|| After 5 1/2 weeks of tournament play, several upsets, and a three-way tie for 4th place, four players have emerged victorious at the end of the 2021 Tak Open. Alongside their physical prizes, the the 2nd through 4th place players have gained entry into next year's Championship tournament where they'll challenge Fwwwwibib for his title of Tak Champion.
Final Results:
- Fwwwwibib
- Abyss
- Ally
- PlutoTheBrave
Fwwib continued his streak of accomplishments and became the first player to win the USTA Tak Open back-to-back. Abyss further solidified his reputation as the best player in the United States, but was narrowly denied a first place finish. And Ally showed that he can back up his top rating on Playtak.com with a stellar performance against his peers.
The most contested spot was 4th place, with a three-way tie between the IIT winner PlutoTheBrave, ManaT (who also made it to the IIT playoffs earlier this year), and the 2018 USTA Tak Champion and #1 on Playtak.com - NohatCoder. Pluto battled it out in a series of blitz matches (3 minutes +5 seconds) and swept both ManaT and NohatCoder.
Some notable mentions include Reimen who had a strong performance, beating or splitting with more highly rated players and ultimately tying with Simmon and UnSweet with 28 points. Additionally, newcomer Alion02 narrowly missed making it a four-way tie for fourth place and finished with 30 points, just 1 point shy of Pluto, ManaT, and NohatCoder. Lastly, Berster entered this tournament with virtually no experience playing Tak and went toe-to-toe against far more experienced players, splitting matches with Unsweet, Reid, and nqeron, and finishing in 14th overall. All three players have raised expectations and will be closely watched in future tournaments.
With the close of this year's Open, only 4 spots remain in next year's Championship. Players' next opportunity to qualify for that tournament will be in the 2022 USTA Members tournament.
Subscribe and stayed tuned for more analysis and commentary on the 2021 Tak Open in the upcoming 6th Edition of the Tak Times.
