University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) defeated University of Toronto 2-1 in the championship finals of the 2017 Collegiate Go League to claim their first ever CGL title. Entering the play
offs as the 5th seed, UCSB defeated not only defending champions UCLA, but also upset 1st seed UC Berkeley enroute to the championship finals. While UCSB’s team didn’t contain well-known perennial powerhouse players that came up through the North American youth scene, they had one of the most rounded teams in terms of strength, giving them an edge over the competition. Live commentary of the Finals were provided by AGA’s Eric Lui 1p and Justin Teng 6d. In the 3rd/4th place match, University of Maryland defeated UC Berkeley 3-0 to claim 3rd place. This year’s CGL was the most competitive in history, with the average strength of most A-League teams hovering around 5 dan.
This year was also the first year the CGL introduced a B-League for kyu players who also want to get in on the competitive action. Lafayette College prevailed over University of Virginia 2-1, and then over University of Toronto’s B team 2-1 to claim the B-League championship title. In total, 20 teams across both leagues participated in the CGL.
The next season of the CGL begins on October 7th; if you and at least two other university students would like to play in the upcoming CGL season, read the rules and sign up by September 25th to be paired in the first round. New schools can join at any time during the regular season, with the top 6 teams in each league eligible to play in the championship playoffs at the end of the regular season.
– Justin Teng
photo: UCSB’s championship team; (left-to-right) Justin Shieh 5d, Rex Luan 6d, Stephen Hu 6d, and captain/club president Colin Liu 4d.
