(Article, pics & video by Tony Murnahan)

The Butterfly Cup was successfully held on September 3-5, 2021, despite many hurdles and challenges that were thrown our way!

The event took place at the wonderful Freedom Courts Sportsplex in Fayetteville, North Carolina over Labor Day weekend and was hosted by the Cape Fear Table Tennis Club.

The tournament began on Friday, September 3 with an unsanctioned open event for the player to get used to the ball bounce and venue.  Rachel Wang proved victorious after battling Ryan “the Nightmare” Gibson in a long five-game finals match.  Richard Dewitt had no answer for Lucy Chen’s relentless offense and Lucy ended the night with the third-place trophy.

Saturday’s Giant Round Robin’s preliminary event began bright and early at 9:00 am on September 4.  There were 32 groups of four with the top player moving into the afternoon’s A group, the 2^nd player into the B group, the 3^rd player into the C group, and the 4^th player into the D group.  The main afternoon round began at 1:00 pm with each of the four divisions (A, B, C, D) having four groups of 8.  Upon completion of the main round the top two of groups B, C, & D, and the top 4 of A went into a single-elimination playoff.  After a very long day, the final match finished around 10:00 pm.  The results of Saturday’s groups are as follows:

Division A:

1^st Place               Jishan Liang

2^nd Place              Mishel Levinski

3^rd Place               Ojo Onaolapo

4^th Place               Adrian Yang

Division B:

1^st Place               Ryan Lin

2^nd Place              Gregg Robertshaw

3^rd Place               Nigel Christopher

4^th Place               Jacob Lee

Division C:

1^st Place               Nicholas Nash

2^nd Place              Marshall Young

3^rd Place               Sam Karabulut

4^th Place               Matthew Worrell

Division D:

1^st Place               David Pannell

2^nd Place              Tyler Schwartz

3^rd Place               David Asson

4^th Place               Rocco Consiglio

Sunday’s events held were by a couple of rating events.  In the morning, we had the 1650+ event.  The competition was fierce in this event with some incredible play, but ultimately Connor Lee outbattled the competition and claimed first place.  The tournament finished with one of my favorite events – the U1650.  The matches were competitive, spirited, and fun with Yi (Michael) Guo edging out Tyler Schwartz.

1650+

1^st Place               Connor Lee

2^nd Place              Ryan Lin

3^rd Place               Andrew Yang

4^th Place               Liedy Handoko

U1650

1^st Place               Yi (Michael) Guo

2^nd Place              Tyler Schwartz

3^rd Place               Steve Zhong

4^th Place               Ricky Carter

The Butterfly Cup could not have occurred without the generosity of our sponsors: Bowmar Sports, Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, A&M Contractors, Secure Background Screeners, Carolina Specialities, Inc, & PWC.

Special thanks also go to Bill Englebreth (tournament referee), AJ Carney (assistant tournament director & lifesaver), Tony Murnahan (media guru extraordinaire), Bowie Martin, Sr., Brian Poore, Emily Scott-Cruz, Summer Flores, Peter Lehnecke, Josh Aguirre, Sami Ghosn, and the Bowmar crew led by Josh Brantley.  We could not have done this without you!

Thank you to the table tennis community for your support of our tournaments!

Sincerely,

Amy Karpinski

President, Cape Fear Table Tennis Club