Recap: Wild West Shootout

On September 29 & 30, we ran the 7th Annual Wild West Shootout. While the event was amazing and the positive support was overwhelming we know everyone's attention and thoughts are on the tragedy that happened on Sunday.  I know I can speak for Erin when I say we are both emotionally crushed by what happened to the men and women that fell victim to this senseless tragedy, not to mention the victims' family, friends and community who are are suffering and will never be the same. I am happy to hear that everyone from the cornhole community is alive and safe although we know there are many families and individuals that cannot say the same.  Please continue to offer support in any way you can to our Nevada brothers and sisters.  

There is no easy way to transition into a write-up that recaps our event so accept my apologies as I awkwardly move into the results of the 2017 Wild West Shootout.

Friday Night Blind Draw Results

On Friday night, we had a ton of fun at the social blind draw with 52 teams at the Gold Spike. Click BRACKET & ACL POINTS to view the details. The top four teams were:

1st place: Mattie King (CA) & Jordan Friend (CA)
2nd place: Brian Brewer (AZ) & Pete Cuellar (CA)
3rd place: Michael Molina (AZ) & Alan Doyle (AZ)
4th place: Jay Stevenson (AZ) & Jack Daloian (CA)

Saturday Wild West Shootout

Saturday kicked off the Wild West event where players from New Mexico, Nevada, California and Arizona competed in three events - open singles, women's singles and doubles. The top 16 teams from the open singles and doubles tournaments as well as the top four from the women's tournament earned points for the state they represented. The state with the most points was awarded the Wild West trophy that they will host for the next year.  

Open Singles Results

The day started early with the Open singles event. Ninety-six players were randomly divided into two brackets - the Desert bracket and the Coastal bracket. Michael Molina (AZ) came out of the Desert Bracket and defending champion, Bill Hadley (AZ) came out of the Coastal Bracket. The two faced off in a best two out of three match to determine the winner. Michael took game 1 but Bill stormed back to take the final two games and repeat as Wild West Shootout singles champion.

Desert Bracket • ACL Points
Coast Bracket • ACL Points

 Women's Singles Results

In the women's singles double elimination tournament, twenty-two ladies competed for the 2017 Wild West Shootout Women's Singles Champion, which featured defending champion Noelle Westbrook (CA). In an exciting and entertaining event, Drea Flores (AZ) topped Kelli Stevenson (AZ) to take down the championship. Noelle finished 3rd and Teresa (CA) rounded out the top four earning points for their states.

Women's Singles Bracket • ACL Points

Doubles Results

In the afternoon, 64 teams competed in a double elimination doubles tournament. First round and winner's bracket matches were best two out of three while the loser's bracket matches were single games. In an exciting championship match, Doug & Hector (AZ) beat Ken & Nick (CA) three straight games to win their third Wild West Shootout Doubles Championship in the last four years.

Doubles Bracket • ACL Points

Overall Results

Congratulations to the Arizona team who reclaimed the Wild West Shootout trophy for the fifth consecutive year with 151 points.

Skills Challenge, Long Toss & 8-Bag Challenge Winners

At Friday's event, we ran a four event skills challenge that tested the accuracy of those who entered. California dominated the event taking the top three spots with Mike Sorensen winning the overall competition with 86pts.

On Saturday, we ran a long toss and 8-bag challenge. In the AllCornhole Long Toss Competition, Cisco Vasquez took the crown for the second year in a row taking down a $600 pot. In the 8-Bag Challenge, four players chopped the pot before the shoot-off!

Sponsors

Several groups helped make this event possible. Thank you to Speegs and 702 Cornhole for getting the event off the ground this year and for securing the venues for Friday and Saturday. Both were great places for everyone to meet new players, reconnect with others and of course, throw some bags.

Thank you to Ray and the Original Cornhole Company sponsorship for supplying the bags for the tournament.

Thank you to Mattie King at Razor Bags for sponsoring sets of bags for the winners of each event.

Thank you to Chad at AllCornhole for the $500 long toss sponsorship.

We'd also like to thank all of the cornhole groups that donated raffle items.

ACL Points

The Friday and Saturday events all counted toward ACL Regional points. EVERYONE who participated earned points. You don't have to be a paid member to get these points. The Arizona players have been part of this for about two years now. It's an exciting way to track results on a state and national level. I know some of the directors in your areas are in the early stages of learning the ACL process. For those of you who don't know, earning ACL points is the pathway to getting to the Championship of Bags event each July. This is the event that has a $50,000 prize pool and is broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN3.

You can view points at a state and national level at www.iplaycornhole.com/cobsstandings. Everyone who played has an ACL account. You can login and update your profile by using the email that you registered with and password is cornhole unless you have changed it. Paid members also get 1000 additional points as well as discounts to tournaments. 

I have included images of the Top 20 in each state as of October 4, 2017. If you have any questions then please connect with your local or regional director or you can contact me at [email protected].

Arizona

California

New Mexico

Nevada

Final Thoughts

This was an amazing event that always attracts some of the best players on the west coast. We are glad to have met many new faces, even though we butchered (me mostly) the pronunciation of some of your names.

New Mexico
It was wonderful meeting all of you in person after seeing some of your events on Facebook over the past few months. Bringing 17 players to Las Vegas for the first time you are participating in an event is outstanding. You have a great cornhole community and we look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Nevada
Thank you for being the host city again this year. While you had a small group representing your state your players made the most of it with Jeff and Jeff/Erik taking top 3 finishes in singles and doubles, respectively.

California
We loved the energy that your state brought to the event. Your players have improved immensely but more importantly, your group has a tremendous amount of fun while playing the game. I hope to see many of you later this month at Harrah's.

Arizona
You came strong this year taking the top spots in all three events and bringing the trophy back to Arizona.

KBKG Group
I would finally like to thank my wonderful family. My wife Erin, my sister--in-law Cassie, and my brother-in-law Ray for all their hard work over the two plus days. They left with me at 7am on Friday morning and went right to work at Gold Spike until 11pm that night. After getting a bite to eat and only a few hours of sleep, they woke up with me at 6am and worked until 11pm on Saturday setting up, running events and breaking down the equipment. After getting a few hours of sleep they made the long trip back to Arizona arriving back in Phoenix at about 8pm. They were a critical part of making this event a success.

Last but not least, thank you to my sister and her family for watching our daughter while we did the cornhole-thing in Vegas for the weekend and my parents for watching her while we were in Orlando doing it all over again!

EVENT IMAGES ON FACEBOOK

We look forward to seeing everyone at the 8th Annual Wild West Shootout next year!