You could call it the $10,000 liberty. In Saturday morning’s decisive fifth-round game, Bill Lin 1P secured a
massive group—complete with one critical liberty that Henry Yu 2P didn’t have—giving Lin a commanding win (click here for Round 5 game records), the 2025 North American Pro Tournament Champion title, and a cool $10,000 prize.
Ryan Li 4P finished in second place, earning $5,000, followed by Alex Qi 1P in third ($2,500), Michael Chen 1P in fourth ($1,500), and Yoonyoung Kim 8P and Henry Yu 2P tied for fifth, taking home $875 each.
After winning his first three games, Lin had stumbled in Round 4 against Qi. A loss to Yu in Round 5 could have triggered a multi-player playoff. But Lin, fresh off his Round 4 loss, came in with a renewed mindset. “I just kept telling myself to play more aggressively, especially when the game is close,” Lin told the EJ. “I had to play my own style—that’s what I learned from that loss. I wasn’t expecting to win as many games as I did; I thought maybe two or three. So I told myself, ‘It’s just one game. Keep a fresh mindset and enjoy it.’”
That mindset—and a few extra liberties—made all the difference. As for the prize money? “I’m getting married in August,” Lin shared. “So this will fund my wedding honeymoon.”
Still, Lin says, “I’m more happy about the wins and the quality I played overall than the actual check.”
CLICK HERE for the Round 5 YouTube livestream; at the 2:51:15 mark Bill Lin and Henry Yu review their game, including the dramatic battle of large dragons.
Thanks & Appreciation: The six North American professionals, for five rounds of top-level competition; the N.A. Go Federation (especially Andy Okun and Hajin Lee), the American Go Association and the Canadian Go Association (led by president James Sedgwick), who organized and funded this event; AGA president and NGC Executive Director Gurujeet Khalsa, for local organizing; Justin Teng 6D for directing the tournament, and EJ Team members Chris Garlock and Todd Heidenreich for managing the streaming (send us your comments and suggestions for improvements at journal@usgo.org).
photo (l-r): Henry Yu, Michael Chen, Bill Lin, Andy Okun, Ryan Li, Alex Qi, Yoonyoung Kim; photos by Chris Garlock