The 23rd Annual Western BCA 8-Ball Championships on March 11-18, 2018 gave new meaning to the phrase “the largest regional 8-Ball Tournament in the Country”. These are but some of the records that were shattered at this event:
Needless to say, we surely made our presence known both at Chinook Winds Casino Resort and throughout the local community in the one way that is quantifiable – economically. It goes without saying that we have long enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with our host venue and the surrounding geographical area and can only hope it will continue long into the future. Unfortunately, with rapid growth comes growing pains, so the issues resulting from these record numbers will have to be addressed at some point.
It was obvious from Fun Day on that this event was going to be somewhat different than past events. The only thing that didn’t change was the number of 7’ Diamond tables BadBoys Billiards Productions was able to load into the tournament rooms. Fun Night became Fun Day, with the doors opening at 9am on Saturday morning and the rooms filling fast, largely due to the addition of a sponsored Open Handicapped 10-Ball Singles Tournament ($1000 added, double elimination and limited to 64 entries) that was to start at 1pm. No wanting to play into the wee hours with Scotch Doubles starting at 9am on Sunday, the 3rd and 4th place matches were worked in on Sunday and the final was played on Monday evening. When it was all over, Robert Niemeyer/NPL finished in 4th place/$180 and Damian Pongpanik/LTD in 3rd/$300. The final between Paul Marquez/NPL and Jason Hecock/LTD rammed home the “anything can happen” aspect of a handicapped contest. Paul raced to 7 while Jason raced to 3. Jason, playing very well, won the first set 3-5 and wore Paul down in the second to take 1st place/$760. Paul, gracious to the end, accepted 2nd place/$440.
The traditional Handicapped 10-Ball Singles (single elimination) started at 7pm with 47 players, up from 22 in October. This tournament also ran long and had to finish up on Sunday. Finishing in 5-8th/$75 were Michael Atkisson/RCBC, Michael Koch/YAK, Sue Frisbie/COB and Joe Reynard/NPL. 3/4th/$125 were Pat O’Meara/MTV and Somerfield Habener/EV. 2nd/$250 went to Kenny Dodd/CC and 1st/$390 went to Joel Peck/EV. There were Minis galore which, for the first time, were sponsored with at least $50 added to each and were, needless to say, very popular.
All in all, Fun Day was a monumental success, thanks to our generous sponsors: Littmen Lights, Snuffy’s Pawn Shop, Horse and Home Realty, JamUp Apparel, Rose City Billiards Club and Players Club Limited.
Now might be a good time to mention possibly the biggest contributing factor in the dramatic changes in the tournament events that came next – FargoRate. More firsts:
Overall, things went very well and everyone got along. Is some tweaking needed? Undoubtedly, as with any new system. Will the day come when scotch and team events will be fully Fargotized? We’ll see.
The Championships themselves, plodded along with more entries in the same amount of time and each division fell behind to some extent. Only Gold Scotch Doubles finished on time with Platinum finishing on Monday and Silver not until Thursday. Of the singles divisions, only the Chinook Winds Elite was on time with all the others finishing on Thursday but some, well into the morning hours. Teams, well, they had no choice but to play out on Sunday. One thing is for sure, changes have to be made if Western BCA is to fit this many players into this many days, not play until very late at night and get all the finals streamed.
Complete results can be found on westernbca.org.
There were, of course, 2nd Chance Tournaments for most divisions. Here are the winners:
We need to take a moment to thank, especially, Chinook Winds Casino Resort for being the best location, sponsor and friend for 21 years. Many thanks also to Ric and Bonnie Jones of BadBoys Billiards Productions, Kevin and Shari Ross of RailBirds TV, Dwayne Payne and his Referee Crew, Steve Marker and the Tournament Officials, Darcy Williams and her Payout People who truly rose to the occasion, Pam Carraway and her Podium Staff and all the other volunteers who work tirelessly, not only at these events, but throughout the year to make them the great events we have all come to expect.
See you all at the beach in October.