrote a brief, high-level annotation of the game that can be found at https://goo.gl/1co2QM or in the viewer below:

Round 10 - Playoffs 2 of 2016 US Tak Open

With the second round over, the first set of 8 people has been eliminated, bringing us down to the top 24 players.  Interestingly 3 of the 16 games ended in a tie-breaker. While this may not seem like a lot, it really shows how closely matched some of these players are and will be important to look at as part of the post-tournament analysis.

In addition, next week will feature more exciting matches. I personally am looking forward to the match between NohatCoder and SultanPepper. Whoever you may be rooting for, the tension is palatable.

One of the games I particularly enjoyed this past week was the first game between Gray_Mouser and SuperJujuAwesome:

Round 8 of 2016 US Tak Open

With the Swiss stage complete, we have our line-up for the next stage of the tournament - the final double elimination. I want to offer a sincere congratulation for all of you who participated, regardless of whether you moved on or not. If you have managed to make it to the next stage, well done! I'm excited to see this play out. For the everyone else, I have seen a lot of improvement in play from everyone and some great matches. I want to compliment all of you for raising the bar and level of play and providing a challenge and I hope to see you continue to play the game, give feedback on the current tournament, and participate in future tournaments.

This week, I decided to explore the game between Ally and Turing. These are fairly experienced players, who are exploring the meta and tend to be quite intentional about what plays they make. So, in reviewing their game, I was hoping to find what moves lead to Turing's eventual loss. In my high-level overview, I've noted a few places where I play slightly differently, or I would explore a different line than the ones Turing and Ally chose. You can follow this commentary, as usual, at the following link and in the viewer below (https://goo.gl/Cu1bTa):

Round 7 of 2016 US Tak Open

As we close in on the last match of the Swiss stage, tensions are rising. The last match could make or break a lot of player's inclusion in the next round of the tournament. Regardless of whether you've made it or not, I wish to congratulate all of you who have stuck with the tournament thus far and played through all the rounds. As of the time of writing this, over 360 matches have been finished as a part of the tournament.

This week, I wanted to look a bit deeper into the first game between nebel and r_so9. I've covered neither of these aplayers games but .Based on their current rankings and the game played, though, they seem to represent of mid-tier players. As with my last post, I've included brief, high-level comments on the full game (https://goo.gl/61mf60):

Round 3 of 2016 US Tak Open

With the 2016 US Tak Open tournament's 3rd round behind us, participants are entering the halfway mark of the swiss stage. Now, more than ever, match wins are important. Even a single win could push some players into the coveted top 32.

In reviewing some of the games, I've noticed that some of the reporting hasn't been the most consistent. Please remember to include links to the PTNs when submitting! In addition, when scores are tied please remember to reference the tie-breaker rules (Appendix A) to determine the match winner. At the end of the tournament, I have plans to do a meta-analysis of the games played, and having accurate and complete information will really help in this (in addition to making sure that all players are at an even ground).

With that aside, I want to delve into the game I'll be looking into today: the first game in the matchup between nelhage and abyss:

Round 2 of 2016 US Tak Open

With the second round of the Swiss stage complete, the participants are really beginning to distinguish themselves. While still pretty flexible, the top 32 is starting to shape out. Quite a number of the names at the top here are Playtak and tournament veterans, including Simmon, Kakaburra, Turing, SkippyThePenguin, Ally, and others. In addition, there are quite a few names that I'm not as familiar with. It will be exciting to see how these individuals continue to perform over the next round.

Round 1 of 2016 US Tak Open

This past week featured the first round of the 2016 US Tak Open. As this is only the first week, players are only just beginning to distinguish themselves.  The top 37 players are currently undefeated. This puts the pressure on them even more to keep their scores up to ensure a place in the top 32 by the end of the Swiss-style stage. The middle 74 won one game, but not the other putting, meaning their match win or loss was determined by the individual game scores and tie-breaker rules. Both these individuals and the bottom 37 will have to up their game if they want a chance at the coveted top 32.

2016 US Tak Open

With the 2016 US Tak Open Tournament imminent, there is a lot to be excited about. Perhaps most notably, this is the first official major online Tak tournament, fully supported by the US Tak Association. As a result, there are actual prizes in store for first and second place. More so, there is actual prestige and status on the line. In addition, there are 149 registered participants, making it the largest Tak tournament to date. Of these participants, 81% are from the US, while the rest are from 11 other countries, making this an international event!