AZPL State Championship Weekend!

Divisions forming across Arizona!

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Dated May 9th, 2023

Congratulations to the first two-girl team to win the AZPL State Championship Epic Bust & Balls! It definitely was EPIC as Heather Schaupp, Jessica Pugh & Carter Fike came out of the B bracket on 9’ tables starting at 11am winning 5 straight matches to close out the B bracket on Saturday! On Sunday they took on Trash Squared featuring tournament MVP Christopher Soto-Chimeless, JC Carlisle & Freddy Millan for the hot seat match! A vs B! In an EPIC nailbiter it was EPIC winning 82-80 to send them to the Championship match and Trash to the left side! It was Trash Squared coming out of the loser’s side for the first rematch.  This time it was Trash with the 90-86 win! That set up the third rematch! This time it was EPIC as they got 3 big wins to propel them to a 90-73 win for the championship, the cash, the trophies and the exclusive championship winning shirts!

The weekend began on Thursday with the AZPL’s Celebration of Champions where we brought out 31 of our former champions in a red carpet entrance to honor their historical achievements in the AZPL! There was a short video presentation featuring all 56 championship winning teams followed by a speech and presented trophies to the 1^st & 2^nd place teams and MVPs in each division! After the presentation there was a buffet for the players and their guests followed by a scotch-doubles tournament! Non-championship winners were paired with championship winners in a blind draw format. We had 26 teams in a race to 1 on both sides. Of those teams it was Harold Lyons & Sylvia Salinas beating out Mike Sandoval & Tony Begay! Third place went to Kip Anderson and Eric Ashley! 1^st place took home $180, 2^nd won $60 and 3^rd got $20! Thanks to JR for running that bracket! It was so great to see so many former champions, some of you I haven’t seen in 15 years! Thank you for coming out and participating!

On Friday we had men’s & women’s 8-ball singles, 10-ball/9-ball singles and 8-ball Break and Run Derby! In the men’s 8-ball there were 32 players competing.  Of those it was Chris Navas beating out Darren Bradford for the hot seat then Harold Lyons for the win! 1^st took home $130, 2^nd got $95 and 3^rd received $65! Fourth went to Ernest Kenneth who took home $30 for his efforts! There were 32 players in the 10-ball/9-ball tourney too!  Of those the final four were Tony Begay who went undefeated in 10-ball and finished in first, Charlie Ward who lost his first game of 10-ball and went undefeated in 9-ball only to lose to Tony in 10-ball finished in 2^nd, Ernest Kenneth won 4 straight in 10-ball before losing 2 to finish in 3^rd and Enrique Gomez won 3 on the 10-ball side and another in 9-ball before being eliminated by Charlie to finish 4^th! Payouts were the same in both of these tourneys! In the women’s 8-ball there were 9 ladies signed up! League MVP Stephanie Sterling beat out Ramona Seabaugh for the title and took home $60 for the win! Ramona took $30 for the 2^nd place finish! There were 30 players in the 8-Ball Break & Run Derby! Harold Lyons led the way with 49 points in the first round! Charlie Ward scored 30 in the opening round as well! In the 2^nd round Ernest Kenneth scored 33 to move into 2^nd place with 48! In the 3^rd round Harold added another 13 to give him the lead. In the finals it was Harold with 15, Ernest with 8 and Charlie with a goose egg! 1^st won $95, 2^nd got $55 and 3^rd took $20! Thanks to Lisa Bradford for running this event!

