On 24-26th of March, 2023 1st stage of Mezz Cues Baltic Pool League took place in Kaunas, Lithuania. 

84 participants in Open division, 25 in Seniors and 9 women competed to win titles in respective groups. 1st stage was round robin system in use where players needed to qualify for a second stage - single knock out. After all day of qualifying rounds, best 45 men, 13 seniors and 4 women were continuing to fight in a single knock out.

Have to point out that Kęstutis Žadeikis qualified from the group only as the 3rd player, but nevertheless it did not disturb him to take a challenge to take the crown. There were 20 groups in open division, where 16 groups were filled with 4 participants in each group and 4 groups with 5. The rule was that people will qualify to single knock out, as per group from 4 - 2 best players, and from group of 5 - 3 best players. This made a chart of single knock out of 45 players. 1st numbers from the groups were seeded where the 2nd and 3rd had to play in last 64 first stage. 

Kęstutis made it through to the last 32 not an easy match with Latvians Artis Bartulis (Latvia, BAMS) with nerve racking fight which resulted as 7:5 in favour for Kęstutis. In a last 32 another thriller Žadeikis had with a tense battle against multiple BPL winner of different stages - Raimo Teesaar (Estonia). The match was very close and seemed that Kęstutis will let Raimo to win when at the score of 5-6 to Raimo, Kęstutis made a crucial mistake positioning cue ball very close to 9 ball. It seemed that there is no escape and he will need to play safety, leaving his opponent a chance to go through to last 16. But after some investigations and taking his time, Kęstutis made an incredible kick shot from long rail towards 9 ball and made it to the corner pocket. The score now went to hill hill with Teesaar`s break. The final rack can be watched on BPL facebook through this link: https://fb.watch/jyEAUsxkDB/ 

After winning against Raimo, Kęstutis seemed to survive his life match and after he left no chance to his next opponent in Last 16 - Polish Dzmitry Hryb, by crunching score of 7-1. When the things seemed quite easy for Žadeikis, he face another thriller with another Estonian player - Oliver Lepp, and just in another hill hill match Žadeikis went through to the semi final to play against his country mate Saulius Vaitukaitis. Saulius made some bad positioning shots and crucial misses, where Žadeikis capitalised on every opportunity to win against Saulius with the score of 8-4. 

In the final everybody knew that favourite to win is not Kęstutis, as his opponent was World Junior 9 ball champion, sponsored by Mezz Cues, ZAN tips, Estonia`s Karl Gnadeberg. Apparently Karl did not show his best game, and just could not handle pressure he faced. Rack after rack, mistake after mistake, Kęstutis used every chance and every situation left by Karl to win the very 1st stage of Mezz Cues Baltic pool league 2023 in Kaunas, Lithuania. 

With this win Kęstutis Žadeikis won not only beautiful trophy presented by our friends and sponsors advertisement company "Aveiras", but also he received a Wild Card to upcoming Euro Tour event in Austria Im Pongau to compete in the strongest field on earth. Just to remind that Baltic Pool League organisers have agreed with EPBF for this year that every stage of BPL will have 2 wild cards to every Euro Tour this year. Kaunas BPL to Austria, Riga`s BPL to Tampere, Finland, Tallinn`s BPL to Lasko, Slovenia and Kaunas second stop in Treviso, Italy. Another Wild Card received - Nikita Rudenko from Ukraine. Congrats.

So once again Congratulations for Kęstutis Žadeikis winning the title, Karl Gnadeberg becoming runner up, and Saulius Vaitukaitis and Maksims Dragans (Latvia`s BAMS) taking bronze medals.

In women division after qualifying rounds, semi finals reached 3 Lithuanian players and Estonian. Quite a very good achievement for Lithuania`s women players. Simona Milišauskaitė against Augustė Mikulėnaitė, and Agnė Jarušauskaitė against Liana Machukans (Estonia). 

1st semi final against Augustė and Agnė was a nerve racking thriller match, where the winner was clear only after decider. I think better nerves handler and loads of experience collected Agnė from the past handled hill hill better than her opponent and that was the key to go through to the finals. 

Another semi final was more relaxed and better player this time was Simona. So in the final match met Simona and Agnė. It seemed that the match will be very close, cause both women are multiple BPL winners and their level is very similar. Just probably it was not Agnė`s day, where she had to give away final match in Simona`s favour of 6-2.

In seniors division we have been visited by famous senior player from Finland - Antti Rantanen. Antti is competing with the best senior players from all over the Europe in European Championships and his level is really hard to beat. Starting in the group Antti left no chance to all of his group mates with the scores of - 4:0 against Lithuania`s Raimondas Matijošius, 4:1 - Latvia`s Arnis Kleinbergs and 4:1 Latvia`s Gatis Taube. Antti qualified as the 1st number from the group and went straight to the last 8 where he faced Lithuania`s Žilvinas Cemnolonskis and left no chance with another 5:1 score. Antti did not change his gear and just went through to the final match with another easy match with the score of 6:3 against Latvia`s Gatis Taube. 

In the final Antti met Lithuania`s Dainius Vidžiūnas. After soome crucial mistakes and some misses from Dainius, Antti lifted the trophy with the final score of 6:3. 

So lets conclude seniors division. Antti Rantanen - gold, Dainius Vidžiūnas - silver, Gatis Taube and another Latvian - Eduards Volegovs bronze. 

That sums up 1st stage of Baltic Pool League 2023 in Kaunas, Lithuania sponsored by main sponsor Mezz Cues. Also this event would not be possible without lovely billiard club "Entry", advertising company "Aveiras", best in the market cloth "Ivan Simonis" and balls "Aramith", "Kamui", "Turtle rack", "Holly case", our friends for the next stages Billiard club "BAMS" and billiard caffe "Hill Hill", "Arena Billiards - not only billiards".