The national finals of the Grand National Teams kicked off yesterday, with 6 teams from New York and Long Island representing in the 4 flights. In the championship and A flights, each of the 25 districts send exactly one team (or none in rare cases if no one qualifies). For flights B and C, districts can send 1 or 2 teams, depending on the number of teams who show up for the District finals. Our District, D24, managed to send 2 teams in each of B and C!
Follow the NAOBC GNT results.
Lineup for Round of 16
The opening round was a big swiss, similar to the old Sundays we know and love at Woodbridge and Allendale (and at the Midtown Hilton). In the round of 16, things get very serious very quickly. Every match will consist of 4 segments, an all-day, 52 board KO against just one other team. The brackets are all based on the swiss results from yesterday, where the top teams at the end of 8 rounds can choose their opponents for the next day. In every flight, 16 teams have moved forward, and the field drops in half every day until the grand finale on Sunday, 7/18.
Championship Flight
Team Blanchard, seeded 16th after the swiss. This is a world-class team, filled with countless prior wins and titles. For example, Robert Blanchard won 40 platinum points in the Roth Open Swiss, 2019, and made the quarter-finals of the first NAOBC KO teams.
Flight A
Team Cable, seeded 13th after the opening swiss. Among many other achievements, Lorraine Cable and David Yoon recently won 30 gold points placing 6th in the Las Vegas 2019 Mini-Blue Ribbon Pairs.
Flight B
Team Merlo: seeded 14th after the opening swiss. Special congrats to Chris Moh, who 3 days prior won 1st place in the national NAOBC online individual robot tournament!
Flight C
Team Xing: seeded 8th after the opening swiss. Members of this team recently made the quarterfinals of the 0-5000 NOABC KO teams, and a top 5 finish in the NOABC 0-1500 pairs.
Team Wagner (plus one last minute augmentation), seeded 14th after the opening swiss. You’ve probably seen us all at Honors over the years. Also making an appearance, Ben Klauder playing for Austin, Texas. Prior to moving, he was our D24 NAP Flight C representative in 2019, and a former fellow Friday Night Wine and Cheese volunteer.