The main event began at 11am Saturday with 12 teams in the A bracket on the 7s and 10 teams in the B bracket on the 9s! Of those first 12 in A The Lone Rangers with a 4-person rotation of Adam Garcia, Randy Torres, Jason Cote & Maria Viramontes won 7 straight winning $840 along the way and winning the C slot and be one of 3 teams in the triple threat! No Name with Gary Wimmer, Kip Anderson and Eric McKay, started in the 2^nd round and won 5 straight before losing to those Lone Rangers! Andy Benavidez, Brad Andrews, JR Ascencion & Ernest Kenneth of Suck My 8 Ball won 5 straight to win the B slot and the second team in! Tournament MVP Chris Soto-Chimelis, JC Carlisle & Freddy Millan of Trash Squared won 5 straight to take the A slot and be the third team in the triple threat for the A bracket win! The triple threat is where each team plays each other in a round robin. Go 2-0 and you advance! Trash Squared went 2-0 to advance to the A vs B match vs Epic Balls and Bust! Chris went 29-3 with 303 points, 6 30-point games, 6 10-0s, 2 break & runs, had a 12-game winning streak, finished the day with a 16-game streak and shot 28.41 on average while allowing his opponents on average 3.3 points a game! The 8.796 power rating good enough for 2^nd all-time in the tournament!  His teammate JC was no slouch either, winning 28 games while scoring 320, 4 break & runs, 5 30s and an 8-ball break which equated to a 6.261PR good enough for 4^th! On the left side of the bracket I R Sloth with Eric Danielson Jr, Chad Hibbard & Clif Dominquez went 8-0 before losing to the Diamond Girls and finishing in 7^th overall. No Name won their first match on Sunday but eventually lost to the Diamond Girls and finished in 8^th overall. In the next round it was those Diamond Girls with Lisa Tarlip, Peggy Hurst and Stephanie Sterling who had gone 5-0 to this point, the Lone Rangers and Suck My 8-Ball in another triple threat! This time it was Suck My 8-Ball advancing to the next round in a triple threat vs the winner of Bs left side and the A vs B loser! The Diamond Girls finished in 5^th overall and the Lone Rangers took 6^th! Reigning champs Invest in Bukaki Futures with Ryan Levengood, Robert Berry & JR Ascencion took it on the face as they lost their first match 65-24 vs Trash Squared, won their next match 76-61 against Shape is Overrated with Carter & Jessica and Eric Culpepper and then lost 86-60 to 2 Kings and a Queen with Joe & Trish D’Aguanno and Chuck Young to knock them out of main bracket contention!

Of course the EPIC story came out of the B bracket with Epic Bust & Balls winning 7 straight including the A vs B match to take the hot seat before losing their only game to Trash Squared then winning it all in EPIC fashion blowing the doors off after two matches that were decided by 4 or fewer points locking it down after 7 games! But we’ll get to that! On the way there so much more happened!

Of those first 10 teams in the B bracket Epic Bust & Balls won 6 straight on the way to winning B! The Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies with Donald & Carey Hudings and Mike Krause won 4 straight before losing to Steal Your Face with Lisa & Darren Bradford and James Goodman! Pogue Mahone with Michael Kerin, Marc Quiroz & Derek Nylund won 3 straight before losing to Epic on the right and the Desert Rats on the left! On the left side of B it was the Girthy Marmot Brothers with Chris Jones, Greg Aguilar & Eric Culpepper winning 6 straight before losing to the Desert Rats with Dylan Van Eseltine, JT and Scott Elliott! It was those Desert Rats that went on to represent the B bracket in a triple threat with the winner from A’s left side, Suck My 8-Ball and the loser from A vs B, Trash Squared. In that match it was Triple Threat with the 2-0 win to advance, 3^rd place went to Suck My 8-Ball and 4^th went to the Desert Rats!

In the championship match it was an undefeated Epic Bust and Balls vs already beaten by Epic Trash Squared! Knowing they had to bring it to the table twice they SQUARED it up with a 90-86 win in the first match to give Epic their first loss of the weekend! In the rematch, their 3^rd of the day against each other JC led it off with an 11-0. Carter won the next 10-2 to even it up 1 game each. Chris won 10-5 in the 3^rd game but Epic pulled out 2 more wins giving them a 78-32 lead after 5 games! An EPIC victory for the ages and an EPIC end to an EPIC weekend! Epic Bust and Balls slaying some dragons to become the 57^th AZPL State Champion!

In the stats… Chris Soto-Chimelis was the tournament MVP and subsequently had the 2^nd best tournament power rating! His teammate had the 5^th best all-time! They’ll receive $225 & $150 for their achievements and Chris wins another $100 being the MVP! On the ladies side Stephanie Sterling led the ladies with a 17-8 record and 214 points for the 2^nd best all-time for the ladies! Her teammate Peggy Hurst went 15-11 with 208 points good enough for 7^th all-time in the championships! They’ll receive $225 and $100 for their efforts! Carter Fike played on 2 teams during the season – Shape is Overrated and Epic Balls & Bust – but it was a team he subbed for that he played the best with in the championships as he shot a 25.6 match average while playing for the Pocket Pimps and was the tournament’s most improved shooter shooting 5.42 points above his career average! Thomas Shaffer shot 3.8 points over his average for a 25.11 match average throughout the tourney for Beer Thirty!

