ACO Starts Professional Cornhole Tour

AMERICAN CORNHOLE MAKES HISTORY!

The ACO-PRO Tour officially began Saturday August 25th, Downtown Cincinnati, OH, Fountain Square. We had sixteen of the best cornhole players from around the country square off in the first ever pro event sanctioned by the ACO. The event dubbed World Cornhole Championship was sponsored by Hudy Delight and benefitted the Easter Seals Work Resource Center of Cincinnati.

The tournament was an invitational in which players such as Steve Vanderver won their way in through ACO events like the Cornhole de Mayo or as other players Randy Atha and Eddie Bosse won skill challenge competitions held at several large ACO events, the Maize Craze at the Indiana State Fair and the Dayton Cornhole Classic.

The players started Saturday morning off by each receiving an official ACO-Pro jersey for the event, followed by individual photo shoots and then they moved directly into the tournament around 10:00am. At 10:00 the players each took turns throwing a single Frame Game to seed themselves. The Frame Game is where a player throws thirteen frames or fifty two bags trying to score the most possible out of the hundred and fifty six points available. The player throwing the highest score becomes the number one seed for the tournament and the player throwingthe lowest score becomes the sixteen seed. The other players fall in between based on their individual Frame Game performance.

After a little over an hour worth of Frame Games the seedings and match ups were set:

1 Seed - Matt Guy - KY

16 Seed - Joe Balistrieri - WI

8 Seed - John Avery - KY

9 Seed - Geno Randazzo

4 Seed - Randy Atha - OH

13 Seed - Dennis Kouts - OH

5 Seed - Bernie George - PA

12 Seed - Dewi Dean - IN

2 Seed - Steve Vanderver - OH

15 Seed - Roy Sam - OH - 2 Seed

7 Seed - Ryan Labelle - SC
10 Seed Ben Price - FL

3 Seed - Mike Schaffer - OH

14 Seed - Charles True - KY

6 Seed - Eddie Bosse - OH

11 Seed - Mike Bailey - OH

We had some awesome first round match ups including the number three and four ACO SCR Score ranked players in the world, Mike Schaffer and Charles True.They took it to a third and deciding game with a 21 to 12 edging by Mike Schaffer over Charles True to move on to the Elite Eight.

Then came the match up between two of the contestants that traveled the furthest to compete - Ryan Labelle from South Carolina, battled Ben Price from Florida. Once again this match went three games before Ben Price was able to nudge past Ryan Labelle with a 21 - 17 victory moving on to the Elite Eight. This was a mild upset as Price had the lowest SCR Score ranking of all players in the tournament and was a ten seed playing a seven seed. This made for a fun match up to watch as both players battled until the end. Labelle was clearly disappointed with his performance but was an admiral looser as he cheered Price on in his Elite Eight match up against Steve Vanderver. Price however was done being the upset specialist as he ran into a buzz saw as Vanderver disrobbed him 21-0 and 21-0 to move into the Final Four.

The final four consisted of three of the top players in the cornhole world Matt Guy, Steve Vanderver, Randy Atha, and one suprise Eddie Bosse. Eddie turned some heads as he moved through very strong competition knocking off Mike Bailey in the first round and Mike Schaffer in the second round, both top eight ACO Ranked players. This was very impressive and refreshing to the players and fans to see a new face surface amongst the regulars. The sport is on the rise and the competition is heating up.

Matt Guy took care of business by beating Randy Atha to move forward to the championship round as did Steve Vanderver as he moved fairly easily through Eddie Bosse to make it to the final game as well.

It was business as usual for the reigning "King of Cornhole" as he clamped down hard, focused and didn't look back as he took Vanderver in two games to win the $3000.00 first place prize and become part of history again as the first player to win an ACO-Pro Tour Money tournament.

Congratulations and thanks to the players, fans, volunteers and friends of American Cornhole. It is with you that we will be able to continue growing this great sport across America and the world.

See you at the next big ACO Show!

GAME ON!

The Cornhole Dude.