Although Compass had high hopes going into the tournament, we did not progress past the first round robin group of six, ending third in our group.

As seems typical for Compass in tournament play, day 1 got off to a rocky start. Results were a 1-1 draw against Deportivo, a 0-1 loss to the Eagles, followed by a 2-0 win against the Red Lions. The first two games were dominated by Compass, with the goal by Deportivo given on a questionable penalty kick due to an unintentional hand-ball at the top of the box, and the goal by the Eagles on their only shot of the game. Day one finished on a better note with a strong showing and the win against the Red Lions.

Going into day 2, it was clear that Compass had to win both games to go through in first place. The first game was against group-leaders Animals, and ended at a draw of 1-1. Animals scored first, but quickly lost momentum while Compass equalized and just pounded the goal for the remainder of the game. The second game was against Da'an, and resulted in a 3-0 win for Compass. Compass did not get the two wins we needed, and ended with 8 points for group play (2 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss).

After round-robin group play, the tournament administrators tallied the points and found that, while the Animals went through in first place with 11 points, there was a three-way tie for second place between Compass, Deportivo and the Eagles. Although the majority of soccer tournaments specify, that in the case of a 3-way tie, the winner is determined by goal-difference, or goals scored (both categories in which Compass had superior stats), these tourney rules did not cover that eventuality. In order to find a resolution, the administrator decided to create a type of 3-way head-to-head evaluation that gave Deportivo second place in the group.

Deportivo went on to win the plate competition (between teams second place in their group), while Tainan Phoenix beat the Taipei Animals 2-1 to take the cup.

In general, take-aways for Compass for this tournament were:

1) Referees were the worst we've seen in many tournaments (which worked for us as much as against us)
2) Group play should be groups of 4, not 6, as using groups of 6 makes it more likely that the best teams will cancel each other out before cup competition
3) Ensure edge-cases, like a 3-way tie breaker, are specified in the rule book
4) We needed to come out stronger/more urgently on the first day
5) We need to figure out our substitution system better, as well as how player commitment factors into tournaments and playing priority