The aftermath of the 2025 Tiro en Braille Interuniversity Tournament: making inroads into the Guanajuato State Congress

The 2025 (fourth) edition of the Tiro en Braille Interinstitutional Tournament is now in the books. A year ago, after the third edition in 2024, the headline of the blog was about the expansion and the precious steps towards the consolidation of this annual tournament. The 2025 edition witness the consolidation of the tournament, as two milestones took place. First, on June 4th, 2025 all major Universidad de Guanajuato’s authorities attended the awards ceremony (the General Rector, the Campus Rector, as well as the Director of the Law, Politics, and Government Division). The second milestone was that the Guanajuato State Congress hosted a closing ceremony on June 6th, 2025. This is certainly the first time that two awards/closing ceremonies take place for the same tournament. Tiro en Braille participants and staff members had the chance to meet two state congress men.

This year, the fourth annual edition of the Tiro en Braille Interuniversity Tournament took place along three weekends, from May 16 to May 30, 2025. The number of universities has continuously grown, from 8 teams in 2022, then 11 teams in 2023, reaching a record 16 teams in both 2024 and also in 2025. Indeed, the number may have exceeded 20, but due to financial and time limitations we decided to limit to 16 teams the participation. Additionally, to the already “normal” participation of Universidad de Guanajuato (UG) and Benemérita y Centenaria Escuela Normal Oficial de Guanajuato (BCENOG), plus the 2024 of Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Plantel 111 (UPN 111), the fourth edition (2025) welcomed the participation of two Escuela Normal Superior Oficial de Guanajuato (ENSOG) teams. After winning the tournament in 2023, Universidad de Guanajuato recovered the championship as the Apicultores team (a first time participant team) defeated every single rival in their way to the championship. Last year’s championship, this year named Los Favelones de la BCENOG were the runner-up team. UPN 111 team named Amor Mildred captured third place, while BCENOG’s Alberto Pöhls team managed to earn the fourth place. 

As for sponsors, there has been an equally impressive increase, moving from only one sponsor in 2022 to 8 sponsors in 2023, 12 sponsors in 2024, and reaching a record 19 sponsors for the 2025 edition. This year our sponsors included: Kaldi, Munchik, SeñorEspaguetti, Changos 3, Café Nanum, Paola Sweets, Santos Cortes, Tonali, Pirul, Macanela, Estación Gelato, Turibús Panorámico, Imprenta García, Gypsy Road, Nieves Cuévano, Red Pont, and Ritual. Additionally, just as it happened back in 2024, two relevant institutions joing as partners. Instituto National Electoral (INE) joined as part of its promotion for voting on June 1, 2025 Federal elections (INE sponsored the playing jerseys for all 16 teams), as well a global alliance with UNESCO (United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization), which will be publishing a few notes later this year.

After three tournaments played on either a concrete (cement) floor and/or in the open air, the 2025 was played in a very nice facility, Cancha Profesor Arturo Larios, also known as Canchas de Cristal. This place is closed, it has lots of seats, the acoustic is great, plus it has plenty of lights. The 2025 welcomed new protective helmets (Tae-Kwon-Do) masks to avoid injury if heads collided. However, an upgrade from 2024 was that the ears were not covered which allowed for better hearing on the part of players. The knee and elbow pads are much better than in previous years. We were fortunate to have a very safe tournament. However, Toño, a returning blind participant from 2022, 2023, and 2024 has recommended the acquisition of new balls with better sound for the 2026 edition. Toño, we love you and we will try our best to incorporate your brilliant recommendation.

Another great stride was the excellent decision to have Roma, a local photo studio as one of the 2025 sponsors. As the visitor of our website may see, the quality of photos has changed drastically (day and night) taking 2022 as a starting point. We want to thank Alberto Flores for his generous sponsorship.

As for the sports results of the tournament, contrary to the belief that the throne belongs to teams with proved experience, 2025 produced a major shocker. The 4th semester team of Public Administration, which until February 2025 had not even heard about Tiro en Braille went on to capture the first place. Not only they went undefeated, but they crushed three of their four rivals. Karla Naím its star player (she is a good basketball player) was the second best woman scorer of the tournament. Meanwhile, the same happened with Hugo, who also was the second male scorer of the tournament. While Ale Favela’s team (Los Favelones de la BCENOG) had to content with second place in 202, Diego Bucio captured the title as the tournament’s top male scorer. UPN’s Amor Mildred’s team captured third place, while Yahaira took home the award as the female top scorer of the tournament. As it happened in 2023 and 2024, Toño, tied with Chuy captured the title as the top disabled men scorer. This year, Alma beat Bere by two points in order to capture the disabled women award. As it has been Tiro en Braille’s tradition, neither teams nor players receive any monetary prizes. All prices are products, services, and certificates.

We hope to see many returning players for the fifth edition in 2026. Hopefully, all universities and colleges located in Guanajuato City will field at least one team (per institution) in next year’s tournament.