ENB Elite Cup 2022
After a hiatus of a few years, the ENB Elite Cup had returned to Munich on 11 June 2022, to the excitement of many students! This year multiple batches of MAP students joined together with the goal of having fun but still competing hard. Although it was difficult to coordinate practice with the entire team, we managed to organize several practice sessions, including a few practice sessions with the team from the Elite Master’s Programme “Advanced Signal Processing“. Our team captain Suleyman Gafarli prepared team uniforms and other important equipment with assistance from the MAP Office for funding.
The day began in the morning with a bus ride to Munich together with the teams from two other Elite Master’s Programmes: “Advanced Signal Processing” and “Advanced Optical Technologies“. Some additional students from MAP came to support us as well.
Once we arrived in Munich, there wasn’t much time to spare and we quickly began our first match of the group stage after a quick warm-up. At first we were nervous and not expecting to succeed but after a positive pep-talk from Asad we were excited to play. The first game of the group stage started quite fast-paced and ended with a 2-1 victory. The second game, however, proved to be more difficult, and we unfortunately lost 0-2. The third game then became critical for us to win in order to advance from the group stage, so we committed to playing as hard as we could. Although there were chances to score, the game ended as a 0-0 tie. The last game of the group stage was a 2-0 victory but due to the goal differential we were not able to advance past the group stage.
The event was very well organized by the hosts and they were very welcoming to all the students. Despite our initial delay to arrive in Munich, the games ran quickly, and everything was well coordinated. After the group stage, there was a break for complementary food and drink from the “Biergarten” which was much appreciated. After the break we watched the games from the winners of the group stage and enjoyed socializing with the other students.
The tournament was a success and a much-needed opportunity to enjoy ourselves outdoors and build camaraderie with the other students outside of the university environment. In the end, we achieved our goal of having fun while being more competitive than we initially expected. We look forward to future ENB Elite Cups!
By MAP student Dan Bornstein (Matriculation group 2020)