How to Run a Successful Cornhole Tournament

Cornhole has taken the lawn game world by storm, becoming the go-to activity at parties, tailgates, and organized tournaments. Adding a couple of boards in the backyard will make any event more fun, but to create a memorable tournament that people will want to be a part of, how you run the tournament is key. To get the tips on running a successful tournament, we sat down with Josh Stark of Play-Life Nation, makers of the game Revel Round and a partner with Triangle Lawn Games in Indianapolis, IN.

Keys to a Successful Tournament

• Start with quality boards and bags. People want to know they are playing with quality. TLG offers regulation size boards and bags at all of our locations.
• Have enough boards so that there is little downtime between games. We use a rule of thumb of 5-8 teams per each set of boards. You can have TOO MANY sets which just wastes space.  So for 24 teams you would want at least 4 sets of boards, but you wouldn’t need to have 20 sets. Feel free to reach out with any questions there.
• Be organized. If the tournament does not move efficiently, people will lose interest. One way to do so is to use printable cornhole tournament brackets. There are also a number of cornhole tournament bracket software that we breakdown below this section.
• Have a good sound system so people know where and when they are playing.
• Have an energetic announcer on the mic directing the players and getting people pumped up.
• Have great music playing creating a fun environment.
• Make sure everyone is having fun!

Top Cornhole Tournament Software

Cornscore – Cornscore is a simple software designed in Raleigh, NC and one of our partners. The software offers SMS notifications, blind draw, singles and teams, and single and double elimination. It is a great way to simply run a tournament. 

Challonge – Challonge is a really neat and powerful cornhole tournament software. Origionally made for the video game industry, it allows to have multiple tournaments running simultaneously, single and double elimination, sign-up page, bulk participant upload and has a free option. 

Scoreholio – Scoreholio is a specially designed cornhole tournament software. It is the best looking of the software, has auto seed and many other features of the space including notifications, plus it has a free option. This is probably the strongest one in the category for cornhole tournaments.

Make The Experience One to Remember

Creating a tournament that’s a customized experience will give people what they are looking for. They are giving you their time so give them something extraordinary. Having an organized bracket and enough boards will help teams know where they are going and keep the tournament moving. A good PA system will allow people to hear when they are up, eliminating lag time where boards are sitting empty. If the tournament drags on, people will lose interest, and that great experience will be lost.

Remember that what you are doing is creating an experience people can’t get anywhere else. Give them a sense of community with some competitiveness to go along with it. Yes, people are there to play cornhole, but really, they are there to connect and build relationships. For most people and most tournaments, the cornhole is secondary to the experience itself.

Should you need any equipment or assistance with your next tournament, we have all the resources to help you do so here.

Tony Moceri is a Bellingham, WA based writer, entrepreneur and the proprietor of Yard Game Nation. Read more from Tony at https://tonymoceri.com/