2021 Throw Down
The definition of FOMO is….FEAR OF MISSING OUT and I speak for the HDP boys that this past weekend we had what I will call KNOWMOS- as in knowing we were missing out on Spencer’s.
Before we even get to the results of the tournament let’s just discuss the sheer juggernaut of a tournament that is Spencer Makenzie’s The Throw Down.
I first heard of the tournament about 3 years ago when I was in one of my late night alcohol induced YouTube cornhole binges and stumbled upon a video of Trevor Brooks and Jamie Graham taking on James Baldwin and Jordan Camba. I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen…..4 high plains drifters dueling it out in the streets of Ventura like a scene out of the cornhole version of the film Tombstone. Trevor Brooks would end up smashing a heart pounding airmail over Camba to pull out the win and some nice cash. As doc Holiday once said….”I’ll be your huckleberry”.
If you want to see how much the sport of Cornhole has grown in 3 short years look no further than the stunning growth of The Throw Down. In 2018 the tournament hosted 192 teams with a prize pool of $32,000 dollars and this year in 2021 they had over 1000 teams with over $230,000 in prize money up for grabs. Over 7X growth in prize money in 36 months…..and realize that this is coming out of(we hope) the first major pandemic in all of our lives. The game is simply exploding!
Star Power-
Are we still on planet earth? Just making sure because I thought I saw the stars of a major network TV show waltzing around Ventura snapping selfies with cornhole fans. It turns out the stars of SWAT Shemar Moore and David Lim are totally smitten with Cornhole just like the rest of us. A few zeros in our bank accounts might separate us but the boys from SWAT Cornhole were out on patrol and not as paid guests to add star power to the event. They simply seem to be huge fans of the game and have been found on social media hosting Tony Smith, Noah Wooten and the rest of their crew of killers in their weekly league. I guess that it was only a matter of time before the rich and famous realized what we already knew. Cornhole is the best game on the planet!
The Results and The Takeaways
Team Fire Cornhole(shameless plug for Dogcast Sponsor) once again reached the podium with one half of the winning team being comprised of (shocker) Wonderboy Erick Davis. On the other side of that team was Matt Sorrells and his short shorts reminding everyone in the world that he might sell Cadillacs in Florida on Thursdays but on Sundays he still snaps necks and cashes checks. Meanwhile Davis makes the argument that he can carry your grandmother to the podium as he has been in the winners circle with more partners than John Mayer this year. The kid simply is amazing and I remember Jason McCannon(owner of Fire) telling me in 2020 that he was the most talented player on the planet. I guess we are all seeing the truth behind that statement.
They ended up beating Belvin and Wooten(Team Wookam…..because the First Couple of Cornhole is worthy of a nickname) to take the cake. The question has been poised on Social Media of whether Belvin and Noah should play together next season even though Tony Smith and Noah are slated as partners. For now I would like to see Tony and Noah crush souls flopping and rolling people to death on the boards but I firmly believe Kam Belvin to be a top 5 talent in the league. Sean is probably reading this on the Cape shaking his head but when you go on vacation this is what you get!
Let’s not forget that Tony Smith took 4th place with Derrick King in an extremely strong performance from Tony. Smith is a well known Northeast hero around the Dogcast fans and I believe he breaks out in major fashion this season. Take that for what it’s worth as I also believe Tom Brady will win every time he puts on a helmet…..but he kind of always does so…..
Jay Rubin and Trevor Brooks are a match made in heaven and I wish with the heat of a thousand suns that they were pro partners for next season. They had unreal chemistry and Air Rubin was throwing straight GAS into the wind during the late matches proving that he really does have the flattest bag in America. The testosterone flying between those two during that match was like a WWE tag team event! The boys ended up tying for 5th place but in my mind they were “The SHOW” of the weekend. I spoke with Jay this morning and in regards to the wind he said “Seriously, when it gusted at its max it made the top elite players including myself look human! Throwing 5’s and 6’s at times was an accomplishment!” As someone who has played some side matches with Jay that must have been some wind!
I think one of the biggest stories of the weekend was the young blood of Massachusetts own Jacob “Trigger” Trzcienski and Berklee Pair tying Rubin and Brooks for 5th. They were also part of the crew cup team with Rubin and Brooks taking 2nd in that event. Both these players have been making waves on the scene but for them to come out in the top 6 teams in an event like this is simply insane. Although I don’t know Berklee, I have been lucky enough to play and hang with Jacob on several occasions. He is an amazing player with a strong competitive spirit but an extremely respectful and humble guy. I spoke with him this morning and in regard to asking about nerves in that tournament he replied “I love being in that position and I don’t run from it.” Repping New England like a straight legend.
Obviously Cather and Zafft played amazing as well showing out in 3rd place in the A bracket but it was probably The Gore Boys who really stole the show. These are CHILDREN and they came in tied for 9th place! 9th PLACE!!!!! Most kids that age can’t make themselves dinner much less tackle the best cornhole players on the planet(I should know my son is one of them)! I don’t know what my man Scotty Gore is putting in their Honey Nut Cheerios but I gotta find out where I can score some!
Powered By Scoreholio
My wife has a background in event management and when I showed her some of the videos and pictures her reply was “THAT is a massive undertaking from the event management side of things”. I was able to speak with Ben Budhu from Scoreholio this morning and he was emphatically speaking about how well run the entire event is. Hat’s off to Joe and Becky Schwartz and the whole team from OV Cornhole for all their hard work over the weekend……what an amazing job.
The event was powered by the brain child of Ben and Nick Contino’s Scoreholio tournament software. The next up feature was critical in having teams properly alerted and ready to jump on the courts to keep the event moving in a timely fashion. The software itself is amazing and it seems every month they add a new feature to make it even better than before.
Ben said on the phone today- “The whole event was so amazing and such a massive undertaking. Joe, Becky and Ricky did an amazing job and we were so happy to be part of the team making Spencer’s an amazing event.” I think it’s pretty clear that Scoreholio can make running a tournament of any size a massive success.
Equal Playing Field
I can’t stress enough how awesome it is that they all throw Slide Rite bags. This is absolutely one of the coolest aspects of the tournament as NONE of the bags have been played in and you are throwing them right out of the box. No one can complain about how their bags were playing on that day given the conditions because they ALL played that way!
2022 Spencer’s
I can assure everyone out there that the team at HDP will NOT be watching The Throw Down from the sidelines in 2022.We plan to be out in the sun in Ventura throwing bags with our people, sipping champagne with Shemar Moore and cranking tunes on epic Boom Boxes while crushing the best fish tacos in the USA.
I can’t imagine that not happening!
I’ll leave you with a text I got from my good friend Shorty Kan of the famous Massachusetts Cornhole Crew – The Ricebaggers. He texted me, “You gotta go next year. If you love Cornhole that’s the tournament to be at once a year.”
Wise words from a wise man.
Be well!- Brendan
