Elite Men's League · Final Week & Season
Sixty-Six
Brian Blase went 66 of 66 from seventh place and took bronze, one point short of silver. Ethan Lee's seat closed out the title by 34. And the medal race everyone expected on one court was settled on another.
Last week this desk wrote that all three medals would be decided on one court, among the four men in Group 1. It got two of them right. Ethan Lee could not make the final night. Johan Nilsson played his seat on Tuesday and won all six games, and the seat that led by eleven finished 34 clear. James Sparkman kept second. But the bronze left the room. Gragg and McCann, third and fourth coming in, scored 34 and 37 on a night when every game went to the side holding Lee's seat. That left bronze open for Group 2, where Brian Blase, seventh and fifteen points out, played on Sunday knowing exactly what he needed. He needed fifty. He scored sixty-six.
Group 1 · Tuesday, September 22
Eleven held
Ethan Lee won this league in weeks 4 through 6. He took over Jonathan Yin's seat when it was fourth and eleven points off the lead. He then played three weeks in Group 1, against the best players in the league every night, and scored 65, 57 and 59: 14-4 on 181 of 198 points, 91.4%. Eleven behind became eleven ahead. To catch him on the final night, Sparkman had to outscore the seat by twelve in the same room.
Lee could not play the final night. Johan Nilsson took the seat and won all six games: 11–1 and 11–2 with Sparkman, 11–7 and 11–5 with Zachary Gragg, 11–2 and 11–7 with Jeremy McCann. Each of the other three went 2-4, and each man's two wins came beside Nilsson. Under league rules a substitute's points count for the seat and his night is not eligible for the honor roll, so the 66 goes on the table and nowhere else. The seat finished at 90.7%, the best percentage in the league by more than seven points. Sparkman went 2-4 on 43 and held second at 385, the last of seven straight weeks in which he stood first or second. Gragg dropped from third to eighth. McCann dropped from fourth to tenth, level on points with Justin Craig and ahead of him on head-to-head, 5–3.
The race at the top, all season
Three, then eleven, then thirty-four
For five weeks the gap never passed three. Weeks 2 and 5 through the final belong to the same seat: Yin's weeks 1–3, Lee's 4–6, and a substitute's week 7.
Group 2 · Sunday, September 27 · bronze
The other room
Group 2 played five days after the top group, so all four of its players knew the numbers. Gragg had finished on 367. To pass him, Matt Malleo needed 48, Nick Mayville 47 and Brian Blase 50, and only one of them could have it. Sparkman's 385 was not safe yet either. A perfect night would have lifted Malleo or Mayville past him. Blase could not get there. He would have needed 68, two more than a night allows.
Blase won all six: 11–8 with Shane Brown, 11–10 with Mayville, 11–3 with Malleo, 11–10 with Brown, 11–7 with Mayville, 11–8 with Malleo. Two of the six were 11–10, and he won both. That made him 3-0 in one-point games for the season. He finished on 384: seventh to third in one night, bronze by seven, and one point behind silver. Malleo went 2-4 on 57, the best score in the room after Blase's, and climbed from sixth to fourth. Mayville held fifth. Brown finished ninth.
“He needed fifty to take bronze. Silver would have taken sixty-eight, and sixty-six is all a night allows. He scored sixty-six.”
516 points · seven 11–10s · the week's best from every group
The last night on every court
Four nights of 64 or better in the final week. No other week of the season had more than one.
Jeff Morano lost the first game of Monday night 10–11, then won five straight. Two of the five were 11–10s. He finished 65 of 66 and climbed from twelfth to sixth. Two weeks ago he scored 37. His last two nights were 62 and 65, 127 points, the best two-week finish in the league. Group 3 was the last court of the season, played on the final day of the extension, and three of its six games ended 11–10. Shayne Wright played in all three and went 1-5 on 55, the most points anyone scored on a 1-5 all season. He still climbed two places, to seventh. Justin Craig went 3-3 on 55 and won two of the 11–10s.
