How To Run a Cornhole Tournament

How To Run a Cornhole Tournament

I think we can all agree that playing the game of cornhole is pretty awesome. You can pull out the bags and boards, a case of ice-cold beer and have a really great time.

But as soon as you start to get more than a couple of pairs together, murmurs of “tournament” can be heard on the wind.

At lease this is the case at our house. The next thing you know, my brother-in-law is running into the house for paper and a pen to create a bracket. The next thing you know, we are having a tournament!

Across the country cornhole tournaments are being played. Many of them are playing in backyards with little to no fanfare. Others, are played in stadiums in front of rowdy crowds (made up of friends and family)!

A very common tournament is the fundraiser. Cornhole is one of those games that unites communities, especially when someone from that community is in need.

So, whether you are looking to host a backyard tournament, fundraiser, work event or national championship, this post will help you pull it all together.

If you want an example of how exciting a professional cornhole tournament can be…check out this round from the COBS 2017 tournament.  (I find this a lot more exciting to watch than most of the crap you find on TV!)

We’ll look at the most common forms of tournaments in the post: Single Elimination, Double Elimination, Round Robin, and Playoffs.

Picking Teams

It is important to note that in most tournaments, teams of two players compete. If you are not familiar with how to play the game of cornhole, check this out.

For backyard tournaments, the teams are often spouses or siblings. We like to mix things up and draw names from a hat. This ensures that there isn’t one dominant duo that always ends up winning.

Single Elimination

In the single elimination format, teams are matched-up in a bracket format. (It is important to note that in most tournaments, teams of two compete.)

If any team loses a game, they are eliminated. No second chances (thus the Single in Single Elimination) The winning teams continues on until only one team remains (undefeated). They are the champs!Champ - King of the Cornhole World

The nice thing about this style of tournament is that it is fast. But be warned, if you have a lot of teams, being knocked out in the first round means a long wait until the next tournament begins. I recommend this form if you have 4-6 teams and you’re playing at a family and friends venue.

If you are trying to hold a fundraiser or professional tournament, this form will most likely not attract
a lot of teams. The reason… teams don’t want to risk the chance of driving to a tournament, losing one game and being knocked out.

One solution to this problem is to have a “best 2 out of 3”, where teams are guaranteed to play at least two games.

Here is an example bracket (click the bracket to create your own)

Single Elimination Cornhole Tournament

Double Elimination

In double elimination, teams are matched-up in a bracket format once again, only this time any team that loses two games is eliminated (each team is guaranteed to play at least two games). The winning teams continue to play until a winner is crowned (no longer does the champ have to be undefeated).

This form of tournament is very flexible. Let’s take a look as some of the variations you can create:

Variation 1 – Here was a winner’s bracket and a losers bracket. The winner will remain in the winner’s bracket as long as they keep winning games. The first time a team loses a game, the team is moved to the loser’s bracket. One more loss within the loser’s bracket and the team is eliminated. This means that even if a team loses in the first round, they have a chance to come back though the loser’s bracket and win it all!

Variation 2 – This is a fun variation and results in more games for the team. Instead of just playing one game, the teams play “best 2 out of 3” rounds. The team that is first to win two games moves to the next round. The loser moves to the loser’s bracket. As with variation 1, if the losing team loses one more round they are out of the tournament. You can choose to use “best 2 out of 3” for just the first round, or for all rounds in the tournament.

 

Here is an example bracket (click the bracket to create your own)
Double Elimination Cornhole Tournament

Round Robin

This format is easy to run, but can take a long time if there are a lot of teams. The reason for this is that all of the teams will play each other. And then the team with the most wins after all games are played is the champion.

If you have enough boards and bags, this is a super fun way to play! It’s fast and you get to meet everyone in the tournament. Did I mention that a LOT of games are played?Round Robin

If you have 10 teams, and they play each other once, each team will play a total of 9 games. If they play each other twice, each team will play 18 games. Like I said, that is a lot of cornhole!

Since this format is so easy, you don’t really need a bracket. You just need to keep track of wins for each team.

The team with the most wins is the champion. If by chance multiple teams have the same number of wins, you can use the single elimination formation to determine the true champion (see Playoffs below).

Did You Know?  In theory, a round-robin tournament is the fairest way to determine the champion from among a known and fixed number of participants.

Playoffs

Playoffs are the single elimination tournament at the end of a round robin. Teams play a round robin at first to obtain a “seeding” based on winning percentage. When the round robin format is over, an even number of teams are chosen to enter the playoffs round.

Usually the number of teams in the playoffs would be the top x teams (x is any even number).

I always think of the NCAA basketball tournament. All seasons teams play in a round robin. Then based on their winning percentage they are seeded and then compete in the playoffs.

As mentioned earlier, the playoffs are a single elimination round and the games are played until there is only one! The Playoff Champs!

Championship Game

If you want to know the which team is the true champion…the team that really has the right stuff, then you’ll want to use the Championship formation. This one is not for the faint of heart or short of time. This format can be long and drawn out.

You won’t regret it though as this is the format that most folks are looking to partake in! If you are having a fundraiser, this is the best bet for drawing in more teams.

With that said, the Championship tournament is built about the formats we’ve already looked at. Here is an example of what this format would look like:

Let’s start off by saying we have 20 teams that have entered the tournament.

