Finland’s first international table soccer tournament, which took place in Helsinki 22-24.08 in Helsinki, was considered a great success by the organizers. As the second round of Baltic cup, it was organized by Foosin in co-operation with the Finnish table soccer organization. The tournament attracted over 50 players, with a great turnout especially from Finland, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Unites foosball communities
The main purpose of the Baltic cup is to unite the players from different countries, so that the table soccer communities from cities big and small would come together and compete in a strong, international cup. In Helsinki this goal was achieved, with players traveling great distances to attend it. As table soccer is still a relatively small sport in Finland, it was especially encouraging to see as many as 20 Finnish players attending, many of whom were playing first time in an ITSF tournament. This shows that there are more and more of Finnish players who are willing to play on international level and develop from amateurs to pros and beyond.
3 days – 15 competitions
The tournament consisted of 15 different competitions, the most anticipated being of course open singles and open doubles. On Friday afternoon the games started with women singles, which was won by a rising talent from Lithuania, the fifteen-year-old Austeja Sermonciute. The competition that attracted the most participants on Friday was the Open D.Y.P. with 20 teams registered. An all-Finnish team, Michael Schuh and Arttu Välimäki won gold.
On Saturday, the venue of Atomitie 5 was opened at 09.00, and games continued all the way until late night. Open singles attracted 36 participants and included many extremely tight games. In the end, Marco Patrick Niedermayer from Austria took gold, with Rapolas Jamontas (LTU) on second and Arttu Välimäki (FIN) on third place. It was followed by a series of doubles competitions, namely amateur, semi-pro, woman and mixed doubles. They all had a good number of teams participating, with players from different countries, sexes and ranks teaming up with each other. After a long day of tough matches, the evening ended with some more informal games in the form of 2BRB D.Y.P, where the game is played with two balls at the same time.
The tournament ended on Sunday with open doubles, where 24 teams competed against each other. The winners were a youthful team from Lithuania, Rapolas Jamontas and Simonas Pupeikis. The silver medal went to Marco Patrick Niedermayer (AUT) and Liva Brutane (LAT), and Finland won the third place with Jarkko Sipilä and Teemu Koivunen.
Personal & National ranking overview
Of course, the Baltic cup is not only about individuals competing against each other, as every player is also accumulating points for their native country. Apart from the 20 Finnish players, there was 11 participants from both Latvia and Russia. From Lithuania 8 players attended, as well as 2 from Germany and one from Austria. Out of these countries Lithuania was the most successful & gaining 442 points improved it’s ranking from the last Baltic cup, rising from third to second place. Finland won a lot of points as well, rising from a minor player to one of the strongest countries with 4th place in the nation’s ranking.
National ranking
1 Russia 755 (+238)
2 Lithuania 582 (+442)
3 Austria 559 (+136)
4 Finland 278 (+248)
5 Latvia 128 (+95)
6 Poland 103 (0)
7 Belgium 91 (0)
8 USA 25 (0)
9 Germany 24 (+24)
Personal ranking
1 Marco Patrick NIEDERMAYER AUT 196
2 Rapolas JAMONTAS LTU 160
3 Simonas PUPEIKIS LTU 157
4 Andreas GRUBER AUT 141
5 Ekaterina TRIPOTEN RUS 84
6 Austeja SERMONCIUTE LTU 77,5
7 Kamil ADAMSKI POL 71
8 Alexander PETROCZKO AUT 68
9 Gerhard DORR AUT 65
10 Liva BRUTANE LAT 65
How points are allocated?
Each player will get points equivalent of prize money won in following tournament competitions – OS or WS, OD or WD, SPS, SPD, AS, AD. Grand prix of a “Baltic Cup” is a transitional cup which will have a winners name engraved on it and will be given to the player that will gain the most points in total in all three rounds.
Download full Baltic Cup ranking: Baltic Cup ranking after 2nd round.xls
All tournamnet results can be found on table-soccer.org site.
3rd & final stage of Baltic Cup will be held in October 22-24 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
