The tournament took place in a worldwide renowned technical university

The fifth and final stage of the first season of the SEYGO Tour 2019 took place at the EPFL in Lausanne (Switzerland). The EPFL (Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne) is one of the most prominent research and educational institutions in the world.

"EPFL is Europe's most cosmopolitan technical university. It welcomes students, professors and collaborators of more than 120 nationalities. EPFL has both a Swiss and international vocation and focuses on three missions: teaching, research and innovation. EPFL collaborates with an important network of partners, including other universities and colleges, secondary schools and gymnasiums, industry and the economy, political circles and the general public, with the aim of having a real impact on society."

The campus is located outside the city, with a beautiful view on the Lake Geneva. The choice of Lausanne for the venue of SEYGO Tour has an additional flavor: as the seat of the International Olympic Committee, Lausanne is the Olympic Capital of the World. It is always nice to connect the mindsport which is Go to both scientific and Olympic values.

Free accommodation in the center of EPFL was an attractive proposition for both large groups of young players from Romania and Croatia

The conditions for the tournament were perfect. The organization team, led by Flavien Aubelle, the president of the Swiss Go Federation and an EPFL alumni, provided free accommodation in the heart of the campus 50 meters from the playing rooms. Everything worked like a Swiss watch.

The journey to Lausanne was a challenge for a large Romanian group: the low-cost direct flight from Bucharest to Geneva was cancelled. But, full of resources, they managed to travel via Istanbul, still arriving on time. The participation of Swiss young players was higher than expected - it seems that they liked the idea to participate in the first youth tournament in Switzerland. The number of participants was balanced among three countries (12 players from Switzerland, 10 players from Romania, 8 players from Croatia) and among three age groups (8 players U20, 13 players U16, 9 players U12).

The tournament was dominated by Croatian players

In the group U20, Mirta Medak, 2D from Croatia, won ahead three Swiss players who were categorized between 8K and 12K. In the group U16, Robert Medak, 2K from Croatia, faced mostly Romanian opposition in the range between 9K to 10K. The group U12 was dominated by Croatian players, who got all the prizes. Roko Crvelin, 9K, won the tournament and overtook Stjepan Medak, 5K, in the final standing of the Tour.

The final game in the age group U20 was commented on the EGF Twitch channel: Li Yue, 5D, came from Zurich, and Catalin Taranu, 5P, remotely joined from Vatra Dornei, Romania.

The prize fund was considerable

The prize fund was generous once more, contributed to the Swiss Go Federation by Hwang In-Seong 8D school, The Yunguseng Dojang, a very popular online Go school. Each age group got SEYGO vouchers in values of 150-100-50-50 EUR respectively for the places 1-2-3-4. It made 1'050 EUR in total. Before the tournament in Lausanne, the SEYGO International Team decided to put additional fund for the top players in overall standings in SEYGO Tour 2019. Thanks to contributions from Vatra Dornei (500 EUR), Croatia (500 EUR) and Switzerland (200 EUR), it became possible to fulfill the promise of awarding the best and most active players in this first season. Each of three age groups shall receive 400 EUR distributed as 200-100-50-50 for places 1-2-3-4 in the Final Standings, based on the sum of SEYGO Points in five SEYGO tournaments and EYGC in Moscow.

SEYGO Vouchers are multi-purpose and can be used to cover costs of accommodation and meals in future SEYGO events or EYGC, or to cover fees for EGF Academy, as described at the SEYGO Project webpage.

Also, there were many small presents (origami paper, 9x9 gobans, goodies, etc.) so each kid won something at the reward ceremony.

Results are online

The knock-out phase of all age groups is shown in the following tree diagram: https://www.eurogofed.org/seygo/stage5.html

All results are stored in the European Go Database: 

During the tournament, both the Romanian and Croatian groups had just enough time to have a nice walk to the Lake Geneva. Children were impressed by the EPFL campus, especially during the visit to the Rolex Learning Center, which was full of students all day during the weekend. Many kids entertained the idea of coming studying here in the future.

We would like to greatly thanks the Ishi Go club (the EPFL Go club), who organized the tournament and of course the EPFL who allowed us to make it happen there. See you next year!