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Over one hundred players turned out for the opening tournament to Major League Pool's 13th season, but only two leagues survived into the fifth round.

Pool Legends led the way in terms of participation with a maximum of 15 players for the tournament. Under new tournament rules this season, leagues are awarded three points for bringing the maximum, two points for bringing ten players, and one point for a team of five. As usual, there is also the bonus point for every cammed win, and three points for winning the tournament. An unofficial count without cammed wins tallied has PL with a total of 23 points.

While all 14 MLP leagues participated, a Magic Pool player was the rarest sight, with only three players in the tournament. MP's five points was not the low mark of the tournament, however. High Timez, which brought six players, holds the distinction of picking up the lowest point output. Only one of those six players (greasy.gringo aka Trey) produced any individual points. Trey's win along with the one bonus point for having five or more players join, leaves just two points for the newcoming league.

Tourney Pool, which led the way in Byes with four, was represented in grand fashion by the man who last season recorded the greatest run of Big League Tour dominance in MLP history. luisj_barreto (aka Luis, naturally) defended his #1 tournament seed into the fourth round, surviving a scare from Pool Legend red_sniper_1982. But in a sloppy fourth round game with Pool Fiction's so_wolf_cub4 (aka ... me, Cubby) Luis was eliminated, with initially two of TP's eleven points.

Pool Legends' most aggressive shooter, ooo_franchise_ooo (aka Rufferman) began his run to the Finals with a Bye. He then eliminated one of Xtreme 8Ball's four players (xlo_stephen_olx) and another Tourney Pool standout, superstaaaar. Ruff's run to the finals didn't get any easier - next came a showdown with True Pool Legends anchor aka_pomking. After dispatching Pommy, Ruff had to face his own Captain, sexxxy_luckydog17. As only the second Pool Legend against six Pool Fiction players in the fifth round, Ruff's goal became increasingly clear: Prevent an all-PFN Final. Ruff's aggressive play led him past his conservative captain, and on the way to the Semi-Finals against his former teammate, new.bies, and then the Finals to take on zl_stu_lz, who had been waiting for the better part of half an hour.

Stu began his tournament the same way Ruff did - with a Bye. Stu then took out the first of three Pool Legends players he would face in the tournament, beating pool.n0ob in the second round, and later wyte.folks in the fourth. Sandwiched in the middle was multiple Interleague Admin and Break And Run player, XxXx_MARIJUANA_GOD_xXxX. While initially it looked as if Stu and Luis were on a collision course for each other, fortune intervened for Pool Fiction and he took down his teammate, yours truly. Waiting for Stu on the other side, was yet another teammate, xchriskarenx. Stu and Chris's reunion yielded another win for the winner of the last BLT event of Season 12. Then, the wait began.

Finally, at about ten minutes until 9:00, Stu and Rufferman faced off. The first game had a hint of slowness to it, but quickly picked up when Stu's bank attempt on the six ball, bottom rail to top right, missed the mark. Stu's problems were compounded when the cueball freed up his opponent's 14-ball which Stu had previously placed next to the eightball. Rufferman further freed up his green stripe, and the purple 12-ball along with it, and cruised on to an opening win in the best of three Final series.

In the second game, however, Stu had the break. That break spread out the balls in a perfect position, and the levelling of the series was inevitable. After an opening shot squeezing the 15-ball by a pair of solids, his second shot fortunately pushed a solid far enough to leave a shot on the eleven. From there, it was just a formality. A series of tap-ins after potting the eleven left only minimal english necessary, and led to a level series.

In the decisive game, Stu again tried to give an intentional foul to leave a stripe and 8 connected and make Rufferman's ensuing run that much more difficult. This time, however, the black ball failed to do its job and left Rufferman with a very inviting runout opportunity. Ruffer's main problem was the ten, which sat near the bottom of the table but slightly blocked by Stu's six-ball. Ruff's effort to free up that stripe with three stripes remaining yielded little success, as his backspin left an unfortunate position behind the ten. With still a cuebank available, Ruff tried to play the cueball off the top rail, and tap home the 15-ball sitting just off the right rail above the bottom right pocket. Instead, all the cue found was the blackball. Stu used the ensuing ball-in-hand to make the five-ball in the top middle pocket, and spin off the right rail to free up the eight. Stu continued to shoot in order, making the six, seven, and eight balls in succession, to capture the first Big League Tour event of Season 13, and take in the first Gold Membership courtest of Head Admin Sophie. Pool Fiction also unofficially claims the top spot in BLT Standings through the first week with 23 wins, and five bonus points for a total of 28 points. The Legends claim the second spot with 23 points. No other league has twenty points without cam bonuses added.
Unofficial Point Totals without Cam bonus points tallied (deadline 11:59 PM ET)
Formatting Note: LEAGUE: Wins + Bonus - Byes = Total

BNR: 10 + 2 - 2 = 10
CK: 6 + 1 - 0 = 7
HT: 1 + 1 - 0 = 2
LS: 6 + 1 - 2 = 5
MP: 5 + 0 - 0 = 5
PDZ: 3 + 1 - 0 = 4
PFN: 26 + 5 - 3 = 28
PL: 23 + 3 - 3 = 23
PZ: 4 + 0 - 0 = 4
SP: 7 + 1 - 3 = 5
SS: 11 + 2 - 1 = 12
TP: 14 + 1 - 4 = 11
TPL: 8 + 1 - 1 = 8
X8B: 3 + 0 - 0 = 3

Video of the Finals available on Youtube with commentary done by moi. The playlist with this week's Finals series can be viewed here.