2009 Akisphere – The first one

In 2009 the Montreal annual Footbag net tournament changed its name to Akisphere. After 20 years under a few different names including The Montreal International Footbag Championships (Championnat International de Footbag de Montréal), it was time for a renewal under the newly formed association Aki Québec.

The tournament is named after our trophy, the incredible Akisphere, created by our good friend Jean-François Bélanger. The tournament was played under ideal conditions, outdoors in Park Lafontaine, our main base camp for training here in Montreal.
Here’s a glimpse of the doubles finals, the most important event of the tournament:

Doubles Finals

This match featured PT Lovern and Manu Bouchard, two veterans representing the Chaos Footbag club versus Benjamin Rochon and François Depatie-Pelletier for Aki Québec. The first game was very tight, Ben and François won it by 15-13, Unfortunately for them, everything went downhill after that. They lost the second game 15-10, and then they disappeared under the rug, losing the third game by 15-6. Nonetheless, these brilliant players showed a lot of talent throughout the match, and provided a lot of super nice actions.

Chaos:  13-15 / 15-10 / 15-6

Singles Finals

The singles finals also went to 3 games. Gilles Demers gave a good run to 12 times singles world champion Manu Bouchard.

Bouchard won by: 11-15 / 15-7 / 15-12

2009 AKISPHERE  – RESULTS
July 3-5, 2009

Simple Open – Open Singles

1- Emmanuel Bouchard
2- Gilles Demers
3- Yves Archambault
4- Martin Graton
5- Luc Legault
6- Walter R. Houston
7- Jeremy Mirken
8- Dominic O’Brien
9- François Depatie-Pelletier
10- Maude Landreville
11- Stéphane Tailleur
12- Jack Harris
13- Benjamin Alston
14- Sébastien Duchesne
15- Sébastien Perron
16- Samuel Cloutier
17- Luka W.-Lavallée
18- Jean-François Bélanger
19- Sébastien Lessard
20- Mathieu Payant
21- Jim Hankins

Double Open – Open Doubles

1- Emmanuel Bouchard/P.T. Lovern
2- Benjamin Rochon/François D.-Pelletier
3- Martin Côté/Martin Graton
4- Jeremy Mirken/Jack Harris
5- Robert Lavigne/Sébastien Perron
6- Walter R. Houston/Benjamin Alston
7- Gilles Demers/Luc Legault
8- Yves Archambault/Samuel Cloutier
9- Dominic O’Brien/Stéphane Tailleur
10- Philippe Lessard/Dominique Soulard
11- Greg Neumann/ Aintno Intemann
12- Luka W.-Lavallée/Jean-François Bélanger
13- Maude Landreville/Geneviève Bousquet
14- Sébastien Duchesne/Sébastien Lessard
15- Mathieu Payant/Jim Hankins

The first edition of the AkiSphere (2009) was a tremendous success. The set- up was great, a lot of spectators sat in the bleachers and watched, amazed, some of the best players of the world showing their best performance. Players were well taken care of. They were offered lodging, food, Gatorades, bananas and even foot massages at will, along with a T-shirt of the event, wall plates and good prize money for the top three of each discipline.
The trophy itself, the “AkiSphere” is certainly the main highlight of the event – a marvellous 5 inches diameter 32 pannels steel sphere, carved with the AKIQ logo, on a socle where the names of the winners will be engraved for posterity. This was the first summer event organized by AKIQ, and any player that was there would say the same: “I’ll sure be there next year”. We intend to make this event the most acclaimed footbag showcase ever, and the way things went showed that we may actually succeed!

The AkiSphere 2009, presented by AKIQ (Montreal Net)
July 3-5, 2009
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Other pages referencing this tournament:
Results on Footbag.org

1. AKISPHERE 2009 Doubles Finals game 1 – 15:57

2. AKISPHERE 2009 Doubles Finals game 2 – 13:10

3. AKISPHERE 2009 Doubles Finals game 3 – 09:54

4. AKISPHERE 2009 Trailer – 02:33  This clip is also featured in the top section of this page.