Pro Shootout #1 Recap
This past Friday was the ACL Pro Shootout #1 in Salt Lake. In the Women’s Singles bracket Cheyenne Renner won 21-0 over Chelsea Hubbard, Jamie Graham won Men’s Singles 14-6 over Tanner Halbert, and Bret Guy and Erick Davis won 11-5 in sudden death overtime. So, by my count, that’s another two big wins for Fire Cornhole (am I on their payroll yet?) on the national stage, so everyone can continue disrespecting them at their own risk. Anyway, I watched all of these in depth in case you missed it or enjoy a nerdier in-depth breakdown? Might just be me.
I’ll start with the ladies, and the Women’s World #1 Cheyenne Renner played like it, with six straight perfect rounds from round 3 to 8. Hubbard started out with back-to-back washes, notably with a round one airmail drag to save it. However, Cheyenne quickly started to abuse Hubbard’s block attempts and took control, averaging an 11 to Chelsea Hubbard’s 7.125 (in round 8 she threw a 3 but the game was out of hand, a 7.7 without it). Personally, I'm hoping we see more of Hubbard (ranked #229) in 2022, who started out with a bit of a surprise with the airmail drag and the wash in round 2, but wasn’t able to hold up as Renner reminded us all why she’s #1.
Next up, Men’s World #1 Jamie Graham facing the #6 Tanner Halbert. Now, the final score was 14-6, but this game was a lot closer than that early on. Graham swapped to the slower Fire Assaults for this game after voicing complaints about the boards previously being too quick, and for the first five rounds, he was down 5-1 and struggling, averaging an 8.8 PPR (I say that like I'm not amped about an 8.8 PPR). However, much like the semifinal, in rounds 6-10, he dominated. Jamie shot a 12, 12, 10, 12, and with the game firmly in hand, a 9. Giving him a nice 11.3 PPR in round 6-10, which was a call back to his grinding semifinal performance, where he averaged a 9.8 in the first five rounds and a near perfect 11.6 in the final five, missing one bag. The tale of this game started in round six and seven, a 12-6 Jamie Graham round, with Tanner surprisingly leaving three bags on the board but not in play of the hole. In round seven, Tanner missed another two out of play, and Jamie had another four-bagger. We entered round six with Halbert up 5-1, and left round seven with Graham up 11-5. Two enormous rounds especially for a round limited match. In round eight, Tanner missed an airmail that he honestly had to go for, but that spelled the end of the match. Jamie only missed one bag in the final two rounds, an airmail attempt that would have been icing on the cake.
Finally, we have the return of Bret Guy and Erick Davis on the national stage. They were facing Jeremy Frazier and Dave Sutton, two faces I hadn’t heard of previously, but they threw like they’ve been there before and were not afraid to face two legends like Bret and Erick. Fun fact, I had JUST texted Sean Wednesday asking what the hell was going on with these guys so far. I didn’t even have time to call them out yet on an article and they already got a win on a national stage. So, it’s annoying that my original idea for content was shot, however, they were losing for 99% of this game, so are they really back? Bret and Erick were down 7-2 and averaging a 9.1 PPR up until round 10 against Sutton and Frazier’s 9.6 PPR. Sutton and Frazier had this game in hand, but Sutton threw one bag off the board and left one out of play. Enter Bret Guy. Surprise, there was an opportunity for a game changing shot and he made it. This win took a Bret Guy push shot to four-bag over Sutton’s 7-point round to force an overtime in the 10th round.
It should be noted, Davis also woke up in the overtime round, missing his first bag but playing a smart block, forcing a Frazier miss, and then pushing two of his in, ending up 10 over 4 in the only overtime round. I know I was singing the praises of Fire Cornhole earlier and now I'm being critical of these two, but they are talented enough to be in the finals of every big event and looked vulnerable in this match despite pulling out a win. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky.
-Andrew