Kubb Krawl 2017 Recap

Photo of Tim Motzko with Kubb Krawl t-shirt. — Tim Motzko wearing his #kubbkrawl shirt.

MINNEAPOLIS — The second annual Kubb Krawl was held on Saturday, May 13, 2017, with 50 teams. It was a beautiful, albeit very hot, day with full sun and a high of 81 degrees with little to no breeze. The conditions were prime for a day of kubb.

The day began at Target Field Station, where all teams received their schedules and a quick run-through of how to do the Kubb Krawl. Kubb Krawl organizers also encouraged krawlers to share all the fun on social media and “hashtag the sh*t out of it” with #KubbKrawl.

After the team meeting the krawl commenced and teams dispersed to their assigned locations for round one. Locations included Target Field Station, Gold Medal Park, Marquette Plaza, and The Commons. Teams played 25 minute games against other teams in their group throughout the day at the locations on their assigned schedule, totalling five games.

Photo of Kubb Krawl at Gold Medal Park. — Kubb krawlers in Gold Medal Park.

At 4 P.M. all teams made their way to The Commons for a kubb party before bracket play began. There was a beer truck with an assortment of local beers and cider, two food trucks, live music, and of course plenty of kubb.

The results of the round-robin format from earlier in the day was used to seed teams into bracket play. Teams were divided into the Championship, Consolation, or Double Consolation brackets.

Photo of Kubb Krawl at the Commons. — The festivities at The Commons.

The Championship Bracket consisted of the top 16 finishers from group play. Teams switched to best-of-three game matches at this point. There were a lot of good battles along the way, and in the eventually the field narrowed to four. On one side of the bracket was Kubbanite (Matthew Erdman, Phil Goetstouwers, Ford Rolfsrud) and Appetite for Destruction (Scott Forster, Gregg Jochimsen, Luke Peikert). The other side had Chaska Kubb Society (John Oman, Mark Oman, Brian Winistorfer) versus the Ringers (Aaron Ellringer, Dave Ellringer, Sy Ellringer).

The Chaska Kubb Society kept their unbeaten streak alive by downing the Ringers 2-0. Appetite for Destruction also took care of business with a 2-0 win over Kubbanite.

The finals were set with two teams that had been playing good kubb all day long. Appetite for Destruction won the toss and opted to go first, a turn on which they were able to knock down one baseline kubb. Chaska Kubb Society answered with two, and the back and forth began. This was a close game, but Chaska Kubb Society pulled ahead and shot for the king, but Brian Winistorfer narrowly missed it. Luckily for him, and the rest of his team, Appetite failed to clear the field kubbs on their next turn, leaving a very short advantage line. Chaska wasted no time and finished off game one.

Game two started in a similar fashion as game one, but reversed. Chaska Kubb Society took one baseline with their start, and then Appetite for Destruction answered with a couple of their own, including a field-baseline double. Chaska had an excellent round picking up three of the remaining four baseline kubbs. Appetite struggled to clear their group and left another advantage line. Chaska Kubb Society took three to clear the field, one to clear the back row, and then John Oman stepped back for the king shot. He missed, but fortunately had a backup baton and made contact with it to win. Chaska Kubb Society stayed undefeated and took the home the title.

In the third place game, Kubbanite beat Ringers 2-0.