The First Ever Toronto King Of The Hill Singles Dart Tournament

The first-ever Torontodarts.com "King of the Hill" dart tournament is now in the history books and, after a great day of darts, we would like to thank everyone who played or came out to support the event. With 25 players and about 15 spectators over the course of a very hot and humid day (the outside temperature reached into the 40s with the humidex), everyone had a good time playing and watching some great darts. It’s not often you get 25 or more good dart players in a room for a singles event and we were glad to have provided everyone with the opportunity to do just that.

Firstly, we would like to give a special thanks to the sponsors of this event: Chris Prosser of Templehouse Renovations Ltd., Nodor-Swiftflyte Canada, Chuck Menezes of Specialty Sports Supplies, Don Drew of D&G Trophies, and Jay Tomlinson of Bullseye News.

Without sponsorship and the support of community businesses such as these, events like this one would be difficult - if not impossible - to hold. If you enjoy the thought of future tournaments in this area, please consider supporting any and all of the above companies if you can.

An extra-special thanks goes out to Dave Batterton who not only helped organize the event by unselfishly lending his tournament experience to us, but also for tirelessly transforming the second back room of the Ferret & Firkin into another dart room.

Over nearly a 7 hour day it all came down to Mark Almeroth, locally known as “The Moth”, besting Adam Bernard by needing only 9 games of their best of 11 final in front or a room full of spectators. As ironic as it is, the winner is that very same guy who started the idea just on the message board.

We started out with a field of 25 for Round Robin play, with 5 groups of 5, and whittled that down after about 2-1/2 hours to the best 16. We then went on to a single elimination round of 16 that had all places pre-determined based on placement in groups.

Round of 16

With a few surprises in the Round of 16, including John Morrison facing Jason Marchis (2 Team Ontario players) in the first round, Rob Skillicorn being eliminated by Jake Morrison, and Brian Schumacher throwing very impressively - even tossing a 15-darter to eliminate hopeful Jason Bernard in their best of 5 match - we knew we had some great darts coming up.

So after 20 minutes of play time, we had John Morrison, Mark Almeroth, Jake Morrison, Brian Schumacher, Adam Bernard, Rigg Manuel, Ted Morris and Veli Veli advancing to the Round of 8.

Round of 8

The big game in this group was the Morrison versus Almeroth match, and everyone crowded to the back of the newly created second dart room at the Ferret & Firkin to watch the best of 7 match. Almeroth ultimately prevailed after a few missed doubles and uninspired darts on both sides.

In the match on the next board, Brian Schumacher was serving notice he was to be considered a contender for the day as he took out Jake Morrison in 5 legs, taking their best of 7 set 4-1.

In the other room, Adam Bernard took out Rigg Manuel in a close match, and Veli Veli bested his sometimes training partner Ted Morris in their best of 7.

Round of 4

The matchups for this round seemed a little lopsided at first, with Mark Almeroth facing Brian Schumacher and Adam Bernard facing Veli Veli.

Since we didn‘t know who Veli Veli was, we thought this match would be a shoe-in for the younger Bernard. Not to be taken lightly, Veli started off strong and caught our eye with his steady darts. Adam was also on target and most shots were traded-off without advantage. Leg after leg, one player would be on a double after 15-18 darts, and, as enjoyable as it was to be a spectator, someone would have to unfortunately lose. Veli finally bowed out on a superb 15-darter from Adam to take his 5th leg and berth in the final.

In the other room, Brian Schumacher was proceeding to build a 3-1 lead with some really nice darts and a winner's determination. Throwing well and consistently hitting his outs when needed, Brian was looking like he was there to win it all, but just when it looked like Schumacher was about to give Almeroth a failing grade, The Moth turned the tables and powered ahead with 4 straight wins and several high finishes to stop his opponent and his amazing run of darts short.

Finals

Since this was the match everyone had been waiting for all day, and since both players had just played highly competitive matches in the Round of 4, we had high expectations for a humdinger of a final and weren’t disappointed. The match was to be a Best of 11 final and all other play and practice had stopped as everyone wanted to see the conclusion of this highly anticipated event.

With The Moth winning the diddle, which meant he was entitled to throw first in the opener as well all odd legs, we figured this was going to be one match where throwing first would definitely matter – and did it ever: with an average score of just over 25PPD and with the winner of each leg finishing just about at 20 darts, this was definitely a finale of 2 determined and worthy contenders for the title.

