MSCS table tennis league

Welcome to the official page of the unofficial table tennis league of MSCS at UIC. The official table tennis table is located in the graduate student lounge, SEO 736. If you wish to play, just come on in, find a partner, and get busy. Everyone (who can get into the lounge) is welcome to join!

As often as possible (usually once a year) the The Jeff Sommars Invitational Table Tennis Tournament is held. See below for past results.

2017

Winner: Sarthak C
Participants: Mohsen A, Sarthak C, Arda D, Mihail H, Ayman H, Mano J, Kaushik K, Jānis L, Sayan M, Nick R, Meisam R

The tournament took place on December 1st, 2017. The structure was best-of-three to 11, double-elimination, so each participant was guaranteed at least two games. Some notable events during the tournament were:

The top three players all live together in the same apartment
Two participants joined from the engineering faculty, though they could not engineer a win
Chants of "Mohsen sucks" broke out more often than Mohsen played games

This year's trophy was an actual cup, stylized with the words "Paddle Master 2017" on one side and "UIC MSCS Table Tennis Champion" on the other.

2017 cup presented to winner

2016

Fall tournament

Winner: Mohsen A
Participants: Mohsen A, Arda D, Stoyan D, Ethan F, Ayman H, Jānis L, Nick R, See-Hak S, Fumiaki S

The tournament took place on December 7th, 2016. The structure was best-of-three to 11, two-group round robin, so each participant was guaranteed at least three matches. Some notable events during the tournament were:

Mohsen dropped only two games the whole tournament, to Ayman and Nick (he blames half a can of beer)
Stoyan took off his pants to play Mohsen, claiming it was for easier movement
The wires and cables from the nearby Super Smash tournament threatened free movement around the table. Only threatened.

A new trophy was specially made at the department's Math Computing Lab for the tournament! The hope is for it to become a Stanley Cup-like trophy, coming back every year with a new addition.

trophy in OpenSCAD

Spring tournament

Winner: Mano J
Participants: Mohsen A, Mike C, Vladimir F, Mano J, Jānis L, Luke W

The tournament took place on May 4th, 2016. The structure was best-of-three to 11, two-group round robin, so each participant was guaranteed at least two matches. Some notable events during the tournament were:

Mike had to leave to talk with "the man" at 11:00
Janis took Mike's place in the semi-finals, beating Vlad for 3rd place
A bitter fight broke out about how strictly official table tennis rules should be followed. The lax approach won out.

2014

Winner: Mike C
Participants: Edgar B, Mike C, Vladimir F, Daniel I, Mano J, Jānis L, Tim R, Alex S

The tournament took place on December 8th, 2014. The structure was games to 21, double-elimination, so each participant was guaranteed at least two games. Some notable events during the tournament were:

Six people showed up for the noon start time, two more arrived by 12:30
Mike's winning strategy was four cups of espresso
Due to a clerical error, third seed Mano was seeded last, and unseated first seed Dan in the first round

During the semester, there was a concerted effort for everyone to record their games and to have a robust ranking system (based on the Elo model of the US Chess Federation). The rankings at the end of the semester are included below for posterity. Click column headers to sort.

2013

Winner: Jeff S

2004

Winner: Nghiem N and Roman S
Participants: Nghiem N & Roman S, Ali S & Amir N, Navin R & Dongmin C, Phil G & Dan B, Yan Z & Kat B, Yuan X & Liqing W, Loretta A & Lisa H, Gail T & Marcus B

The 3rd annual MSCS department Ping-Pong tournament was a rousing success, with 16 participants plus about a dozen spectators. And for the first time, we had competitors from Faculty, Staff, and Students! This year the format was a doubles tournament, which provided more participation for competitors and more entertainment for spectators. The 2004 MSCS department champions are Nghiem N and Roman S, who won all three of their matches en route to the title. Congratulations!

This page was last updated on 2017-12-03, 22:23 CST
Maintained by Jānis Lazovskis