Dallas wins the USCL title

After an exciting overtime blitz playoff, the Dallas team defeated Boston to win the USCL title. Congratulations to Dallas and to Greg Shahade for doing a good job with this league. Here is a sample piece from the official website:

The Dallas Destiny win the USCL Championship! In an epic match that went until 2:15 AM, the Dallas Destiny’s IM Drasko Boskovic came through after a endgame blunder by GM Larry Christiansen to clinch the tiebreak and give Dallas the USCL title. While the 2006 Championship Match was exciting, this year’s match may have even topped it. First it seemed as if Dallas had the clear upper hand in regulation, however things started suddenly shifting Boston’s way. After Boston’s SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun defeated IM Davorin Kuljasevic, Boston was ahead 2-1 and all they needed was a draw by NM Chris Williams and the title would be theirs.

Unfortunetely for Boston, WFM Bayaraa Zorigt outplayed Williams in the ensuing time scramble and the match was headed to tiebreak. It was an action packed tiebreaker, with lots of ups and downs.

Eventually it got down to the top boards for both teams, as GM Christiansen fought his way down to Dallas’s last player. However he couldn’t crack IM Boskovic’s Accelerated Dragon, and ended up losing a pawn after playing too ambitiously in the endgame.

Congratulations to Dallas on their fantastic season, after two seasons of unfulfilled promise, they have shocked the world and become USCL Champions. Also congratulations to Boston, as while they lost the match on paper, they played tremendously all season long and it could have gone to either team with a break or two.