BELOIT, Wisconsin — Beloit was the center of the kubb universe on Aug. 9 as it hosted the 2025 Beloit Kubb Open. This year marked the eleventh kubb tournament just north of the Illinois and Wisconsin border. The event is owned and managed by Visit Beloit and run by tournament director Dan Ivanuck. The tournament is currently held at Harry C. Pohlman Field, which is a minor league baseball field built in 1982 and was the home of the Beloit Snappers until July 2021. This year, organizers decided to hold the event later in the day so that it could finish underneath the lights of the stadium. Play kicked off at 2 PM and finished around 10 PM.
A field of 40, two-player only teams from eight different states (Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Kansas, Nebraska, and Florida) competed and there was even a player from Costa Rica.
Visit Beloit used the U.S. National Kubb Championship ruleset with three exceptions:
- 45 degree allowance for baton tosses
- Neighbor rule for elevated kubbs
- If a raised kubb touched any painted line, it was considered out-of-bounds. It must be raised 100 percent inbounds. No corner or baseline stakes were used, only paint.
The hottest and most humid part of the day saw the completion of seven qualifying rounds to determine championship bracket and consolation bracket seeding. The top 16 teams would compete for the top prize, while all remaining teams would have a shot at redemption in the three consolation brackets.
After seven rounds, these were the 16 teams moving onto the championship bracket:
- Do You Respect Wood (Lars Arneson, Jesse Fraim) – Score: 18 (Opponent Score: 99.5)
- Chaska Noisemakers (Trevor Bailey, Jason Larson) – Score: 18 (Opponent Score: 92.5)
- Flux Capacitors (Joe Dekan, John Ellingsen) – Score: 16.5 (Opponent Score: 92.5)
- Friends of Dave (Steve Dolan, Chad Stute) – Score: 15 (Opponent Score: 104)
- Lollipop Guild (Matt Green, Jake Skerletts) – Score: 15 (Opponent Score: 89.5)
- Kubb Snipers (J.R. Hrejsa, Joe Hrejsa) – Score: 15 (Opponent Score: 84)
- Walter Nelson: Beloit Legend (Hans Nelson, Noah Nelson) – Score: 15 (Opponent Score: 80)
- Gleaming the Kubb (Bill Rausch, Patrick Woods) – Score: 14 (Opponent Score: 85)
- Keeper of the Kubbs (Dalton Miller, Kyle Stucky) – Score: 13.5 (Opponent Score: 81.5)
- DMK (Josh Feathers, Chris Hodges) – Score: 13 (Opponent Score: 75)
- Kubbcettes (Barb Lancette, Ben Lancette) – Score: 12 (Opponent Score: 90)
- Fisting Krakens (Bryce Pecore, Scott Taylor) – Score: 12 (Opponent Score: 84)
- The King is Dead (Dan Figliomeni, Jonathan Nicholson) – Score: 12 (Opponent Score: 83)
- Sons of Waffles (Adam Holtz, Jeff Rodgers) – Score: 12 (Opponent Score: 78)
- Lawn Bros (Andy Terveer, Brad Vock) – Score: 12 (Opponent Score: 74)
- Taste the Biscuit (Brian Beling, George Sloan) – Score: 12 (Opponent Score: 71)
The seventeenth ranked team, Kubb Sweat and Beers (Andreas Gronlun, John Timm), just missed the Championship Bracket as they also had a team score of 12 but had a slightly lower opponent score of 61.
The number one seed was edged out by Arneson and Fraim as they tied Bailey and Larson in team score, but had a slightly better opponent score. Chaska did prove that they did not Respect Wood, as in qualifying, they defeated Arneson and Fraim handedly in round six. Friends of Dave (Stute and Dolan) defeated Chaska in round three, ensuring there would be no perfect records through qualifying and that the top two seeds in the tournament both had one loss.
There were some fireworks in the opening round of the playoffs, as both the number one seed (Do You Respect Wood) and the number two seed (Chaska Noisemakers) found themselves going to a third game in their respective matches. While Fraim and Arneson found a way past Taste the Biscuit (Beling and Sloan) and advanced to the second round, Andy Terveer and Brad Vock (with Lawn Bros seeded 15) would complete some stellar play to pull an upset over the second seeded Chaska team.
Other upsets in the first round were the number tenth seeded DMK (Feathers and Hodge) defeating the seventh seeded Walter Nelson: Beloit Legend (Hans and Noah Nelson) and ninth seeded Keeper of the Kubbs with a slight upset of number eight Gleaming the Kubb.
In the 1uarter-finals, the first seed handled Keepers (Miller and Stucky) in two games, however Keepers had batons in hand to win game one but came up short. Fourth seeded Friends of Dave (Stute and Dolan) and the fifth seeded Lollipop Guild (Green and Skerletts) competed in a three-game slugfest, which saw the higher seed come out victorious. Third seeded Flux Capacitors took out the father and son team of the number six Kubb Snipers (JR and Joe Hrejsa). Fifteenth seeded Lawn Bros (Terveer and Vock) used all their magic up in round one and come up on the short end of a 2-0 loss to the tenth seeded DMK (Feathers and Hodges).
The semi-finals moved to fresh pitches on the infield grass and underneath the lights which were now in full effect. The match featuring the number one seed and the finals were live-streamed through Kubb On’s Facebook page, but ran into some technical difficulties. Coverage was spotty at times and I had no idea that the audio was turned off. So those that watched at home ended up watching in complete silence—sorry about that.
