Hugo Patino and Pedro Piedrabuena from the 2021 Silver Cup
The UMB has drawn the groups for the March 27 to April 2 World Cup in Las Vegas. The groups, player list, and timetable can be found on the UMB website (https://www.umb-carom.org) under the Active Events tab. Twenty-two (22) USBA players will participate in the World Cup.
The Las Vegas World Cup, sponsored by Predator, will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Per the UMB rules, Predator has selected Pedro Piedrabuena and Hugo Patiño as its wildcard entries into the 1/16 main tournament round at the World Cup. Piedrabuena won his 10th national championship crown in December 2021, and Patiño is a four-time USA title holder.
Joining Piedrabuena and Patiño in the World Cup are twenty (20) other USBA enthusiasts. Ten (10) USBA players have been placed into the groups per the UMB rules. Tae Kyu Lee and Miguel Torres, based on their world rankings, were placed into the PQ round. Lee won the 2020 US national tournament and finished second in the 2021 nationals. Torres has won the US national tournament twice. Five (5) USBA players, based on their finish in the 2021 US National tournament, have been placed into the PPQ round: Young Kyu Lee, Edward Gomez, John Park, Kang Lee, and Eric Kwon. Raymond Groot, who was selected by the USBA, has also been placed in the PPQ round. Mazin Shooni and Frank Torres, each a former national champion chosen by the USBA to participate in the World Cup, have been placed in the PPPQ round.
Ten (10) spots remain to be chosen for USBA entries into the World Cup. Eight (8) will be chosen on March 25 in a qualifier, and the other two (2) will be determined on March 26 in a second qualifier. The following USBA players are entered into the March 25 qualifier.
Mario Garcia
Quoc Vo
Seungkwon Hong
Raye Raskin Ricardo Carranco
Jesus Corona
Ertan Tarhan
Carlos Villegas
Jorge Hernan John Patarroyo
Andres Fernandez
Jose Pelayo
Andres Mora Vicke Pineda
Jairo Lenis
Zoel A Kehrt Matta
Camilo Medina Chang Pyun Jose Cruz
Julian Banol Molina
Ahmet Ozan
Jay Karahan
Ricky Carranco Sr.
Young Gul Lee
Henry Ugartechea
Guillermo Alejandro Sosa
Jovanny Caballos
Elmer Meza
Jose Delatorre
Ho Ahn Bilal Khalifa
Olegario Gonzalez
Trinidad Espinosa
These thirty-two (32) players will be drawn into 8 groups of 4, with the winner of each group qualifying. On March 26, there will be a single elimination bracket to determine the final two (2) qualifiers. The players will play in a single-elimination bracket, with the two (2) finalists earning spots in the World Cup. SOME SPOTS ARE STILL AVAILABLE FOR THE MARCH 26 QUALIFIER. REGISTER ON THE USBA WEBSITE.
For any questions about the USBA qualifiers for the World Cup, or for the World Cup, call 410 599 8177.
Michael Kang, Javier Teran, Ira Lee, Vicke Pineda and Javier Vera
The top 3 cushion players in the Pan-American region were back in action July 21-25 at Carom Cafe in Flushing New York for another weekend of Scotch Doubles and Open Singles Carom action. This was a $15K added USBA dual-event sponsored by Predator CRM, CRM Sports, Carom Cafe and Simonis.
The scotch doubles event was played on Wednesday thru Friday, with a field of fourteen two player teams playing in three groups with each time playing to 30 points with the top performing 8 teams qualifying into a knockout round playing to 40 points.
In group A, each of the five teams suffered two losses, so the qualifiers scoring the most points advanced. The advancing teams featured top-ranking 3-Cushion champions from Colombia and Mexico, Huberney Catano, Javier Vera and Miguel Almaraz, playing with US-based teammates Mark An, Vicky Pineda and Rufino Perez, respectively.
Group B was the one group with only four teams. As it was decided during the players meeting, only two teams from this group would advance. Rising to the top of the field was the team featuring Javier Teran, a former Pan-American champion from Ecuador, now residing in Colombia, and Michael Kang, the owner of Carom Cafe who was a former USBA Nationals runner-up. Also qualifying from Group B was the Equadorian champion, Luis Aveiga, who teamed up with Ricardo Carranco. Both teams only had one loss in the qualifiers.
Group C qualified three teams. John Park and Young Ha Choi finished first in the group with only one six point loss to mar their record. Young Kyu Lee, the two time defending champion of the past two Predator CRM open events, teamed up with George Karam, an Egyptian/American local NY player with a coincidentally appropriate name, earned a spot into the knockout round with two wins. Sonny Cho and Eric Kwon also edged in with two losses – falling just 2 points shy of a 3-1 record.
In the knockout phase, Teran & Kang came out on top (40-36) after a heated battle of nerves with the team of Almaraz & Perez. They then proceeded to edge out Park & Choi by a single point (40-39) in the semifinal round. On the other side of the bracket, the team of Vera & Pineda cruised through all challengers and won the final match against Javier Teran and Michael Kang 40-31 to win the title.
Jose Juan Garcia
The 40 player Predator CRM Open USBA 3-Cushion event kicked off on Friday with eight groups of 5 players, each playing in round robin format. The two players in each flight plus six of the best-performing third place finishers in each flight would advance. In addition, two “lotto” wildcard positions would fill out the field of 24 moving to a single elimination bracket with the top finishers in each flight getting a “bye” in the first round of the knockout phase.
Everyone at Carom Cafe was treated to some great 3-cushion performances for the entire preliminary round. When the field whittled down to the last 16, we were left with the top talent this side of the Atlantic, including Pan-American Champion Javier Teran, Ecuadorian Champion Luis Aveiga, former USBA champion Hugo Patino, two time defending champion Young Kyu Lee, current USBA National Champion Tae Kyu Lee, Mexico champion Miguel Almaraz, Colombian Champion Huberney Catano, his young talented countryman Jose Juan Garcia, and rising star Kang Lee – among other strong 3-cushion players.
The twice defending Champion of the event, Young Kyu Lee was eliminated in the Final Eight Round by the young talented Jose Juan Garcia.
In the quarter finals, Kang Lee upset Ecuadorian star Luis Aveiga 40-39 in a nailbiter match with Kang leading for the entire match. Huberney Catano took down NY favorite, Hugo Patino, 40-28 in 20 innings.
In the semi-final, Jose Juan Garcia matched up with Ecuadorian Champion Javier Teran, in one of the most exciting heavyweight battles of the entire event on the livestream table. In the first four innings, the score was 17-16 Teran, setting the stage for this high-performance match. After only 15 innings, Garcia was ahead 38-35. The last innings of the match were filled with drama and suspense, incredible shots and great defense. In the end, Garcia triumphed 40-39, earning his spot into the finals with Catano.
It was an all-Colombian final with two young champions and rivals head-to-head. Jose Juan Garcia continued the consistent stellar performance he maintained the entire event and finishing off Catano, convincingly, 40-22 in 23 innings to win the Predator CRM Open USBA 3-Cushion Event.
