It was an eye-opener event, especially for the many first-time Medalist tournament players. The 3-day, all-day (and night) darts tournament was held at 360° by Tornado, which is located at the newest shopping center in town - Iluma. The location, which is also the title sponsor of the event, worked continuously day and night in order to complete the renovation to stage the event. What resulted was, the BEST location Medalist ever had to stage the biggest ever Medalist tournament in Singapore. In fact, it was probably the largest darts tournament ever held in Singapore, with more than 200 darters participating in the event. Players also had their names shown on the huge wall-to-wall chart and had a wonderful shopping choice with a huge array of darts barrel, darts accessories and T-Shirts sold, most of which are never sold before in any shop in Singapore.
Joining our local Medalist darters for the tournament were players from Indonesia, Guam, Saipan, Thailand, Japan and Korea. The local and foreign players had a good time mingling together and exchanging darts tips as well as the t-shirts off their back with each other.
The event began early on Friday morning with a traditional Lion Dance opening ceremony performed by our fellow darters from Le Bar. The Lion Dance was an interesting opening especially for the foreigners. The 2 lions proceeded to show their lively stunt movement and ate tangerines and arranged the citrus slices into an auspicious number, spreading happiness, longevity and luck to the audiences.
The Lion unfurls the welcome banner
Trophies Galore
Players warming up
Wall to wall chart
Mr. Lee Peppard, Chairman of Medalist USA-Asia, gave the opening speech. This was followed by Mr. Paul Lim, Singapore’s most famous champion darter, who wished all the players good darts for the 3-day darts gala event that is about to start.
The first event started promptly at 11am with the Doubles-01 separated into 3 flights. The top teams of each group proceeded to a single elimination fight that finally culminated in an exciting finale. All the finalists were introduced on stage and then given the exciting traditional Medalist “Pit March”.
In the A flight, the Korean pair of Kim Gijung and Park Hyunchul came out tops against Erika/Jamal. In B flight, the pair from Team Sake – Nicholas and Ken Tan defeated No Clue’s Andy Choo and Tee Kok Ping, while in the C flight, it was an all No Clue’s finals with Kewin Chew/Ivy Lee defeating Lionel and Belinda.
C flight winners: Kewin Chew/Ivy Lee (1st) and Lionel/Belinda (2nd)
The afternoon event was the Puma 01 medley which started promptly after that. In the AB flight, the Korean pair of Kim Gijung/Park Hyunchul again came out tops, defeating James Quek/Joreen Yeo. No Clue’s Andy Choo/Tee Kok Ping came back from their earlier loss and finally won the BC flight champion, edging out the team from Twenty’02 - Simon Lim and Wong Choon Ming.
Puma 01 Winners (AB Flight): Kim Gijung/Park Hyunchul (1st) and James/Joreen (2nd)
Events for the first day completed on schedule around 8pm but some players clearly were not tired and proceeded to their favourite locations for more games and parties.
The second day’s turnout was larger than the first and some players even came as early as 2-hours before the event to get a good table and start warming up. The first event of the day was 01-Medley doubles and the Korean pair of Kim Gijung/Park Hyunchul, again came out tops in the A flight, defeating the local pair of Daniel Ong and Jack Wong. In the B flight, CheeWee/BeeLian defeated Vince Yong/Eric Chong while the Saipan team of Ramon/Charlotte took their first C flight champion trophy, defeating Lionel/ Belinda
Day 2 Medley Finalists (B/C flights)
01-Medley Doubles Champion (A Flight): Kim Gijung/Park Hyunchul
01-Medley Doubles 3rd place (A flight): Takahiro/Akihiro
01-Medley Doubles 2nd place (B Flight): Eric/Vince
01-Medley Doubles Champion (B Flight): BeeLian/CheeWee
The afternoon event was Team Super-Countup with exciting finals match. The AB flight featured the Indonesian team Eko/Johanes vs. the local pair of Andrew Robinson/Skinny Wong while the BC flight pitted the local real-life couple of Andy/Jasmine against Saipan’s Ramon/Charlotte. The cheering lines between camps were clearly defined and all camps gave their teams loud cheers and claps whenever they hit bulls. In the end however, both the foreign teams, Indonesia and Saipan, came out tops to win the champion trophies. However, everyone cheered for all as the finals game was nail-biting and the best team won.
All SCU Finalists
SCU champions (AB flight) : Eko/Johanes
SCU champions (BC flight) : Ramon/Charlotte
Day 2 also featured an exhibition match between Team Singapore (La Rochelle) vs Team International, a selection of the top players from various countries.
Team Singapore vs Team International
Day 3 started with the fun yet strategic game of Air-Attack. Players took time to discuss on the strategy and guess the hidden numbers. The finals featured the local pair Daniel Ong/Jack Wong showing their balloon busting skills to defeat the Korean pair of Jinwook/Jupyung in the AB Flight. Ramon/Charlotte continued their winning streak in the BC Flight, beating Samantha/Candy.
Air Attack Finalists
Air Attack Champion (AB Flight): Daniel/Jack
Air Attack Champion (BC Flight): Ramon/Charlotte
The final and most exciting Team Trios event started a little late due to the previous event but it was the most exciting and anticipated event as teams represented their respective locations and it was the event with the best and biggest trophy of all. All teams from various locations and countries were introduced on stage and took group photos before the event. Two of the locations, No Clue and Forest Darts, with the most number of teams were also the current trophy holder for BC and AB flight respectively and were gunning to retain the gold trophy.
Trios Teams from Forest Darts
Trios Teams from Ice Karaoke
Trios Teams from Le Bar
Trios Teams from No Clue
In the exciting AB flight, the semi-finals pitted Forest Lion against Team Guam and Le Bar’s Darts Project Junior against Team Indonesia. Both local teams fought very hard to get into the finals with the strong cheering support but the Indonesian and Guam team overcame the local teams to move into the final. In the end, Team Indonesia won the finals. Forest Lion and Darts Project Junior played an extra game to determine the 3rd placing to get to hold custody of the cup for another year. In the end, the Forest Lion players of Tony/Ng NK/Frankie fought and showed their determination to keep the trophy, edging out Le Bar’s Johnny Khoo/Jack Wong/Andrew R.
AB Flight Team Trios 3rd place: Forest Lion (Tony/Ng/Frankie)
AB Flight Team Trios 2nd place: Team Guam
AB Flight Team Trios Champion: Team Indonesia
As for the BC flight, it was an all-local affair with the Forest Fire team defeating Team Le Darts (from Le Bar). Forest Darts had won the right to keep both Team Trios trophy for another year and all their red-shirted players were overjoyed with the win.
BC Flight Team Trios 2nd Place: Team Le Darts (Le Bar)
BC Flight Team Trios Champion: Forest Fire (Forest Darts)
By the time all the prizes were given out, it was close to midnight and players streamed out slowly, happy regardless of win or loss. It was a 3-days long of fun darts and cheering, of making new friends and renewing ties with old friends. Charlotte, from Saipan, says “I never, ever had so much fun playing here over the past 3 days. I never expected to win but I did! And I had played so much and made many new Singapore friends. Thank you so much.”
Medalist thanks all the Singapore players for their participation and support in this event as well as their valuable feedback on the website forum and feedback (paper) form, which will definitely help us organize a better tournament next time. Medalist would also like to thank the sponsors: Medalist USA-Asia, Puma and especially the title sponsor, 360° by Tornado, for their enormous effort put in and co-operation to make this event a successful and memorable one for the players.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment