EOM Winter Cycle conclusion

22 March was the day of the final leg of the EOM Winter Cycle 2026. The third leg always is extra special as we're not only handing out the day prizes, but the entire cycle gets decided! This adds an additional layer of stress for some students, but it was as fun as always nonetheless.

Assistant Lolly watching the games

Group C/D

We started with our C/D players. Ernest Ye and Davey Chung both raced to 4/5. This gave us a dream pairing in the final round, because both players were also still in contention for the top cycle prizes! After a hard fought draw (all the way to king vs king!), it was Ernest who clinched first place and with that also won the Winter Cycle! Davey finished in a well deserved second place in both the tournament and the cycle. Mathhew Lau, Kyle Hui, Alston Liao and Rosanna Liu shared third place with 3/5 in that order. That means that Rosanna wins the D-group today! Elliot Liu won the D-group cycle.

Everyone checking out the medals and trophies

Group A/B

In the A/B groups, the nerves were noticeable. Bloomberg Chan was in pole position to clinch the A-group Winter Cycle having scored 5/5 in the first leg, but putting a lot of pressure on himself he lmade lots of blunders and lost against Spencer Sun in the second round and was about to lose against Cyrus Lau in the third round when Cyrus out of nowhere made two illegal moves in time pressure. A lucky escape for Bloomberg who regained his composure and raced to 4/5 and with that clinched the Winter Cycle. Congratulations Bloomberg!

Andy vs Spencer in action

Spencer continued his streak and won his games against Andy Cai (winner in leg 2) and Christian Chan to score 4/4. Yuki Ying also stayed perfect so far which meant they faced each other in the final round. Spencer had enough with a draw to win the tournament on tiebreaks, but would have a small chance to overtake Bloomberg for the cycle with a win. He refused a draw after the opening, but eventually had to resign after an excellently played endgame by Yuki. It wasn't meant to be for Spencer, but this fighing spirit is what we like to see! With this, Yuki is the third different student to score a perfect 5/5 and clinch first place in a row! Yuki took the first place medal from the B-group home while Spencer finished in second place and won the A-group.

Nemo Chen, Bloomberg and Andy completed the top 5 with 4 points each in that order. For Andy that meant, he topped Yuki to clinch first place in the B-cycle!

Bloomberg, Lolly Chen, Nemo and Spencer are tha A-group graduates and promote out of the EOM. Congratulations to them and good luck in future tournaments.

Congratulations to the prize winners!

Action photos of the day!