Chicago NABC Day 1: New York GNT Teams

Today is a great day in District 24 history as we kick off the national finals of the Grand National Teams. For the first time ever, New York City and Long Island is sending 6 teams to the face-to-face NABCs. Starting in 2019, any district with 8 or more teams in the district finals may send two teams in Flight B and Flight C, and for the first time we cleared the hurdle.

Let’s wish all of our teams good luck. The GNTs run Soloway style, meaning the first day is an 8-round swiss, surviving 16 teams into the 2nd day seeded by victory point results. In the pre-2019 era, day 1 should have 25 teams, one per district, cutting 9 teams. Things are a bit harder now, but thankfully most districts do not field the 2nd B and C team.

In Flight C, Team Mandel and Team Silverstein are playing in a field of 29 teams, which will cut 13 teams moving to day 2. For the observant, we previously called them Team Latta and Team Boge, in order to launch the Battle of the Jacks final (with Mandel / Latta winning).

In Flight B, Team Verrier and Team Schwartz are playing in a field of 34 teams, with a fairly harsh 18 teams cut on the first day. Interestingly, neither team played each other during the District KO stage. Verrier beat Petsch in the semifinals, then lost to Team Latta in the finals (to make things more confusing, Team Latta playing in Flight C is not the same roster).

Flight A is playing under the name Team Trabulus, but for today’s roster, Joseph Byrnes is the acting captain. They defeated Team Lampe in the district finals to become the only qualifying GNT-A team from District 24. They are playing in a normal 24 district field (one district didn’t send a team).

In Championship Flight, Team Lipkin is playing in a 22 team field — Montreal had to cancel last minute due to weather issues 2 other districts did not field a team. Team Lipkin beat Team Miniter in the D24 Championship Flight finals.