Will the 2025 Rules Change Save the Sport?

On December 10th, 2024 Crazy Axes in Hanover, Massachusetts hosted a Recreational 2025 Rules Marathon/Tournament. The goal was for everyone to test out the new targets in real competition without the pressure of scoring averages or points expectations. 17 throwers from two states and all skill levels participated in this event. The outcome was a breath of fresh hope for the future of the sport.

It would be easy and lazy for me to write about the reactions using vague terms but that's not my style. I will be giving actual examples from the event to demonstrate what I and others witnessed and experienced.

2025 is way more competitive! Example: Jon Gratzer is a new player who has only competed in two leagues but he had a solid match against myself (A Top Amateur) and I had a bad match so he won 37-27. Then a couple matches later I had a solid match against Sean Hout (A Professional Thrower) and he had a bad match so I beat him 51-47.

That was a Rec thrower beating a Top Amateur who then beat a Pro. This would have been highly unlikely with 2024 rules. The gaps between the throwers have tightened allowing for these wilder possibilities. Now granted the three of us ended up where you would expect for the rest of the event with Jon near the bottom, myself in the upper mid and Sean on the top of the podium.

We're getting a boost of positive psychology. A feeling of fairness and hope is important because it means that the game becomes less intimidating for new entrants. Throwing towards the outer bulls and even killshots is no longer a paralyzing idea.

Example: My girl Iris has never hit a killshot after nearly a year of playing. However the new shape of the killshots made them appear larger even though they are the same size. With drops allowing you access to more killshots, she was less worried about missing. These changes encouraged her to take more chances so she hit four in the Marathon and one in the Tournament.

Players will be returning! It was well known that a certain number of players dropped off after trying the 2024 rules simply because they were not fun. A couple of those players Tommy Parnell and Steph "Goddess Ironside" Maben came to the event and appeared pretty happy with the new rules. Both of them walked away with winning records in the Marathon and both landed inside the top 12 of the tournament.

Ultimately it was a good time and that's the whole point. It feels better getting higher scores. It feels better knowing that you have a shot of winning even against tough opponents. It all just feels better and that might be exactly what is needed to build this sport.

Thanks to Nick Osterberg, the crew at Crazy Axes and everyone else who volunteered for putting on a great event. Thanks to all the New Hampshire throwers who made the trek down, it was great to see them again. Finally, congrats to the tournament winners 1. Sean Hout, 2. Stephen Thorgerson and 3. Jeff Coulton.

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Author Alex Hutchinson

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