Advanced Men's League · Final Week & Season
Five for Five
Nicholas Dukeman played every seeded week on the top court and finished on top of the table, eight points clear. Andrew Mahaven climbed from ninth to silver. Jordan Camacho won both of the final week's 11–10s and took bronze on Thursday, then waited four days to keep it.
Group 1 played last. By the time it took the court on Monday night, every other game of the season was in, and the number every man in the room had to beat was on the board: Jordan Camacho's 380. Nicholas Dukeman needed 40 to clear it. Andrew Mahaven needed 50. Adam Frantz, third coming in, needed 56. Dukeman scored 49 and Mahaven 51, and the two of them finished first and second, eight points apart. Frantz scored 41. The bronze stayed where Camacho had put it four nights earlier.
Group 1 · Monday, October 5
The last room
Dukeman came into the final night ten points clear, the biggest lead of the season. He built it with back-to-back 5-1 nights in weeks 5 and 6, 57 and then 61, after a 1-5 in week 4 that had dropped him to third. With 40 he would clear Camacho's 380 and be sure of a medal. To keep the gold he also had to hold off his own groupmates: Mahaven needed to outscore him by eleven, Frantz by seventeen.
It was not Dukeman's best night. He won 11–0 with Sparkman and 11–8 with Mahaven, and lost the other four, for 2-4 on 49. It did not need to be. Mahaven went 4-2 on 51: 11–6 and 11–5 beside Sparkman, 11–9 beside Frantz, and 11–8 beside Dukeman. One of his two losses was an 11–0, and he won four of his other five games. That put the margin at two on the night and eight for the season. Frantz went 2-4 on 41 and finished seventh. The group's fourth player was the commissioner, who is in the room but not in the table.
The race at the top, all season
Never more than ten
Four changes at the top in the first five weeks, none after. Week 1 ended level on 63, with Kevin Tibbs ahead of Jon Forrester on the tiebreaks.
Dukeman finished in the top three after every week from week 2 on, and he is the only player in the table who spent all five seeded weeks in Group 1. He went 17-13 on that court against the best players in the league every night, and won it.
Group 2 · Thursday, October 1 · bronze
Four days early
Group 2 was the first court of the final week to finish, and it was the closest one. No game in the room was decided by more than seven points, and two of the six went 11–10. Jordan Camacho won both of them, once with Jon Forrester and once with Swaraj Gaikwad. Paul Schmitz was on the other side of both.
Camacho went 11–6 and 11–10 with Forrester, 11–10 and 11–6 with Gaikwad, and 11–4 and 7–11 with Schmitz: 5-1 on 62, his second-best night of the season. He came in fifth on 318 and left on 380, third in the table. Then he had to wait. Nobody in Group 3, on Sunday, could reach 380. Group 1, on Monday, could take the bronze from him only if all three of its table players cleared it on the same night. One did not. He finished three points ahead of Forrester.
Forrester went 3-3 on 53 and finished fourth, three points off a medal. He was first or second after each of the season's first five weeks and led the table twice, after weeks 2 and 4. Gaikwad also went 3-3 on 53 and held sixth for the fifth straight week. Schmitz went 1-5 on 50, and two of the losses were by a single point. Group 3 played on Sunday, between the other two. Javier Vargas moved up three places to fifth, and Juri Blinder one place to ninth, level on points with Luke Niebrugge.
“Forty, fifty and fifty-six were the numbers for Monday night. Camacho had already put up his. He had been finished since Thursday.”
Weeks 5 and 6
How it got here
Week 5 belonged to Camacho. He went 6-0 on 66 of 66 in Group 3 and climbed from ninth to fifth. It was the first perfect night of the season. Dukeman's 5-1 in Group 1 took the lead back from Forrester, 280 to 275. Frantz went 5-1 on 62 in Group 2, and Juri Blinder posted his second straight 5-1, 59 after a 57, which took him from Group 4 up to Group 3.
Week 6 set up the finish. Dukeman went 5-1 again, on 61, and opened the ten-point lead he took into the final night. Mahaven's 57 moved him to second and Frantz's 54 to third, and Forrester's 1-5 dropped him to fourth. Elsewhere, Urian Kim scored 62 in Group 4, Paul Schmitz 61 in Group 3 and Luke Niebrugge went 5-1 on 58.
Seven weeks · 162 games · 2,745 points
The season in numbers
Sixteen games were decided 11–10, four of them in week 4, the most of any week. Week 4 was also the highest-scoring week, with 431 points. Camacho's 66 in week 5 was the season's first perfect night, and Paul Schmitz's 65 in week 4 was the best night short of one. The top of the table stayed tight all season: the lead never passed ten points, and only three players ever held it: Tibbs, Forrester and Dukeman.
