Manu Ginobili
| Manu Ginobili Open | |
|---|---|
| Competition season | 2004-2005 |
| Head editor(s) | Ezequiel Berdichevsky |
| Difficulty | Very hard |
| First mirror | March 12, 2005 |
| Announcement | link |
| Packets | link |
The Manu Ginobili Open was held at Chicago in March, 2005. The questions were mostly written by Ezequiel Berdichevsky, though Leo Wolpert contributed science questions.
The tournament was won by "Border Beagles", a team of Andrew Yaphe, Jeff Hoppes, Paul Litvak, and Jerry Vinokurov, which went undefeated. Second place went to "Crumbling Idols", Chicago's 2005 ACF Nationals team, which consisted of Subash Maddipoti, Seth Teitler, Susan Ferrari, and Selene Koo.
Andrew Yaphe led the tournament in scoring at 69 ppg, and also finished with 17 powers, which was more than any other team achieved. The second-leading scorer was Wesley Matthews, at 50 ppg. A freshman Bruce Arthur was the last scorer, an anecdote he would occasionally use for rhetorical effect when describing the importance of sticking to it when the times get tough. Nathan Freeburg managed to out-neg not just every other player but every other team while playing solo, going 5/43/48 over 10 games played (as he forfeited the final game).
The tournament is notable for being widely considered the hardest ever written at the time it was played, and for seeing Ezequiel Berdichevsky finish the set during the tournament itself at a Hyde Park Kinko's.