Michigan Kubb Championship 2021 Recap

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The second Michigan Kubb Championship took place on Saturday, Sep. 25 at Flesher Field in Kalamazoo. There were 14 teams from six states represented (Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). While it had been raining all week leading up to the tournament, but the day of the tournament, the weather was sunny with a high in the mid-60s. There was a fairly strong breeze at times and it moved directions as the day went on, making it more challenging for teams to pick which side of the pitch they wanted to play throughout the day.

Tournament director Jesse Fraim used the Kubb United ruleset (100 percent in, Neighbor Rule, etc.) with a couple exceptions. Instead of painted lines, the tournament used string lines. The baskets did use paint, as well as string, so the inkastres could see the boundary lines when drilling but the string determined in or out. The tournament also used a 3-6 baton start instead of the common 2-4-6 baton start.

The day kicked off with six rounds of the Klassic System. All six rounds were completed prior to lunch break so the tournament could resume after lunch with Championship and Silver Bracket play. At the lunch break, the leaderboard was:

The top eight teams made the Championship Bracket while the remaining teams were placed in the Silver Bracket.

The first round of the playoffs went to the higher seeds, so there was no repeat of the turmoil from the 2019 tournament when there was many upsets. The only first round upset was when fifth seeded Kubbstaches (Bob Hickes, Jake Leavitt) defeated fourth seeded Kubbiquity (Christopher Jones, Andrew Thibodeau) 2-1.

The semi-finals saw the number one seed Code Adam (Cody Glorioso, Adam Holtz) defeat Kubbstaches 2-0, while number three seed Socks Sandals Science (Steve Dolan, Demian Moore) upset number two seed Aroostookubb (Phil Dickinson, Mark Weaver) 2-0.

The finals, which were livestreamed on Kubb On’s Facebook page, were first seed Code Adam versus third seed Socks Sandals Science. In game one, Code Adam started cold, going zero for three on 8 meter shots to start the game, but Socks Sandals Science only went two for six on their first turn. Glorioso cleared the group of two easily, but Code Adam had a stiff head wind that began to pick up and Holtz still went two for three on 8 meter shots to tie up the game. Dolan had one kubb skip away on his next grouping of four, but some great blasting by both Moore and Dolan allowed the team four batons to clear some baseline kubbs. They ended up clearing two more baselines on this turn. Holtz had a nice group of six kubbs and Glorioso cleared them with his three batons. This allowed Holtz three more batons to attack the baselines but he unfortunately came up empty. Dolan’s next group (of six kubbs) had no skip-offs and allowed a better chance to clear in three batons. However, after a couple bad luck blasts, Moore left one kubb for Dolan to clear in the field (along with one baseline and the king). Dolan was able to clear the 4 meter field kubb, get the last baseline kubb, and slay the king to take game one.

In Game 2, Socks Sandals Science continued the trend of starting cold, missing all three. Code Adam made Moore and Dolan pay for the cold start, as Holtz went three for three on 8 meter shots, while Glorioso added another, leaving only one baseline kubb remaining after their first turn. Moore was able to clear all four field kubbs, but Socks Sandals Science struggled with 8 meter shots in their second turn, and were unable to clear any. Code Adam looked to put game two away as Glorioso cleared the field kubbs with his three batons, Holtz cleared the last baseline with his team’s fifth baton, but he failed to hit the king with baton number six. Socks Sandals Science were not able to do anything with this “extra life” and they ended up giving an advantage line on their next turn. Holtz then wanted to make life challenging for Code Adam as he threw a penatly kubb on his next turn as inkastre. Luckily, it didn’t come back to bite them as they were able to clear the field, the penalty, and Holtz got redemption on his second king shot of the game.

So the Championship came down to game three, with Code Adam starting with the three baton open. As was par for the course in this championship match, the opening turn saw Code Adam go zero for three on 8 meter shots. And just like we saw in game two, the opposing team made them pay for it. Dolan went three for three to start their turn and Moore was able to add another baseline with his three batons to take a large four kubb lead. Unfortunately, this is where the wheels came off for the top seeded Code Adam. Holtz threw a good, but not great, group of four kubbs. Glorioso came up to the line and his first baton was a grasskicker, hitting the ground prior to the group and bouncing up over all the kubbs. His second baton went right through the middle of the pile, narrowing missing his target and not knocking any kubbs down. And his third baton was air-mailed, going over the pile and not clearing anything. Holtz stepped up with his three batons looking to clear the field and advance to the next turn. His first baton glanced off the side of a kubb, knocking it down, but not getting any action to clear any additional kubbs. Holtz then slid down the baseline towards the king to try to get a better angle to get a couple of doubles. However, with his second baton he was only able to clear one more kubb. Holtz only had a single baton left and two kubbs to clear that were not close to each other but he had a small chance of getting a double. He made a great effort, clearing the first kubb and the baton and the kubb richeted in the correct direction but neither would come in contact with the last field kubb and Code Adam would leave an advantage line. Dolan grouped them up nicely. Moore cleared the field with his three batons, leaving Dolan with three batons to get the last baseline and king. There was a discussion between teammates as at first Dolan didn’t want to take the advantage line to shoot at the last baseline. He told his partner that he trusted his 8 meter game. Moore was able to convince Dolan to use the advantage line. Dolan fired his first baton, but it missed! Spectators expected another discussion and perhaps Dolan to step back to the 8 meter line as he had been solid on 8 meter shots all day, but Dolan quickly reloaded and fired again from the advantage line. The baton gave a glancing blow to the last baseline kubb, it wobbled, stood back up, and then fell. The crowd was pleased, but Moore was even happier. Dolan stepped back to the baseline, slayed the king, and Socks Sandals Science became the 2021 Michigan Kubb Champions!

Final Results

Championship Bracket

1. Socks Sandals Science (Steve Dolan, Demian Moore) Minneapolis & St. Paul, MN
2. Code Adam (Cody Glorioso, Adam Holtz) Hartford & Chippewa Falls, WI
3. Kubbstaches (Bob Hickes, Jake Leavitt) Morgantown, PA
4. Arrostokubb (Phil Dickinson, Mark Weaver) Alanson & New Baltimore, MI

Silver Bracket

1. Thin Kubb Line (Matt Jacobucci, George Sloan) Batavia, IL
2. Settlers of Baton (Alan Bobalik, Mike Economy, Joey Wood) Kalamazoo & Portage, MI
3. Jiffy Squirrels (Bryan Jones, Neil Weakland) Monroe, MI & Kent, OH
4. Shores Kubb Club (Jeff Jablonski, Tyler Wood) Norton Shores & Wyoming, MI