Top-seeded Do You Respect Wood? (Arneson/Fraim) defeated fourth seeded Friends of Dave 2-1 over three games. Friends of Dave would take a somewhat easy game one victory, but Fraim and Arneson would find their 8 meter game early in the second game and carry that momentum into the third game, where they were able to put Stute and Dolan away.
In the other semi-final, Dekan and Ellingsen were just too much for Feathers and Hodges, so Flux Capacitors made it into the finals with a 2-0 victory.
The finals started very similarly to the semi-finals for Do You Respect Wood? They started off cold on 8 meter shots, going 0-2 on the opening turn. The Flux Capacitors were able to get out to a lead as Dekan and Ellingsen both went 1-2 on their opening four baton turn. Teams traded kubbs and turns back and forth until there were eight kubbs in play, with one baseline left for each team. The number one seed got the first chance to win, but Fraim had trouble with the clear, and Arneson had to use two of his three batons to clear the field. Lars was able to clear the final baseline with his third baton, but the team could not win that turn. Joe Dekan said enough was enough and threw in a great group of nine kubbs, cleared in three batons, and left the drama of the last baseline to his partner, John Ellingsen. While the first baton snuck by the baseline without impact, the second baton was true, crushing the last baseline and putting Flux in position to win game one. John’s last baton slayed the King and Flux had a one game lead and held the advantage going into game two.
The second game saw Dekan and Ellingsen start their opening turn 0 for 2 on 8 meter shots, leaving an opening for Arenson and Fraim to take a big lead. Fraim would step forward first and go two-for-two on his baselines shots, followed by two more baselines taken out by Arneson on his two baton round. Joe Dekan threw in the four kubbs and cleared them all with his three batons, but John Ellingsen suddenly went cold and missed all three of his 8 meter shots. Looking for an early kill, Fraim threw two aggressive re-throws on his field kubbs, and ended up with one penalty kubb! Flux decided to put the kubb at an odd distance on the other side of the pitch (away from the field kubbs) and hope that would be enough to get them another turn. It took Fraim two batons to clear the three field kubbs and then his attention turned to the punishment kubb sitting about 7 meters away from him. He was able to clear that penalty and give Lars three batons to get the last baseline kubb and the king. Lars narrowly missed with his first baton but came back and cleared the last baseline with his second baton. He then used his last baton to slay the King and tie up the match 1-1.
The momentum swung back to the number one seed for the start of game three, and they had the first two batons. After starting 0-2 in game one (and Flux starting 0-2 in game two), Arneson and Fraim both connected with their opening tosses to start 2-2 on 8 meters and break the trend. Flux took two batons to clear two kubbs on the first turn and they did not connect on either of the two batons at 8 meters. Looking to take advantage, Fraim was able to clear but used two batons to do so, leaving the team four 8 meter shots. Arneson was able to connect with two of his three batons at 8 meters, allowing his team to take a big lead and press Flux to the edge. Dekan and Ellingsen ran into some tough luck clearing out the field and had to use five batons to clear the four field kubbs and they were able to knock down one baseline with their sixth baton. Looking to close out the match, Fraim tossed in five kubbs, but he also ran into tough luck clearing the field. While four of the five field kubbs were lined up nicely, Fraim’s first baton was slightly right and it took out the back two kubbs which left the first two kubbs standing. The second baton crashed into the right side of the kubbs, knocking one over, but the other rocked and stood back up. This left two field kubbs remaining for the third baton. With batons in hand, Fraim took a safe route of getting one for sure, which left one remaining field kubb for Arneson and he cleared that with ease. A baseline and a King was that was left, but the #1 seed would need to wait at least another turn as Arenson missed on his second baton, but connect with his third giving this team a clear baseline.
Flux’s tough luck would continue another turn as it took Dekan and Ellingsen all six of their batons to clear the six field kubbs. While the pile was a little wide, they ran into a lot of tough luck on baton rotation and bounces. The last turn was not drama free, as Fraim threw in six kubbs and ended up slamming his first baton into the ground in front of the field kubbs and bouncing over the top of the pile of kubbs. His second baton would clear three field kubbs, leaving three more remaining. His third baton glanced off the junk in front and luckily took out one kubb off to the side. This left Arneson in a pickle with having to clear two field kubbs with junk in the way and the king to win. If he was nervous about it, he didn’t show it at all as he stepped up with full confidence and got the field kubb double with his first baton! His second baton slayed the king, leaving Do You Respect Wood as the 2025 Beloit Kubb Open champions.
Final Results
Championship Bracket
- Do You Respect Wood (Lars Arneson, Jesse Fraim)
- Flux Capacitors (Joe Dekan, John Ellingsen)
- DMK (Josh Feathers, Chris Hodges)
- Friends of Dave (Steve Dolan, Chad Stute)
Consolation A
- Sons of Waffles (Adam Holtz, Jeff Rodgers)
- Chaska Noisemakers (Trevor Bailey, Jason Larson)
- The King is Dead (Dan Figliomeni, Jonathan Nicholson)
- Kubbcettes (Barb Lancette, Ben Lancette)
Consolation B
- The Darkness: Huginn (Jenny Linge, Shane Linge)
- A.M. Lumber (Jeff Gary, Garth Peterson)
- Something Clever (Brett Bauer, Doug Fetterman)
- Sons of Kubb (John Arneson, Todd Fossum)
Consolation C
- Executive Session (Matt Bosen, Jeff Vohs)
- Feeling Kubby (Wayne Fell, James Hanson)
- Kubbra Kai (Ed Mueller, ???)
