2016 Butterfly Teams: “LYTTC Elite” and “SPiN” Remain Undefeated after Day 2

BY BARBARA WEI
At the close of day 2, only two teams: “LYTTC Elite” and “SPiN” remained undefeated in Division 1. Comprised of Ruichao Chen, Kaden Xu, Yuxiang Jin, Ziyang Chen and Junha Wu, “LYTTC Elite” seemed unbeatable as they swept every team five matches to zero in Division 1 after two days of play. With only two team ties remaining, “LYTTC Elite” is well positioned to take home the $3000 top prize.

The fight for second place encounter between “SPiN” (Kevin Wang, De Tran, Tahl Leibovitz, Paul David, Anthony Valero) and “Newgy/Petrosetco” (Sameh Awadallah, My Trang Mai, Rachid El Boubou, Sameir Mohammad Elfeky) went the full distance on the evening of the second day of competition. With $2000 in prize money for second place and only $850 for third, both teams were hungry for battle.

Going into the team tie, both teams were undefeated, having overcome the 5-10th seeds in Division 1 earlier in the competition. In this hard fought battle, “SPiN” took an early lead by winning the first four matches. With only one match left to win in the tie, it appeared “SPiN” would easily overcome their “Newgy/Petrosetco.” However, Sameh Awadallah was able to convincingly win the fifth match against Kevin Wang to put the team on the board. Then followed three more wins for “Newgy/Petrosetco”, and the two teams were now tied at 4 matches a piece and entering the final deciding ninth match. In the ninth, “SPiN’s” Kevin Wang was able to hold on for a win over “NEWgy/Petrosetco’s” Rachid El Boubou 3 games to 1 and finally secured the win for “SPiN” in the marathon encounter.

Both “SPiN” and “Newgy/Petrosetco” will face heavy favorites “LYTTC Elite” on the last day of competition to determine final standings in Division 1.

Continual coverage of the 2016 Butterfly Teams Tournament and stories about the athletes will be available at ButterflyOnline.com, or via Butterfly’s Twitter and Facebook pages.