2026 USBA National Qualifier Results
Bergen Billiards | February 3, 2026
Edward Gomez, Oscar Pardo, Young Ha Choi, and Seung Kwon Hong Qualify for the Nationals
16 Players competed in 4 Groups, round robin. Matches were played to 25 points. Ranking is based on W/L, Average.
Group A proved to be a tough battle with all the players about equal. In the first round Eric Kwon easily defeated Ahmed Elmaghrbi while Edward Gomez struggled to win over Alex Koh in 41 innings. Gomez's struggled continued in the second round as he lost to Eric Kwon. Ahmed frustratingly lost his second match to Alex 25-24. In the third round of matches Gomez scrapped by with a win against Ahmed (another match lost by one point for Ahmed!) while it was Eric Kwon's turn to struggle in his match with Alex, who prevailed 25-18. Eric was 2-0 with the best average heading into the final game but he lost ground to Gomez. There was quite a bit of tension and excitement in both matches at the end.
In Group B, in hindsight, it seems the ranking was decided in the first round match between Oscar Pardo and Sang Jin Lee. Oscar won 25-19 and although he was pushed at times in his other matches Oscar always pulled through. Sang Jin won his next two matches scoring 25 points in 25 innings in both. Sean Kim and Jorge Ruiz both kept trying to press their opponents but kept coming up short.
Young Ha Choi won handily over Jason Chong in the first round in Group C as did Dae Ro Lee over Edgar Cesbedes. The second round match between Young Ha and Dae Ro was a battle all the way with neither palyer willing to yield until the end. Jason Chong picked up the pace in his second match scoring 25 in 27 innings to defeat Edgar and then exploded in his final match posting the best match of the tournament (1.923) winning 25-3 in 13 and 12 innings over Dae Ro Lee. Young Ha Choi went 3-0 to win the Group. He and Oscar Pardo were the only two players to win all three matches.
Group D started with a thriller match between Sergio Tapia and Seung Kwon Hong. Sergio managed to hold off S.K. in the closing stages winning 25-22. Dong Wook Oh kept Jung Kwon at bay during their match. S.K. Hong came alive in his next two matches winning both in 15 and 14 innings over Dong Wook and Jung Kwon. This gave him the best overall average for the tournament scoring 72 points in 64 innings for a Grand Average of 1.125. Sergio's winning streak ended after his first match and Jung Kwon finished in 22 innings in his final match for a good showing.
Seung Kwon Hong qualified in Group D with the best overall average (1.125) after losing his first round match.