2025 Urban Open

Jones Cup

Friday, August 1st | Evening

Jones Cup is a unique doubles format featuring mixed gender teams, and each match between two teams consists of three rounds:

Round 1: Singles, best of 5 throws
Round 2: Singles, best of 5 throws
Round 3: Mixed doubles, best of 5 throws
- All rounds will be scored under IATF Premier Rules.

Jones Cup features two stages: a Group Stage and a Single Elimination Bracket. Teams are randomly placed in groups of 4 and face-off against each of the other 3 teams in their group in a round-robin format. Each team plays 3 matches in their Round Robin group before any elimination occurs. The top two teams in each group progress from the Group Stage of the event to the Single Elimination tournament, and the winners are crowned the Jones Cup King and Queen!

Skills Events

Friday August 1st | Evening following Jones Cup

Red, Blue, & White (Individual Skill)

First introduced at our Red, White, & Bullseyes tournament, this individual Skill is a race to close three targets in succession: first the red line, then the blue line, and last the white Premier Clutch box. Each throw must "touch paint" in order to score, and players have 15 throws to progress through red, blue, and white in order and are ranked by which thrower completed the goal in the least number of throws.

Throw Types

Players can choose between Normal Hatchet, 1.5 Rotation, and Underhand throws while attempting to score the red, blue, & white targets. Each throw type offers a different scoring bonus based on its difficulty, and it allows players of different skill sets to choose the path that best suits their throw:

Normal Hatchet (Single Rotation): Scores 1 pt each time a throw touches a target area.
1.5 Rotation: Scores 2 pts each time a throw touches a target area.
Underhand: Scores 3 pts each time a throw touches a target area.

Scoring

3 points must be scored at each target value (red line, blue line, & white Premier Clutch box) before players may advance to the next target in order. This means a player throwing Normal Hatchet would need to touch the red line 3 times in order to score 3 pts and advance to the blue line target, whereas a player throwing 1.5 Rotation would only need to touch the red line 2 times to advance. A player throwing Underhand can score all 3 pts needed to advance to the next target by touching the red line only 1 time. Regardless of throw type, players have a maximum of 15 throws to attempt to close all 3 targets before the game ends.

Changing Throws

Players can select any of the 3 throw types with which to begin the game, and throwers may change throw types mid-round if they choose. Changing throws can be necessary if they begin to run out of remaining throws, as switching to a higher scoring throw type like 1.5 Rotation (2 pts) or Underhand (3 pts) may allow them to still close the rest of the targets in less throws.

However, throwers may only switch from Normal Hatchet to 1.5 Rotation or from 1.5 Rotation to Underhand during the round. They cannot switch to Normal Hatchet if already throwing 1.5 Rotation or Underhand, and they cannot switch to 1.5 Rotation if already throwing Underhand. As such, there are advantages and disadvantages for each throw type:

Normal Hatchet: Slow & steady; takes a minimum of 9 throws to close all 3 targets, but offers an easier Premier Clutch throw and can to switch to 1.5 Rotation or Underhand if needed.
1.5 Rotation: Faster progress; takes a minimum of 6 throws to close all 3 targets, but has a slightly more difficult Premier Clutch throw and can only switch to Underhand if needed.
Underhand: Fastest option; takes a minimum of only 3 throws to close all 3 target values, but has the most difficult Premier Clutch throw and no option to switch to another throw type.

Red, Blue, & White is a well-balanced game allows players of different skill sets to choose a strategy that best suits their throw. Choose the path that suits you and race to the top!

Variety Show Yahtzee (Team SKill)

This event features of teams of 4 trying to score 6 specific areas of the IATF target.

Round 1: 1 point ring

Round 2: 3 point ring

Round 3: Bullseye

Round 4: Zero (Blades must stick in zero point region of the 3 target boards)

Round 5: Straight (Players must elect to throw either a 1, 3, 5, or Clutch)

Round 6: Clutch

Teams receive points when all 4 players successfully hit the target area for the round within 3 throws. Each missed attempt by an individual player loses 10 points, and if any player misses the target area 3 times in a row, the team scores no points for that round.

Variety Show Yahtzee adds the additional fun and challenge of assigning each player a different throw they must use in all 6 rounds. Teams will throw Big Axe, Underhand, 1.5 rotation, and Premier hatchet, with one player of the team assigned to each type of throw.

At the end of the game, the points and deductions accumulated by each team are used to calculate their final score and rank them among all the teams competing. The top 2 teams will play again in the event finals.