Start off with a round robin where each team plays the other teams one time. At the end of this round, you will be able to calculate the teams “seed”. The team that has the most wins is the #1 seed. The team with the second most wins is the #2 seed…etc, etc, etc.

Only the top 10 teams advance to the playoff round which is a single elimination tournament. The teams are paired up in a way that pits the best team, against the worst team. So, in our case #1 seed would play #10 seed. #2 seed would play #9 seed. And so on…

Conclusion

In a future post I will go into more detail on running a professional tournament. Complete with forms, etiquette and advice for promoting your event. (Speaking of events, if you have one of your own be sure to get it on our Event Calendar)

Looking for the best Cornhole Bags?

But for now I hope this was enough to get you going on your backyard competition. And remember, we lovers of cornhole do not shun other backyard games. What you learned here can be applied to horse shoes, washers, lawn darts, beer pong, sack races….the list goes on and on.

If you are new to cornhole, this set has everything you need to get started.

Now get out there and play some cornhole!

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14 thoughts on “How To Run a Cornhole Tournament

  1. Hi Kvertner.
    This is really helpful for planning a tournament.
    there is often a lot of argument around how to play off against each other so I will print a couple of your diagrams off with room for the names.
    Have you done a post on the background and history of Cornholing? Guess it must go back some time historically.
    Great post and thanks again.

    1. Hello there HappyB!

      Glad to hear that the cornhole tournament planning tips were helpful.  I really like using those free brackets…makes it look official, and you can always create just what you are looking for.

      And as a matter of fact, we do have a post on the history of cornhole.  If you ask me…it is one of the funnest posts we’ve created!  Check out The History of Cornhole.

      I hope you get a chance to enjoy some nice weather, some cold drinks and a few games of cornhole!  All the best.

  2. I love that you included the rules and game history!

    Thank you for providing me with a good idea on how to host a tournament…sounds like it would make a fun game even more fun and more competitive!

    Your site gives so much good info, I never knew was even available… like about the leagues. Anyway, very informative, thanks again!

    -Rebecca

    1. Rebecca,

      Thanks for stopping by The Cornhole.  We are really working hard to be your one stop for all things related to the game of cornhole.

      While running a tournament can be a lot of work, and a little stressful…it is very satisfying.  People love to be part of something.  They especially love the chance to show everyone else they are the best of the best! 😉

      Anyway, so glad that the information here was helpful.  If you ever have any question about cornhole or are looking for a particular product, let us know!  We appreciate feedback from the community!

      Now, get out there and play some cornhole!

      -Michael

  3. Ohhh….. I don’t want to sound dumb or anything, but what exactly is Cornhole? Cornhole is not a game that is played in my country. I had to read on to see how it deserves it’s own tournaments…. sadly I am still none the wiser as to what Cornhole is.
    The good news is that I did learn that it can be played in both backyards and stadiums.
    I also learn about several different fixtures that I can set up in order for my competitive cornhole game to go smoothly.
    So my question to you is, what exactly is Cornhole and why do you love it so much?

    1. Hello Glenys,

      You are don’t sound dumb.  There are a lot of people who have not heard of cornhole (Baggo or Bean Bag Toss).  In fact, if you don’t live in the US, you probably have never heard of it.

      You can get an overview of the game from How to Play Cornhole.

      All you need to get started playing is a cornhole set (2 boards and 8 cornhole bags).  For less than $100 you and your family and friends can start enjoying this game.

      Why do I love it so much? 

      It’s fun.  Anyone can learn to play the game (and be pretty damn good at it) within a few minutes.  Everything you need can be stored easily, or loaded in the car for some games at the park or a friends house.

      I hope you get a chance to play cornhole, and you will see why it is so popular.

      All the best!

      Michael

  4. This is an awesome post. We play a lot of cornhole in our neighborhood. You are right when you say the word tournament always pops up in conversation when we get a lot of people from the hood together to play. With this post I can show all of our people so we can set up a tournament. I will definitely be using some of your brackets for future cornhole get togethers. Thanks for the info.

    1. Well thank you Fred!  Glad you found us here at The Cornhole.

      It’s a crazy phenomenon right?  People get together to play cornhole and the competition heats up, people are having a good time…and then someone says, “We should make this official….Let’s have a tournament!”. 

      It seems like any time we have more than 8 people together we automatically start out playing a tournament.  We print out the bracket and the winner gets to take it home as a “trophy”.

      Have fun out there!!!

  5. Internet is really big community to have access to unlimited information., The irony is my uncle has been planning to host a local soccer tourney for high school kids which there are have been lots of hiccups on the planning because this just his first time of doing such.

    But on reading this articles have saved lots of issues. I am gonna send him the link to this page ASAP

    Nice write up, Author. Thumbs up to you

    1. I’ll try to not get upset that you’ll be using my advice for a soccer tournament instead of cornhole tournament!  😉

      Just make sure you talk about the game to some of the kids and parents.  We are always looking for more people to join in the cornhole community.

    1. Totally agree. If you want to play regulation cornhole you need wood boards. They are heavy, but worth it…nothing plays quite like real official cornhole boards. With that said, there are a lot of benefits to a cornhole set that is self contained, fits in the trunk of your car, and the kids can carry out to the beach. We have one of each, and I find the kids prefer the Baggo set.

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