The University of Rhode Island’s billiards club crowned a shocking buy-in tournament champion on Tuesday, Oct. 8 in the Memorial Union.
Seven competitors gathered at 7 p.m. and paid $5 each to compete for their chance to claim the tournament title.
“It’s a single elimination tournament where you lose – you’re out,” billiards club president Adam Benzina said. “Everybody plays each other in a single bracket that will go to a second round, then a semi and then a final.”
Second-year Ewan Nosovskiy-Stambler and fourth-year Benzina faced off for the championship title and cash prize.
Benzina pocketed the win, securing him as the current buy-in tournament winner. Benzina and Nosovskiy-Stambler both received a percentage from the cash pot for their respective wins.
Nosovskiy-Stambler stated that it was still a great match despite coming in second place to the president of the billiards club.
“I thought it was a very close game,” Nosovskiy-Stambler said. “I wanna give my most sincere congratulations to Adam Benzina. A great tournament, and a great turnout every week.”
The club stands on allowing all URI students to participate in club and tournament-style events.
“We allow everyone who wants to play to join in on the tournaments,” Benzina said. “While not all participants are officially registered, we do not prevent anyone from joining in. Allowing them to play opens the door to more people coming, and more members in the club further down the road.”
Benzina explained that although board members can participate in tournaments, they always try to keep the rounds as fair as possible.
“The eligibility of the board members playing was a rule that was in place from last year when we joined,” Benzina said. “The brackets that determine who plays who are completely random which both allows everyone to play and for us to make the pairings as even as possible.”
The billiards club encourages students to play weekly games to build their skills, meet new friends and most importantly have fun.
“Students who participate can find a creative outlet to show off their skills, learn new techniques to improve, get involved with on-campus activities and compete for the title of billiards champion of the week,” Benzina said.
The club founder and vice president, Daniel Checorski, formed the club in 2023 after sharing a sparked interest among friends to play pool. The first tournament for the club took place on Sept. 20, 2023.
The club gained traction, but students wanted more for their wins. This got the ball rolling on the idea of buy-in tournaments.
“After working out how we could organize prize-based events, we hosted our first buy-in tournament on Nov. 1, 2023,” Checorski said. “Since then, we’ve alternated between casual, non-buy-in tournaments and buy-in tournaments, so there’s something for everyone, whether they want to play for fun or for a prize.”
Fourth-year Patrick May was eliminated within the first bracket. May said that although it was a bitter feeling, it would not stop his interest in competing in future tournaments.
“Really, it just makes me want to come to billiards club more, which is such a great club,” May said. “I just want to practice more, I wanna improve, so I will be coming back.”
To find out more on how to become the next billiards club tournament champion, head to @uri.billiards on Instagram.