Urban Rules Tiered Swiss

Saturday, August 2nd | All Day

This one-of-a-kind tournament is comprised of three elements that require some explanation, so let's break it down.

Tiered Tournaments

All throwers competing in Urban Rules Tiered Swiss tournaments will buy the same ticket and register for the same event. Throwers will then be ranked by their IATF average; 12-month Standard and Premier averages will be adjusted for comparison and throwers with both averages will be ranked by the higher of their two averages. For WATL throwers, we will calculate an equivalent IATF average for use in this ranking.

The resulting average ranking is used to split the players into their respective tiers, and the number of tiers and how many throwers are in each will be determined by the amount of registrations we receive for this event.

We've found our Tiered Tournaments to be some of the most exciting and popular events at the Urban Open and other Urban Axes tournaments. We believe they represent one of the best ways to make sure that ALL levels of throwers can experience a competitive tournament environment, and we all love cheering on throwers as they experience the thrill of appearing in their first tournament finals.

Urban Rules

As their name suggests, the Urban Rules Tiered Swiss tournaments are played under Urban Rules, our new scoring system which combines elements of the IATF Premier and Standard rulesets. We introduced Urban Rules with the goal of allowing throwers of differing ability levels to throw together under the same ruleset at our events. We've run many Urban Rules tournaments and made updates to the ruleset thanks to the feedback of throwers at the Urban Open and other events. Click here to view the current ruleset.

The key differences in Urban Rules are the 2, 4, and 6 point values it introduces into the target. A Premier bullseye remains 5 points, but an axe that crosses the black line between a bullseye and a three receives 4 points. Similarly, a blade crossing the red line between the three and one receives 2 points. For Clutches, a touch Clutch scores 6 points and a Premier Clutch scores 7 point.

Swiss Tournaments

Urban Swiss is a tournament format we've hosted at many Urban Axes events over the past few years. This format allows us to provide more matches to all the throwers that enter. Urban Swiss is a two-stage tournament comprised of a Round Robin and a Single Elimination Bracket.

The Round Robin portion of the Swiss format is non-eliminating, so everyone who enters is guaranteed to play a set minimum number of matches; this number is dependent on registrations, but we aim for a minimum of 5 matches per player. No more 0-2! The Swiss format is also self-leveling, so opponents in each round will have the same (or a very similar) win/loss record, offering more evenly skilled matches as the Swiss tournament progresses. To learn more, read our blog post explaining the Swiss tournament format and player strategy.

Our Swiss tournaments will be divided into brackets of up to 32 players, which allows us to finish the Round Robin with 1 undefeated competitor from each bracket. Players are then ranked by their 1) Match Wins/Losses, 2) Rounds Won, 3) TB (Tiebreaker), and 4) Rounds Lost, with the top throwers advancing to a Single Elimination bracket. We then play through the Single Elimination bracket until a champion from each tier is crowned!

Morning and Afternoon Sessions

We want to accommodate as many throwers as possible in our Urban Rules Tiered Swiss tournaments and will likely run morning and afternoon Swiss sessions as we did the past two years of this event.

Once we know how many throwers will be competing, we will split the field as appropriate and notify everyone of the timeslot and tier in which they will be throwing. Some throwers will arrive early but have the afternoon off to relax, and some throwers will have the morning off and will play in the afternoon and evening. The morning and afternoon sessions will allow us to include the most throwers with less overcrowding while still providing everyone more matches for their money! The tournament finals for all tiers will take place after the afternoon Swiss session has concluded, so all throwers that advance will need to be present Saturday evening.

Urban Open

Sunday, August 3rd | Daytime

This is the flagship event of the tournament weekend and the one that started it all. The Urban Open will be played as a random-seeded, double elimination tournament. The tournament begins on Sunday morning, and we will work our way through the bracket until we reach the finals in the late afternoon. This event will be scored under the updated IATF Premier Rules but is open to throwers of all ability levels. It presents a great opportunity experience the scale and challenge of a major tournament like the International Axe Throwing Championship but in an open tournament with no qualification required.

In addition to prize money, the winner of the Urban Open receives the Clutch Jacket and joins the ranks of throwers such as Stefan Herda, Mike Kump, Shane Shep, Joe Nessler, Cameron Dubrow, and Will Gelatko. It's a coveted trophy representing a significant accomplishment, and you could be the one to wear it home this year!