All-time speaking Donald Hudgings passed Darren Bradford in championship points scored with 4,635 for 3^rd all-time! Harold Lyons passed Chris Negrin for 6^th all-time with 4,236. Lisa Tarlip reached the 1,000 championship point mark this season reaching 1,160 good enough to move into 6^th all-time! Peggy Hurst moved into the top 10 going as high as 8^th with 941 points! Gary Wimmer & Kip Anderson, both from team No Name, moved ahead of Chris Negrin in all-time tourney wins with 304 & 301 respectively. Carey Hudgings picked up her 68^th win in the tourney moving her into 5^th all-time! Peggy won her 65^th game good enough for 6^th all-time and moved into a tie for 4^th all-time with her 7^th 30! Diamond Girl teammate Lisa Tarlip moved into 8^th all-time with her 54^th all-time win. Kip Anderson moved ahead of Anthony Begay and Chris Negrin to tie Darren Bradford with his 38^th 30! Pete Williams and Steve Key are still both tied for 10^th now with 30!

Every time your team won a match whether it be in the A bracket or B your team won cash! Out of 65 teams playing 43 won anywhere from as little as $20 to as much as $2,365 for 1^st! They were 4 points away from winning another $750! Here’s a list of the payouts:

1^st Epic Bust and Balls $2,365

2^nd Trash Squared $2,150

3^rd Suck My 8-Ball $1,000

4^th Desert Rats $295

5^th Diamond Girls $780

6^th The Lone Rangers $1,280

7^th I R Sloth $750

8^th No Name $740

9^th Good Times $1,250

$420 Real Deal

$330 Get Lucky

$240 Black Shirts

$200 Saved by the Ball

$190 Mountainaire

$190 Girthy Marmot Brothers

$180 The Girthy Sirs

$165 Pogue Mahone

$120 Rubber & Liquor

$120 Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies

$110 Beer Thirty

$100 Who’s on First?

$100 Just Three Lesbians

$100 All BAllz Matter

$90 Veni, Vidi, Vici

$90 Pool Hall Junkies

$90 Goof Balls

$80 Heywood Jablomey

$80 2 Kings and a Queen

$60 Invest in Bukaki Futures

$60 Help Wanted

$60 Electric Boogaloo

$60 E Mac

$50 Team Boozer

$50 Steal Your Face

$50 Nice Rack

$50 Let’s Skoo-Den

$40 Shape is Overrated

$40 Pocket Pimps

$30 Hot Pockets

$30 Craigslist Companions

$30 2 White Guys and an Asian

$20 Squealing Hogs

$20 Cover the Spread

I’d like to thank everyone who’s ever played in the league whether it be a single match all the way up to the only member other than myself to reach 1,000 matches played Cecil Attson! THANK YOU for choosing to play in the AZPL! Thank you to all of the bars that have hosted the league over the years!  Thank you to all the people who have helped out in one way, shape or form over the years, especially Jen who has been there since 2005! Thanks to Cecil, Alyssa Rockhard, Jessica Pugh & Kaila Warfield for all their help on Thursday! Thank you all for being a part of the longest running state championship tournament in Arizona for twenty consecutive years and going! 57 consecutive championships! It’s been an amazing twenty years!  Cheers to twenty more! See you in the summer season! THANK YOU!

How teams qualify for the State Championship tournament:

Teams play in the league to qualify for the State Championships.  Only 66 teams will qualify.  First place in the Championships is $3,000.  For teams that lose twice on Saturday in the Championships fear not as we have a 3rd elimination bracket that plays out Sunday!

The Summer 2023 AZPL State Championships!

Sept 1, 2, 3 & 4, 2023

FIRST PLACE PRIZE OF $3,000 and over $15,000 in cash prizes!