West Coast Kubb Championships 2023 Recap

SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. — The L.A. Kubb Club hosted to 31 teams on Sunday, April 23 for the seventh annual West Coast Kubb Championships. Mother Nature provided a beautiful, sunny SoCal day that was warm, but not too warm. The morning started with six rounds of Klassic system matches. Players were treated to an on-site taco vendor for lunch, followed by the start of bracket play.

The top eight teams were placed in the Championship Bracket, with the remaining teams filling in the Silver Bracket. The first two rounds were held at Orange Grove Park like the rest of the tournament. The finals match of both the Silver and Championship Brackets then moved to a nearby private residence for food, drinks, and of course kubb spectating!

Things kicked off with the Silver Bracket finals, featuring L Cool J (Julie Halverson, Larry Wingard) and Busick Boys (Austin Busick, John Busick). It was a back-and-forth affair with hot and cold streaks, that ultimately took three games to crown L Cool J. An archived live-stream is available on Facebook.

The Championship Bracket finals match was a local showdown between the L.A. Kubb teams, Kubbix Rubes (Marshall Dostal, John Pettersson) and Lumber Liquidators (Ben Petrillo, Julian Petrillo). Both teams had seen the podium before, and both teams were eager to take that top spot (and a year’s worth of club bragging rights).

The Petrillos came out hot in game one with a two-for-two open. The Kubbix Rubes couldn’t quite keep pace though. A few turns later, Lumber Liquidators made quick work of their last couple baseline kubbs with a spare baton to topple the king, winning game one.

In game two, things started a little more even, with both teams adding a baseline kubb or two per turn. The last 8 meter was a little troublesome for Lumber Liquidators, and took a couple turns and a handful of batons to finally knock down. They did manage to nab it before Kubbix Rubes caught up. With nine kubbs in play, Julian Petrillo drilled a tidy pile, including a neighbor. During setup, there was one kubb that ended up being out, and upon a re-throw, Julian nearly got a second neighbor! He cleared in two batons, leaving four batons to slay the king. Ben Petrillo only needed one though, knocking down the king and winning the 2023 West Coast Kubb Championships!

Final Results

Championship

1. Lumber Liquidators (Ben Petrillo, Julian Petrillo)
2. Kubbix Rubes (Marshall Dostal, John Pettersson)
3. Nuns of Antarctica (T.J. Bednash, Collin Troy)
4. Kubb Nerds (Dee Dee Halvorson, Jason Halvorson)

Silver

1. L Cool J (Julie Halverson, Larry Wingard)
2. Busick Boys (Austin Busick, John Busick)
3. Old Dogs, New Tricks (Brett Barnard, Eric Neu)
4. Kubbid-19 (Eddie Leh, Brian Mahler, Coleman Nelson)