Final standings · top ten
The final top ten
| Rank | Player | Move | Wk 7 | W–L | Points | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nicholas Dukeman | 49 | 26-16 | 390 | 84.4% | |
| 2 | Andrew Mahaven | 51 | 24-18 | 382 | 82.7% | |
| 3 | Jordan Camacho | ▲ 2 | 62 | 23-19 | 380 | 82.3% |
| 4 | Jon Forrester | 53 | 23-19 | 377 | 81.6% | |
| 5 | Javier Vargas | ▲ 3 | 66 | 24-18 | 372 | 80.5% |
| 6 | Swaraj Gaikwad | 53 | 22-20 | 367 | 79.4% | |
| 7 | Adam Frantz | 41 | 21-21 | 366 | 79.2% | |
| 8 | Paul Schmitz | 50 | 18-24 | 364 | 78.8% | |
| 9 | Juri Blinder | ▲ 1 | 36 | 22-20 | 338 | 73.2% |
| 10 | Luke Niebrugge | 34 | 20-22 | 338 | 73.2% |
Ranked by percentage of available points won, then win percentage, then head-to-head. Blinder and Niebrugge finished level on 338 and 73.2%; Blinder is ninth on win percentage. Arrows show climbs in the final week, upward only. The top four move up to the Elite Men's League. The commissioner plays in the league but is excluded from the published table, and the places are renumbered without him. The full table is live here.
One for every player · all taken from the scoresheet
The season awards
Fifteen men finished in the table, and every one of them earned something over seven weeks. Each award below comes from a stored score. None is a vote or an opinion.
The podium
- League champion
- Nicholas Dukeman84.4%
390 points, eight clear. He played all five seeded weeks in Group 1, the only player in the table who did, and went 17-13 there. He led the league after four of the seven weeks, more than anyone, including the last three.
- Ninth to second
- Andrew Mahaven9th → 2nd
Ninth after the opening week, never lower than fifth after that, and second after each of the last two. His lowest night of the season was 50.
- The perfect night
- Jordan Camacho66
66 of 66 in week 5, the season's first perfect night, which took him from ninth to fifth. On the final night he went 5-1 on 62, won both of the week's 11–10s, and took the bronze.
The season
- Front-runner
- Jon Forrester5 of 5
First or second after each of the season's first five weeks, and the league leader after weeks 2 and 4. He finished fourth, three points off a medal, and moves up to the Elite league.
- Fast start
- Javier Vargas2nd
In the top four after each of the first four weeks, and second after week 4 on a 5-1 for 62, a point off the lead.
- Medal hunter
- Swaraj Gaikwad14 wins
Won 14 games against the three medalists, the most of anyone in the table. He also held sixth for five straight weeks, from week 3 to the end.
- Group 2's best
- Adam Frantz12-6
12-6 in three seeded weeks in Group 2, the best record of anyone who played there more than twice. He reached third twice, after weeks 2 and 6.
- Sixty-five
- Paul Schmitz65
65 of 66 in week 4, the best night of the season short of a perfect one. It finished a climb from twelfth after week 1 to fifth.
- Close-game king
- Juri Blinder8-1
Eight wins and one loss in games decided by two points or fewer, the most close wins in the league, and 4-1 in 11–10s. Back-to-back 5-1 nights in weeks 4 and 5 moved him up a court.
- Group 3's regular
- Luke Niebrugge4 weeks
Four seeded weeks in Group 3, more than anyone, at 12-12. His 5-1 of the season came there, on 58 in week 6.
- Big-night specialist
- Urian Kim63 · 62
63 in week 3 and 62 in week 6. He and Camacho are the only players who scored 62 or better twice.
- The shutdown
- Evan Kestenbaum12
Twelve of his wins held the other side to five points or fewer, the most of anyone in the table. His best night was a 60 in week 4.
- First to lead
- Kevin Tibbs63
Led the league after the opening week on a 5-1 for 63, level on points with Forrester and ahead on the tiebreaks.
- Saved the best for last
- David Kampmeyer55 · 50
His two best nights were his last two: a 3-3 for 55, then a 4-2 for 50. He won six games decided by two points or fewer.
- The breakthrough
- Jim Blake45 · 46
Back-to-back 3-3 nights in weeks 3 and 4, 45 and then 46. The 46 was his best night of the season.
Partnerships
- Duo of the season
- Mahaven & Vargas4-0
Four games together, four wins, 44 points to 14. That is 3.5 points a game allowed, the fewest of any partnership that never lost.
- Also unbeaten
- Three more pairs4-0 each
Forrester & Camacho, Kestenbaum & Blinder, and Niebrugge & Schmitz each won all four of their games together, the only other partnerships of three or more games that never lost.