|
Still the greatest dart tournament in America, the Medalist World Championships has
added much to the championships than just more cash. Cash is good, but one has to be eligible to compete for it, too. New for 2004 are Open Doubles and Open Singles
events. For the doubles, just bring your partner and sign up. First place is a wopping $5,000 in cash. As we said, cash is good! First place in Open Singles is
a cool $3,000. What a great new way to introduce new players to Medalist and encourage them to become regular Medalist League players.
If you have any question about whether the Medalist World Championship is really
a first class event, just look at the prize money offered and the professional, real pewter, Medalist Trophies. The trophy awards alone are a full year’s project, developing the concept and producing the trophies in Bangkok, Thailand. Shipped to the US in parts, they were assembled on site by a terrific Medalist Marketing Team of Staff members at the Riviera Hotel and Casino, site of the 2004 Medalist World Championships. The 600 trophies went on display at the start of the tournament for all to see. Awarded to the top 8 places for each event, Medalist Marketing spares no expense to provide their members with the absolute finest, custom made, World class trophies.
Another new feature of the Medalist World Championship is the freedom for players and
teams to preregister before arriving or enter events on site at the Worlds. This new feature allows players to add events to their schedule once they
arrive at the tournament. The advantage to this feature is that players who come without a partner can pair up at the event and still enjoy fantastic competition of a World Championship.
Japan Competes at the Medalist World Championship
Over 100 different Medalist
players from Japan made the journey from their home country to compete in the Medalist World Championship. As a result of the tournament being played later in
July, the cost of airfare from Japan to the US was significantly higher than last year, making the trip more expensive for the Japanese players. Having that many players come to America this year from Japan is a tremendous tribute to the commitment and desire to compete of the Japanese Medalist contingent. Medalist Marketing welcomed the Japanese contingent to the World Championship and honors their commitment to play at the highest competition level in the World.
Wheels of Mystery
Medalist has devised a fun
way to spend down time between events or before your event begins. Not only is it fun, but it provides good practice under simulated game conditions. Don’t believe us? Then give the Wheels
of Mystery a chance at the next Medalist tournament to prove us right!
The object was to win tickets.
To do that, a player must hit an out shot, which is decided by the machine according to your Rating Category. The catch? The player must use all three darts in hitting the out and all three darts must score. For every out shot hit, the player earns a winner’s ticket. Earn three winner’s tickets and the player earns 2 chances at another out. If the player hits one out on either of the two chances, they get to spin the Big
Wheel of Mystery.
Here’s where the real fun comes in. Spin the Big Wheel of Mystery and the player gets whatever the Wheel says: $5, $10, or even better, a spin on the Little Wheel of Mystery for $3,000 worth of great prizes. The prizes are color coded and your spin on the Little Wheel of Mystery will determine what color you may choose your prize from.
One more thing, if the player spins the Big Wheel of Mystery and it lands on the Hot Spot, the player may decide to take $20 on the spot or take one chance at an out for $100. If the player hits that out on your one chance, they take home $100 in Medalist commemorative casino chips. Yep, these are real and can be used on the tables or cashed in for hard cash. The down side? If the player misses that one shot at an out, the player gets nothing!
Think its not like real game pressure?
Take the Challenge and see if you can hold up under the pressure. This is Vegas baby!
Opening Recognitions and Summary
Medalist Dart Leagues players
from Japan, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii and the continental US gathered at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas July 28-31 for the Medalist 2004 World
Championships.
The event drew 5,147 entries, from Novice and CCC classes to Grand Masters, over its
four day run, and recorded the highest per-day payout ever in Medalist Darts.
Tournament week got underway Tuesday evening when Medalist hosted over 200
distributors, operators and locations in their annual awards banquet at the “Top Of The Riv.” Steve and Connie Repass, owners of the Towne Pub in
Columbus, Ohio, were honored as the Top Platinum Location of the Year after hosting 180 teams in Fall and Spring Leagues. Towne Pub’s roster of 97 teams in Spring Leagues alone was the highest ever recorded in one season.
Terry Cook, of Shaffer Services in Columbus called Steve and Connie, “Good
examples of some of the great people we have in this industry. You could use their location for the blueprint on how to operate a business and run dart leagues. There’s a good reason why darters are drawn to them.”
Cook continued, “The Medalist World Championships are just a wonderful event.
The way the staff sets the tournament room is spectacular. Everything goes extremely smoothly from registration to scheduling to the playing of thousands of matches. They get bigger and better every year, but I don’t know how they will top this.”
Alvanita DuBose and Kelli Wise, of Phoenix, Arizona, were among first day winners in
CCC Doubles, and their excitement and enthusiasm set the tone for the rest of the week. The strong Japanese contingent scored well, with Masataka Noda and Al
Ozaki besting Washington’s Anna Hosier and Jackie Gearon in Wednesday BB Doubles, Toshimitsu Fukuhara and Katsunori Watanabe winning Friday CC Doubles
over Karin Stovall and Wynelle Green from Georgia, and Saki Ninomiya and Shouko Tanimoto winning a championship pit match with Alan and Johnny Dearman, also from the state of Washington, in Saturday CCC Doubles.
AAA Doubles winners included Ozzy Osman and Helen Cinco from Southern California
on Wednesday and Daran Stephenson and Jason Guy from Ohio on Saturday. Paul Lim, the Singapore Slinger, reinforced his reputation as the “World’s best soft
tip dart player” winning the $3,000 first prize in Open Singles over Dan Moore on Saturday night. He also teamed with Sean Downs to defeat Alaskans
Mike Barr and Dan Mahoney in Open Doubles and split $5000 on Friday night.
In the end, 600 distinctive pewter trophies were on their way to new homes around the world.
Dozens of player photos associated with this event are also available
to our print subscribers on pages 46 – 50 of the Sept/October 2004 print edition.
Related Article: Event Results 
Not a BEN subscriber yet? Now’s the time!
Click here for info
|
