Urban Open Ladyblades + Urban Madness

Urban Open Ladyblades and Urban Madness return to Urban Axes Durham January 12 - 14! This will be another action-packed weekend as we enjoy competition and camaraderie while celebrating women in the sport of axe throwing! So come throw some bullseyes in the Bull City and see who is crowned a champion!

Our tournament weekend will feature fun Skills events on Friday evening, two Urban Open Ladyblades tournaments on Saturday, and our Urban Madness tournament on Sunday. Ladyblades events will be women*'s only tournaments and Urban Madness will be open to everyone. Both tournaments have been designated Majors for the IATF Tournament Circuit,  so the winners will each be reserved a spot in Round 2 of the International Axe Throwing Championship!

Tickets go on sale Nov. 2nd at 7:00 PM EST!

* Ladyblades is an inclusive definition and we welcome cis/trans women, genderqueer women and non-binary individuals who identify as a woman in a way that is significant to them.

Urban Axes events are run on the values of Inclusivity, Equality, Respect, Diversity and Fair Play. All participants are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with our League Values.

 

Urban Open Ladyblades

We wanted to craft a tournament that catered to the interests of as many Ladyblades as possible, and we conducted polls to determine the tournament formats and rulesets most desired by Ladyblades competitors. As a result, we are offering two events this year: a Double-Elimination, Premier rules tournament and a Swiss + Single-Elimination, Urban Rules tournament. Both events will take place on Saturday, January 13th and will be played concurrently.

Unlike our traditional tournament tiers, both Ladyblades tournaments will be open registration so players can choose the event type or IATC qualification prize they prefer. If we have sufficient Swiss sign-ups to support an additional tournament bracket, the Swiss + Single Elimination tournament will be split and tiered by average as well.

Ladyblades Premier Double-Elimination

The Ladyblades Premier Double-Elimination tournament will begin with best 3-of-5 round matches and will progress to best 4-of-7 round matches before A bracket finals. Big Axe tiebreakers may occur at the end of each tied 5-throw round, and both hatchet and Big Axe will be played under full Premier rules (no-bleed bullseye, Premier Clutch) throughout the tournament. The tournament will be played from start to finish on Saturday, and throwers will progress through the A and B brackets until they have taken two losses or are crowned champion. This event is an IATF Major, meaning the winner will secure a spot in Round 2 of the International Axe Throwing Championship, and the second, third, and fourth place finishers will reserve a spot in an upcoming IATF Grand Slam tournament.

Ladyblades Urban Rules Swiss

The Ladyblades Urban Rules Swiss tournament utilizes the Swiss + Single-Elimination format Urban Axes has been developing, and our new Urban Rules scoring. Each competitor is guaranteed to throw 5 matches before any elimination occurs, and each successive match will be played against a thrower with the same or very similar win/loss record (2-0, 1-1, etc.), ensuring matches become more balanced with each successive round. The tournament will be played under Urban Rules, our scoring system which utilizes the “no-bleed” bullseyes and Premier Clutches of the Premier ruleset while adding intermediate scoring values of 4 & 2 and points for touch Clutch. We recently updated the rules to award 6 points for a touch Clutch and 7 points for a Premier Clutch, and you can find the fully updated ruleset here.

Matches in the Swiss portion will be best 3-of-5, with each round going to Big Axe to determine a winner in tied rounds. After 5 rounds of matches, players are ranked by their wins and losses throughout the Swiss portion, with additional tiebreakers for throwers with the same record. The top throwers will then advance to the Single-Elimination bracket portion of the tournament; this is often the top 8 or top 16 throwers, though the number of advancing throwers will be determined by signups and announced prior to the event. The seeded Single-Elimination bracket will run until a champion is reached! The winner of this tournament will reserve a spot in an additional IATC tournament, as determined by the IATF prior to IATC 2024.

Urban Madness

Urban Madness is open to all throwers and will be played on Sunday, January 14th. It will be a Swiss + Single-Elimination tournament played under Urban Rules, and its format will be the same the Ladyblades Urban Rules Swiss tournament described above. We expect this event will have enough competitors to divide the field into multiple Swiss tournaments. After the Swiss tournaments are complete, the top throwers from each Swiss tournament will be combined into a single bracket and will then advance to the seeded Single-Elimination portion of the tournament. Like in Ladyblades, the number of advancing throwers will be determined by signups and announced prior to the event. Urban Madness is also an IATF Major, meaning the winner will secure a spot in Round 2 of the IATC, and the second and equal-third place finishers will reserve a spot in an upcoming IATF Grand Slam tournament.

Skills + after party

We will be offering Skills events and an After Party as well, for which tickets and details will be announced at a later date. Check back on this page or RSVP to our Facebook event to be kept up to date on all future announcements!

Weekend Schedule

This is the broad strokes of our tournament schedules. Event start times and other details will be announced prior to the event.