Michigan Kubb Championship 2023 Recap

PORTAGE, Mich. — The fourth annual Michigan Kubb Championship took place on Saturday, June 17 at Lakeview Park in Portage. There were 10 teams from five states represented (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin). Southwest Michigan has been in drought conditions, which made for some challenging playing conditions. The grass was largely brown and crispy that played very firm and bouncy. Otherwise, it was a beautiful weather day with abundant sunshine, a high of 81 degrees, with a light and variable breeze.

Tournament director Jesse Fraim used the U.S. National Kubb Championship ruleset with the addition of the Neighbor Rule and the ability to throw three batons in a row. The tournament used Keystone Kubb’s Tournament Director software but used the Kubb Count Scoring format instead of the Klassic System. Instead of getting points based on a Win, Loss, or Tie, the winning team each game would receive 6 points while the losing team would receive one point for each baseline kubb they had eliminated off their opponent’s baseline. This scoring system is now an option in the Tournament Director software and we would love to get more feedback and data to see how this scoring system is received moving forward.

The day kicked off with five rounds of best-of-one games for qualifying. All rounds were completed prior to lunch break. At the lunch break, the leaderboard was:

The top eight teams made the Championship Bracket while the two remaining teams were placed in the Silver Bracket and waited on the first round championship bracket losing teams to fill out the Silver Bracket.

The first round of the playoffs went to the higher seeds, except for the four versus five showdown of Illinois teams. Learning from previous year’s lessons, Tournament Director Jesse Fraim placed a time limit on the first round of the playoffs, and these two teams played right up to the limit. Energy City Kubb (Brian Beling, Dan Figliome) would defeat Something Clever (Brett Bauer, Doug Fetterman) in three games to advance to the semi-final. 

The semi-finals saw the number one seed Kubb Snipers (Matt Green, Joe Hrejsa, J.R. Hrejsa) defeat Energy City Kubb 2-0, while number two seed Spence & Glori (Cody Glorioso, Spencer Ollmann) ran into a buzzsaw named Bob Hickes. They were defeated 2-0 by the Kubbstaches (Bob Hickes, Bryan Jones) and were thrown into the third-place match.

The finals match, which was live-streamed on Kubb On’s Facebook page, was between the first seed Kubb Snipers versus third seed Kubbstaches. In game one, Kubbstaches got off to a nice lead, only needing to eliminate one more baseline kubb while the Snipers still had three baselines remaining. However, that lead would evaporate over the next few turns as the Staches would leave an advantage line. The Kubb Snipers wouldn’t win on that turn, but would clear their baseline. This allowed one more chance for Hickes and Jones to take game one. Hickes ran into some tough luck with his first two blasts, only connecting with three field kubbs. Jones stepped in to help clear some field kubbs before Hickes ultimately finished clearing the field with the rest of his batons. That left Jones one baton to clear the last baseline, but it was again left standing as he was unable to knock it down. With nine kubbs in play, J.R. Hrejsa threw a great pile and cleared eight field kubbs with his first blast. After a miss on J.R.’s next shot, Green stepped up, cleared the last field kubb, and then slayed the king. 

In game two, Kubbstaches started one for two. The Snipers couldn’t add any additional baselines on their first turn, but it didn’t cost them too much, as the Staches only added one additional baseline in their second turn. The Snipers had trouble clearing two field kubbs but still added a baseline kubb to push the game to three in play. Hickes cleared two of the three in his first blast, and Jones cleaned up the third with his first baton. He then went 0-2 on 8 meter shots, but teammate Hickes would add two additional baseline kubbs going two-for-two with his last batons. This left just one baseline kubb. The Kubb Snipers would run into some tough luck blasting on their next turn, taking five of their six batons to clear their group. Joe Hrejsa had one baton for an 8 meter shot, but missed. Hickes threw in his group of five kubbs, but the Kubbstaches also had tough luck blasting. They would take all six batons to clear the field, leaving the door open for the Kubb Snipers to try to make another comeback. J.R. Hrejsa was only able to clear three kubbs with his first two batons, while Green cleared the remaining two field kubbs on his turn. Joe Hrejsa was able to add an additional baseline kubb going one-for-two on 8 meter shots. Now with six kubbs in play, Hickes was determined to finish this game before the Snipers could get back into it. He drilled in a great group, blasted them all down with two batons, and nearly cleared the last remaining baseline. However, it just missed, and Jones stepped in and cleared the last baseline with his first baton, and slayed the king to tie up the match.

With that, the Championship came down to game three. The Snipers started 0-2 on the first turn and had to hold their breath as the Staches would have four batons to do as much damage as possible. Jones would go one-for-two and Hickes would nearly miss with both of his batons. Escaping that turn with minimal damage, the Snipers looked to take control with only one kubb in play with their first six baton turn. J.R. would drill the field kubb deeper than normal and out near the king to try to get a field kubb, baseline kubb double. You see this type of strategy where the blaster is looking to either push that field kubb back where it rolls backward and collides with a baseline kubb or where the baton strikes the field kubb and then ricochets backward and strikes a baseline kubb as well. In this case, J.R. Hrejsa was able to do both. He blasts the field kubb and it rolls back to take out a baseline kubb and the baton that struck the field kubb flew back toward the baseline and took out another baseline kubb. So this one blast by J.R. downed the field kubb and eliminated two baseline kubbs. That’s a shot very few people have ever achieved in this sport. The best part is that he didn’t even know the baton took out the second baseline. He was so pumped he got a field/base double that he was oblivious to what the baton did. Green added a baseline on his turn and Joe Hrejsa added another baseline on his turn, making it a four baseline turn. Suddenly finding themselves up against the wall, Hickes was now drilling five kubbs and needing a big turn to stay in the match. He was able to clear all but one field kubb with his first two batons and Jones used his first baton to clear the last field kubb. He then goes one-for-two with his last two batons, leaving the sixth baton to Hickes, who just barely misses. J.R. Hrejsa smelled blood in the water and is aiming to end the match right there. He throws in a great group of six kubbs and blasts all but one down with his first baton and easily clears the last kubb on his second throw. Green then steps up and eliminates the last baseline kubb with his first baton, and then slays the king with his last baton. The Kubb Snipers win the championship match 2-1 and became the 2023 Michigan Kubb Championship Champions!

Final Results

Championship Bracket

1. Kubb Snipers (Matt Green, Joe Hrejsa, J.R. Hrejsa)
2. Kubbstaches (Bob Hickes, Bryan Jones)
3. Spence & Glori (Cody Glorioso, Spencer Ollmann)
4. Energy City Kubb (Brian Beling, Dan Figliome)

Silver Bracket

1. Phyllis Driller (Mike Scheck, Mike Serdinak, Neil Weakland)
2. Something Clever (Brett Bauer, Doug Fetterman)
3. The Darkness – Fenrir (Jade Chaboyer, Ashley Morseth)