Illinois Kubb Championship 2021 Recap

BATAVIA, Ill. — The third annual Illinois Kubb Championship got underway on Saturday, Sept. 4 with a field of 24 teams. Temperatures remained in the mid 70s with overcast sky throughout the day. There were several sprinkles felt over the course of the day, but the rain held off until after all the trophies were awarded. Grass and ground conditions were challenging to many of the nation’s top inkastres, as the ground was very firm and the grass was very bouncy.

The 24 teams battled through seven rounds of the Klassic System to determine the 12 teams heading to the Championship Bracket. By the end of qualifying matches, there wasn’t an undefeated team left. 

Once bracket play started, the top 12 teams were slotted into the Championship Bracket, with the remaining teams in the Consolation Bracket. 

At this point, the tournament took a bit of a break as director George Sloan found out that Kubb Director software only supports a few playoff configurations, and 12 teams is not one of them. After the brief delay, and relying on old school pen and paper, they had a 12-team bracket! 

The top four teams in the tournament received first round byes. Those teams were;

1. Goose & Pup (Ethan Forney, Dave Giese)
2. Fraimiso (Jesse Fraim, Cody Glorioso)
3. Atom & Flash (Adam Holtz, Gordon Kauffman)
4. Kubb Snipers (Joe Hrejsa, J.R.Hrejsa)

All four of the top seeds made it to the semi-finals, making for very entertaining matchups. 

The 2019 Illinois Kubb Championship winners Goose & Pup would be matched up against the Kubb Snipers, while 2020 champions Fraimiso would face Atom & Flash.

Atom & Flash upset the returning champions 2-1. Holtz and Kauffman took game one in a fairly easily as Fraimiso would start off cold at 8 meters, and third-seeded challengers took advantage, getting an early lead. Game two started a lot like the first and it appeared Atom & Flash were on their way to a 2-0 victory, but the defending champions were not going to go quietly into the night. Fraimiso were able to steal game two on an excellent turn where Glorioso cleared the field kubb pile with two batons, while Fraim went three-for-three on 8 meter shots, clearing the baseline. This left Glorioso their last baton to slay the king. Game three was a back-and-forth battle where each team felt like they could win at any time. But, in the end, Kauffman was able to out-duel Fraim by drilling better piles of kubbs, allowing himself and Holtz more chances to attack the baseline kubbs, and eventually eliminating the former champions.

The 2019 champions, Forney and Giese, faired better in their semi-final and punched a ticket back to the finals.

In game one of the finals match, it was a back-and-forth affair, but the difference was Atom & Flash’s back-to-back turns with a penalty kubb in each turn. Because of that, it just took too many batons away from eliminating baseline kubbs, and allowed a couple of hot 8 meter turns from Forney for the 2019 champions to take game one.

Game two was also a back-and-forth game where both teams started a tad slower than normal on 8 meter shots. Both Forney and Kauffman put on a clinic with their drill techniques turn after turn. Giese and Holtz did tremendous jobs of clearing piles efficiently and giving their partners multiple batons for clearing baseline kubbs. In their second to last turn, Atom & Flash would leave an advantage line, but it was only a couple meters. In fact, Goose & Pup almost left a mid-pitch advantage line on their next turn, however a great cross pitch shot from the advantage line by Forney cleared the final two field kubbs on their last baton. Escaping that turn, Kauffman threw an awesome group of eight kubbs. Unfortunately, Holtz got a tough luck grasskicker on his first blast, which still knocked down kubbs, but split the pile. They were able to clear the group and punishment with their remaining batons, but could not get the last baseline. In the end, Goose & Pup were a little more efficient than Atom & Flash and were able to clear their nine field kubbs with five batons. Giese slayed the king with their last baton, and with that, the 2019 champions claimed the 2021 Illinois Kubb Championship title as well.

In the third-place match, the Kubb Snipers defeated Fraimiso 2-1 to get themselves onto the podium.

Final Results

Championship Bracket

1. Goose & Pup (Ethan Forney, Dave Giese)
2. Atom & Flash (Adam Holtz, Gordon Kauffman)
3. Kubb Snipers (Joe Hrejsa, J.R.Hrejsa)

Consolation Champions: George Sloan, Mark Burke