Joshua Brady went 5-1 on 64 in Group 4, his best night of the season by nine. The only loss was 9–11. He climbed three to thirteenth. Grant Brock went 3-3 on 53 and moved up to fourteenth. In Group 5, the first court finished all week, on Sunday the 20th, Michael Vandenburg (59) and Oscar Alvarez (57) both went 4-2. They opened the night as partners and won 11–5 and 11–4. Alvarez climbed three places to fifteenth and Vandenburg two to seventeenth.
Seven weeks · 210 games · 3,623 points
The season in numbers
Twenty seats, forty-two games each, and every one of them scored. Twenty-seven games were decided 11–10, seven of them in the final week, the most of any week. Two nights of 66 went on the scoresheet, both in the final week: Blase's, and Johan Nilsson's in Lee's seat. Before that the best was 65, reached twice: Shayne Wright in week 2, and Lee in week 4. Five weeks of seeding pulled the table together. From third place to eleventh, the final gap is nineteen points, under three a week.
Final standings
The final table
| Rank | Player | Final wk | W–L | Points | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ethan LeeJonathan Yin wks 1–3 · Lee wks 4–7 | 33-9 | 419 | 90.7% | |
| 2 | James Sparkman | 26-16 | 385 | 83.3% | |
| 3 | Brian Blase | ▲ 4 | 24-18 | 384 | 83.1% |
| 4 | Matt Malleo | ▲ 2 | 20-22 | 377 | 81.6% |
| 5 | Nick Mayville | 21-21 | 372 | 80.5% | |
| 6 | Jeff Morano | ▲ 6 | 22-20 | 371 | 80.3% |
| 7 | Shayne Wright | ▲ 2 | 17-25 | 370 | 80.1% |
| 8 | Zachary Gragg | 23-19 | 367 | 79.4% | |
| 9 | Shane Brown | 23-19 | 366 | 79.2% | |
| 10 | Jeremy McCann | 21-21 | 365 | 79.0% | |
| 11 | Justin Craig | 21-21 | 365 | 79.0% | |
| 12 | Brett Byron | 23-19 | 364 | 78.8% | |
| 13 | Joshua Brady | ▲ 3 | 22-20 | 361 | 78.1% |
| 14 | Grant Brock | ▲ 1 | 20-22 | 351 | 76.0% |
| 15 | Oscar Alvarez | ▲ 3 | 19-23 | 348 | 75.3% |
| 16 | Chris Venoy | 18-24 | 347 | 75.1% | |
| 17 | Michael Vandenburg | ▲ 2 | 18-24 | 343 | 74.2% |
| 18 | Javier Figueroa | 18-24 | 340 | 73.6% | |
| 19 | Luis Burgos | 17-25 | 339 | 73.4% | |
| 20 | Sunil Sunkara | 14-28 | 312 | 67.5% |
Ranked by percentage of available points won, then win percentage, then head-to-head. McCann and Craig finished level on 365 and 21-21; McCann is tenth on head-to-head, 5–3. Arrows show climbs in the final week, upward only. Row one is a single seat, Jonathan Yin's weeks 1–3 and Ethan Lee's weeks 4–7 scored together. Substitutes' points are credited to the player they replaced, and their nights are not eligible for the honor roll or the season awards. Jeff Morano used a substitution in week 3 (James Sparkman), Joshua Brady and Grant Brock in week 6, and Ethan Lee in week 7 (Johan Nilsson). The table is also live here.
One for every seat · all taken from the scoresheet
The season awards
Twenty-one men played in this league, counting both halves of the seat that won it. Every one of them earned something over seven weeks, and each of the awards below comes from a stored score. None is a vote or an opinion.
The podium
- League champion
- Ethan Lee90.7%
419 of 462 for the seat, 34 points clear. His own three weeks, all in Group 1: 14-4 on 181 of 198, 91.4%. He took the seat in fourth, eleven points back, and handed the final week a lead of eleven.
- Wire to wire
- James Sparkman7 of 7
First or second after all seven weeks, the only player who was. His 26 wins were the most by any one player, and his seven wins that held the other side to three or fewer tied for the league lead.
