This is a supporting entry for fellow Pool Synergy author, Gail Glazebrook and her team “Kiss of Death“. What that team is doing is what I personally think will be the future of pool teams. These young ladies are highly motivated and extremely talented. They’ve been doing a vlog (video-blog) type thing for the past few months documenting their training and practice while they gear up for the BCAPL 8-ball championships. Because of this, they’re getting exposure and even sponsorships by some big names in the industry. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the pool world responds to their success. Of course, the underground has already responded and it’s the typical split decision. Some people claim they’re over-hyped and they’re only getting attention because they’re a group of hot girls. Now, I can’t argue with KoD being a group of very attractive women – but I sincerely doubt that’s why they’re getting attention. It probably doesn’t hurt them, but it’s not why. The other half of the peanut gallery all support them and their efforts (and I hope take note and emulate).
Don’t mistake their looks as a weakness, these girls are pure pool-player. Some of them have interviews on Jim Murnak’s Site, Go4Pool.net where they talk about the hours and dedication they’ve put into this game. It’s impressive, if not intimidating. As a side note, you can see about 6 hours of Borana Andoni playing a 9-Ball match, race to 21, with OMGWTF in the archives of OnTheRailTV‘s UStream channel. This match came about through an online discussion of the merits of KoD in the AZB forums. Neither player is a pro and it’s an even match up with their own money at stake. Borana, after playing all day on 7-foot barboxes, meets up with Melinda around midnight (vegas time) to start their race on a 9-foot diamond. They play through the night until well after dawn. I won’t spoil it by giving the winner, but it was a very close race and both girls did a great job of playing hard and fighting through those tough times.
The biggest news of KoD is that Gail won the BCAPL 8-Ball National Singles Championship in Vegas last month. There’s a great video about this win, as well as the road that brought the team to vegas on NYCGrind. Here’s the latest video documenting the win and tournament:
Kiss of Death features: Team captain Gail Glazebrook, Michele Li, Emily Duddy, Borana Andoni, Olga Gashkova, and Alison Fischer.