It had been two years since Tony Liang had chalked up a win in the Amateur division of the Predator Tour; April, 2013, to be exact, when he defeated Rhio Anne Flores in the finals. And two years before that, when he won the Empire State Amateur Championships at Raxx Billiards in West Hempstead, NY. Returning to that site for the $750-added Amateur side of a Predator Tour stop on the weekend of June 20-21, Liang went undefeated through a field of 58 to claim his first 2015 title.
His effort came within a game of being derailed by Arturo Reyes, who, after being defeated by Liang in a winners' side quarterfinal, went on to win five in a row on the loss side, and challenge Liang in what turned out to be a double hill final. With Reyes dispatched to the loss side, Liang went on to face Shawn Sookhai in a winners' side semifinal, as George Poltorak squared off against Russ Diamond. Liang advanced to the hot seat match 7-4 over Liang. He was joined by Poltorak, who'd defeated Diamond 8-4. Liang claimed the hot seat 8-6 and watched, as Reyes clawed his way back to the finals.
Reyes' path back to those finals commenced with a 7-3 win over Carl Yusuf Khan, and was followed by a dominating 7-1 performance against Lidio Rasta. This set him up against Sookhai, as Adrian Daniel, recent winner over Patrick Meyer, 7-1, and Jorge Romero 7-1 faced Diamond. Reyes and Daniel advanced to the quarterfinals, both 7-4, over Sookhai and Diamond.
Reyes eliminated Daniel 7-4, and though Poltorak would battle him to within a game of double hill (7-5), Reyes advanced to a second matchup versus Liang. In the first of two, double hill finals on the weekend (the other, won by Jayson Shaw in the Open-Pro event; separate story), Liang hung on to complete his undefeated run and claim the weekend's Amateur title.
