Dennis Orcollo (Photo courtesy of Erwin Dionisio)
Dennis Orcollo, who won two of the events of the 2017 West Coast Swing (the One Pocket and 9-Ball Challenge), won his first title of the 2018 WCS, coming back from a hot seat loss in the $15,000-added 10-Ball Challenge to defeat hot seat occupant Ruslan Chinakhov. The event drew 128 entrants to California Billiards in Fremont, CA.
Orcollo and Chinakhov’s paths to the final went through decidedly different draws. Chinakhov got by Joe Hartnett, Teymour Ansari, Ronnie Alcano and Amar Kang to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Omar Alshaheen. Orcollo shut out CJ Robinson in his opening match, and then, in order, defeated Rodney Morris 9-7, Jayson Shaw 9-4 and Shane Van Boening 9-5 to face Roberto Gomez in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Chinakhov and Orcollo advanced to the hot seat match with identical 9-2 victories over Alshaheen and Gomez. After what he’d been through to get there, one would have to imagine that Orcollo (more than anybody) was surprised by Chinakhov’s 9-7 victory in the hot seat match, though undaunted, he moved to the loss side and a semifinal match against Zoren James Aranas, from which he would return for a second (and successful) shot against Chinakhov.
One might also imagine an ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’ scenario for Alshaheen and Gomez, who arrived from a winners’ side semifinal ‘frying pan’ to face the ‘fire’ of Van Boening (for Alshaheen) and Aranas (for Gomez). Van Boening, following his defeat by Orcollo, got by Thorsten Hohmann, double hill, and Warren Kiamco 9-4 to draw Alshaheen. Aranas, who’d initially been defeated by the winner of the 6th Annual Cole Dickson Memorial, Jeff De Luna, had then eliminated Corey Deuel 9-7, and Jayson Shaw 9-3 to pick up Gomez.
Van Boening and Aranas advanced to the quarterfinals. Van Boening downed Alshaheen 9-5, while Aranas was busy eliminating Gomez 9-7. Van Boening entered the event and the quarterfinals, with a Fargo Rating (819), that was 13 points higher than Aranas’, putting the Fargo ‘winning odds’ in Van Boening’s favor. Aranas, though, won the match 9-7 and turned to face Orcollo.
Leaving little doubt about his determination for a second chance against Chinakhov, Orcollo gave up only two racks to Aranas in the semifinals, and got that second chance. He completed his run with a 15-9 victory in the finals.
Representatives from POVPool (Daniel Busch) and West State Billiards thanked the ownership and staff at California Billiards, as well as sponsors Cohen Cues, Big Time Threads, WestStateBilliards.com, KD Cues, Ariel Carmeli (AC) Cues, Tiger Products and JB Cases. The West Coast Swing will shift operations to Tempe, AZ, where, beginning on Wednesday (July 11), Freezer's Ice House will host a $3,000-added One Pocket Challenge and two days later (July 13, with some entrant overalp), a $10,000-added 10-Ball Challenge.