- The heist
- Brian Blase7th → 3rd
Seventh coming into the last night and bronze by the end of it, on a perfect 66 that included two 11–10s. He won all three of his one-point games this season.
The season
- The assist
- Jonathan Yin172 pts
Opened with back-to-back 63s, led the league after week 2, and went 13-5 in three weeks before handing the seat on. Every point of the championship's first 172 is his.
- Strongest finish
- Jeff Morano62 · 65
127 points in the last two weeks, the most in the league: 62, then 65. Back-to-back 5-1 nights to close the season, and sixteenth to sixth in the final fortnight.
- The metronome
- Matt Malleo56 · 58 · 55 · 55 · 57
Five straight nights within three points of each other, from week 3 to the end, and they carried him from fifteenth after week 2 to fourth.
- Biggest climb
- Nick Mayville14th → 5th
Nine places up from the opening week to the final table, the most in the league, driven by back-to-back 5-1s in weeks 5 and 6.
- The riser
- Zachary Gragg16th → 3rd
Thirteen places in five weeks, the biggest climb to a peak all season. His first 5-1 came in week 6 and put him on the podium with one week to play.
- Medal hunter
- Jeremy McCann14 wins
Won 14 games against the three medalists, more than anyone else, every one of them after the groups were seeded. He spent the final four weeks in Group 1, had the best night of week 3, a 64, and went 5-1 as Lee's partner.
- Toughest out
- Shayne Wright3.7
The closest average margin in defeat in the league: 3.7 points. Nobody was harder to put away. He also scored 65 in week 2, the best night of the season to that point.
- Giant killer
- Brett Byron2-2
Broke even against the champion's seat, the only player who faced it more than twice and did. He never scored below 48 in a night, the highest floor of anyone who played all seven weeks.
- Close-game king
- Justin Craig11 wins
Won eleven games decided by two points or fewer, the most in the league, and went 6-2 in 11–10s. His seventeenth-to-seventh in week 2 was the biggest one-week climb of the season.
- Ice water
- Sunil Sunkara5-1
Five wins and one loss in 11–10 games. Of everyone who played more than three of them, nobody had a better record. When a game came down to the last rally, he won it.
- Group 3's landlord
- Shane Brown15-9
Four straight weeks in Group 3, from week 3 to week 6, with a 15-9 record there, the best of anyone who played that court more than twice. His best night was a 5-1 in week 5.
- Best for last
- Joshua Brady64
His best night of the season came on the last one: 5-1 on 64, nine points better than any night before it.
- The enforcer
- Grant Brock7
Seven wins that held the other side to three or fewer, tied with Sparkman for the league lead. He opened with 28, 52 and 63, then climbed six places from last.
- From the cellar
- Javier Figueroa63
Twentieth in the table going into week 5, and that week he scored 63 of 66 on a 5-1, the best night anyone posted.
- Crashed the top table
- Luis Burgos10th → 4th
His 63 in week 2 took him from tenth to fourth and into Group 1 for week 3. In week 6 he went 5-1 on 61 from eighteenth.
- The bounce
- Michael Vandenburg32 → 54 → 59
Twenty-two points better in one week, then five better again, finishing 4-2 in the last week. He climbed from last to seventeenth.
- The last word
- Oscar Alvarez57
Matched his season best in the final week with a 4-2 and climbed three places to fifteenth. He held opponents to five or fewer in nine wins, tied for second in the league.
- The equalizer
- Chris Venoy5 × 3-3
Five nights at exactly 3-3, the most in the league; nobody else had more than four. Five times he split six games straight down the middle.
Partnerships
- Duo of the season
- Lee & Sparkman6-0
Six games as partners and six wins, 66 points to 38, the gold and silver medalists on the same side of the net.
- Unbeaten, part two
- Figueroa & Burgos4-0
Four games together and four wins, 44 to 22. The only other partnership of three or more games that never lost.
Want your name in next season's recaps?
Join the Elite Men's interest list. Heroics remain your responsibility.