Best of 11 Finals Match

	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Game 7	Game 8	Game 9
Almeroth	22/0	20/0	17/0	18/44	15/0	18/212	21/0	18/16	21/0
Bernard	21/36	21/8	18/129	20/0	12/201	20/0	18/60	19-0	18/38

*Game winners averaged 20 darts (25.8PPD)

Leg by Leg Summary

• Leg 1 saw some steady but preliminary darts as both players felt each other out cautiously and tried to find their stride. Ultimately The Moth took 22 darts to draw first blood and won with the throw. 1 leg to 0 for The Moth.
• Leg 2 was important for Adam to hold the throw to establish himself, but after putting himself on an out after 18 darts he couldn’t find the doubles bed and left himself with 8 and was forced to watch the Moth promptly double-out in his next throw. 2 legs to 0 for The Moth.
• Leg 3 saw The Moth come out with a barrage of well-targeted darts that left him on a 170 finish after 12 darts. We hoped to see him take this out as the crowd of about 25 onlookers would have exploded with appreciation, but he missed the first dart triple 20 and settled into a groove to avoid squandering all the good scores he’d made and finished in 17 darts. 3 legs to 0 for The Moth.
• Leg 4 was looking somewhat urgent for Adam to reign himself in and muster a solid 10 minutes of winning darts. He did just that and threw solidly enough to take it in 20 darts while leaving The Moth on 44 after 18 thrown. 3 legs to 1 for The Moth.
• Leg 5 was a critical game, and as The Moth started first, it would be difficult for Adam to win against the throw. The Moth must have sensed this and threw pro-level darts to bring himself to 118 in 12 darts and finished the high-out for the only 15-dart leg of the finals. 4 legs to 1 for The Moth.
• Leg 6 saw Adam respond on target with a 20 dart finish, leaving The Moth well behind at 212 points on the board after 18 arrows thrown. 4 legs to 2 for The Moth.
• Leg 7 again had The Moth at the oche first and it made all the difference as he took 21 darts to find the doubles bed. Adam was hovering dangerously with 60 left after only 18 thrown. 5 legs to 2 for The Moth.
• Leg 8 was a must-win for Adam, and while The Moth charged ahead with 12 darts to put him on a 110 finish, Adam was steady behind him. The Moth couldn’t find the double 16 and stumbled just long enough Adam to finish this one in 19 darts. 5 legs to 3 for The Moth.
• Leg 9 was the time to seal this match and The Moth threw solid darts to take himself to 122 after 15. Adam was following right along, but throwing second made all the difference. The Moth stumbled here a bit by using darts 16-18 to score only 37 points and only bring him down to 85. Adam left himself 38 after his 18 were thrown. The Moth’s next throw was at the triple 19 to leave an easy double 14, but he missed and hit a single. Following up with a S16, Mark hit the DB to finish off in 21 darts and added some punctuation to his well earned victory.

Was this a part of Toronto's darting history?

Some posters on the Toronto Darts message board have said this is the first time a singles event like this of any scale is being done in Toronto. We were a little surprised and asked for confirmation.

One of our regular forum posters “Ground Zero”, who is pretty well-known in local dart circles, confirmed this for us. We’re still a little bit in disbelief on that count, and are just glad that we and our sponsors could make this day possible for all those who played and watched.

As a thank you for all those who played in the first ever King of the Hill tourney, we had some special medallions made up by D&G Trophies. These were bronze dart medallions with an attached ribbon and an engraved plate on the back that gave the date of the event. Anyone who either played or contributed to the event was offered one as a token of our appreciation.

Veli Veli is back!

Not having played competitive darts in more than 10 years, Veli's name was a bit of a mystery to us. Once we posted his name on the KOTH list, however, people began asking if "it was the Veli Veli they had known from Scarborough about 10 years ago". As it turns out, it was in fact the same Veli.

No one would have guessed that he been away from the game for so long as he hit 3 180s and arguably shared in what were the best darts thrown all day in his top 4 pairing with Adam Bernard. As one of the Admins noted, it was shame that one of them had to bow out of the tournament at that point because both deserved to be in the finals.

Welcome back, Veli, and it was a pleasure to meet you and to watch you play so well.

Congratulations to Brian Schumacher!

One of the more pleasant surprises of the day was the power-performance of Brian Schumacher. The former Queen Street Dart League President and avid darter surprised more than a few onlookers and powered his way through two of the elimination rounds, one of which including former MTADL champion Jason Bernard.

For more summaries and updates, please visit the topic in our message board forum and be sure to read Bill Neilson's summary as well.