Laaksonen is awesome player who is coming too Darren's 8-ball tournament... maybe even visit derby. If he is visiting derby i hope he tries 14.1 challenge.
I friended him on Facebook, added him to the Derby Straight Pool Challenge Group, and invited him to play in the challenge if he gets there.
It is always nice to get fresh blood into the challenge. A lot of guys try a few times and don't do much but eventually get there. Orcullo and then Kiamco were that way, but every year they got better. A couple of years ago, a bunch of young Filipinos came up and tried. Raymond Faraon,Oliver Bingcoy Medenilla, Jeffrey Ignaci, Rodrigo Geronimo, Jovan Bustamante, Carlo Biado finally broke through last year. Lee Van Corteza only tried a few previous years before he broke through big last year.
Maksim Dudanets, Fedor Gorst, Tim de Ruyter, Marc Bijsterbosch, Marco Teutscher, Jelle Kjellstra, Pepjin de Wir, Tobias Bongers have yet to break through and qualify. It's fun to watch them get better every year.
Filipinos, Germans, Russians, Dutch, but no young Americans. I wonder why.