CLAWSON, MICHIGAN – Every time Coach Mike hosts cornhole, it’s pure fire. From me waking up on Barker’s couch hungover and needing to walk back to Coach’s house to get my car Friday morning, to JV posing and playing topless (more on that later), things are always entertaining.

Week 11 was no different. Eight players arrived in Clawson, like kids on Christmas morning, eager to unwrap the glorious presents at Coach Mike’s house.

This week’s present was unbelievable talent on display – 5 of the 8 players registered a KPM above 10, including 4 players above 12. Traditional weekly recaps would include a summary from the Game of the Night, but this week’s recap will focus on the Week of the Year since the collective performance was the best we’ve seen in 2018.

Joe – His KPM may have only been 5.3, but in Game 5 he partnered with Adam to pull off a big upset of Barker and Coach Mike, and it wasn’t close – 21-9. Joe went head-to-head with Coach, and outscored him 24-18, including the kill shot in the 11^th round. Adam had just finished upping the lead to 18-9 and Joe stepped in to finish things off. He drained a cornhole and knocked two more bags on the board on his way to outscoring Coach Mike 5-0, giving his team the 21-9 victory. In Game 7 Joey Buckets and Jack faced off against Preseason Kick-Off Champions, JV and Barker. The Champs were heavy favorites, but Joe held his own against JV, losing 24-18 in gross points for the match, helping keep his team in the game. Ultimately they lost 21-14, which was much closer than predicted. Joe finished the night 1-3, with a 5.3 KPM, 35% shooting and 1.8 gross points per round.

Jack – Making his 2018 debut after returning from a one-year Polish hiatus, Jack came out of the gates firing for a 10 KPM. He faced some tremendously tough head-to-head match-ups on this night, and represented himself well. Highlights include:

• Game 1 – outscored Coach Mike, 16-11
• Game 2 – outscored by Justin, 38-34, an impressive performance considering Justin finished the night at 12.2 KPM
• Game 7 – outscored by Barker, 35-32, and Barker finished the night at 13.4 KPM on 76% shooting
• Recorded 4 footsnags in his first night back in the league

For the night, Jack fell short of his 10 KPM goal, finishing at 8.3 KPM. He was very accurate after more than one year away from the game, hitting on 52% of his shots. Jack’s biggest downfall was not making cornholes at a high enough rate (only 0.37 cornholes per round). He also battled moments of inconsistency, which is understandable given the long layoff. The highlights above prove Jack is capable of playing with anyone in the league when he gets out of his head and lets muscle memory take over.

Jack finished the night 2-5 with an 8.3 KPM, 52% shooting and 2.8 gross points per round. He ended the night with two tough losses, which prevented him from having a winning record:

• 21-18 to JV and Barker when partnering with Justin (Jack and Justin rallied from a 16-7 deficit to claim a late 18-17 lead before losing the match)
• 21-18 to JV and Justin when partnering with Adam (Jack and Adam held an 18-17 lead, but once again couldn’t close the match, losing 21-18)

Coach Mike – It took Coach a while to get the back-handed taint tickler going. Through his first four games, Coach averaged only 16.5 gross points per game, translating to an unusually low 1.9 gross points per round. Not surprisingly he went 0-4 in those games, the closest of which was 21-10. However, in his fifth game of the night (Game 11), he partnered with KP to duel Barker and Adam. Coach tickled taints all game, averaging 3.9 gross points per round while battling Barker, and kept his team in the game by damn-near drawing even with Barker, losing only 37-31 in head-to-head gross points. Barker slammed a 10-point round on Coach, winning that round 10-1. Excluding that round, Coach outscored Barker 30-27 during the rest of the match. He and KP earned an impressive 21-16 victory over Barker and Adam, giving Coach his first win of the night.

Two games later (Game 13), Coach hooked up with KP in a showdown with Barker and JV. Coach and KP pounced on the Champs early, 10-2 after three rounds, thanks to Coach contributing 6 of those points by outscoring JV 13-7 during that period. The Champs responded with a crushing 16-1 run to take an 18-11 lead late in the match. On the ropes and needing a spark, Coach and KP slowly chipped away at their deficit, closing it to 20-16. In the end, they didn’t have enough to come all the way back, losing 21-16. However, Coach matched JV punch for punch, losing only 39-37 in head-to-head gross points. He averaged 3.6 gross points per round in this game until the final three rounds, which is when he went cold and scored only 1 gross point during that stretch. That cold streak hurt his team’s attempt to walk away with a win, but Coach played well enough to feel good about how he ended the night.

After an 0-4 start, Coach finished the night 1-5 with a 7.5 KPM, 39% shooting (unusually low for him) and 2.4 gross points per round.

JV – After week 5, JV decided to change his toss from his traditional bowling form to a stationary lower body. He hoped this would improve consistency because since winning the Preseason Kick-Off he had struggled mightily through week 5. In week 11, JV recorded a 10.8 KPM, his third KPM above 10 in four appearances since changing his toss. Clearly, he’s started to figure things out, which is just in time as the Postseason Tournament approaches.

He lost his first match of the night, then reeled off four straight victories in dominating fashion, with three of the four wins by double digits. JV finished the night 7-2, easily the best record of the evening, and was in the Labatt Light zone. He scored 3.5 gross points per round, shot 58%, dropped 0.61 cornholes per round, and even posed topless…SEVERAL times…the best of which was when he was so cocky going head-to-head against Joe, he was convinced he could play with his shirt over his face and still kick everyone’s ass (which may have been true).

JV’s game is on an upward trend, and yet he still finds himself at #10 in the Power Rankings with a 9.8 cumulative KPM. He’s a force to be reckoned with during the last month of the season.

Justin – Wow. Justin was a STUD this week. He posted a 12-point round and two additional 10-point rounds this week, and earned the week 11 Mushroom Stamp Moment (“MSM”). In Game 8 he partnered with KP to contest JV and Adam. With his team down 17-8, Justin went H.A.M. averaging 6.3 gross points per round over the last 3 frames to bring his team all the way back to win 21-18. His MSM occurred in the final frame when he crushed Adam 8-3 to close the game 21-18. Justin outscored Adam 19-10 during those final three frames.

Justin’s 12-point round was against JV (won the round 12-6), as were both of his 10-point rounds (won the rounds 10-6 and 10-3, respectively). Poor JV, victim to Justin’s dominating hot streak. His dominance, however, extended beyond these three big rounds and the MSM. He shot 60%, averaged 0.77 cornholes per round and 3.9 gross points per round on his way to a 12.2 KPM. He was on fire all night, finished with a 4-3 record, and outscored all of his head-to-head opponents except KP (narrowly lost 42-36), including:

• 32-21 over Adam
• 66-59 over JV
• 106-85 over Jack

Justin sits at #7 in the Power Rankings with a 10.3 cumulative KPM. He’s having an excellent rookie campaign and one of the top contenders for 2018 Rookie of the Year.

Adam – The Pizza Tosser can make cornholes. Adam’s A-Game is as good as anyone in the league, and tonight he proved it. He averaged an incredible 0.85 cornholes per round, which powered him to a 12.4 KPM. Adam was excellent all night, but what is most impressive is that he won his cumulative head-to-head battles with the Preseason Kick-Off Champs, JV and Barker. He outscored JV 54-49 for the night, and got the best of Barker, 54-46.

Adam finished the night 3-4 overall, but he clinched the victory in two of his three wins. Additionally, Adam posted a 10-point round, a crushing 10-0 advantage over Coach Mike in the fourth round of Game 9, which helped his team to a 21-7 win.

When talking about Adam, we can’t forget to mention footsnags. He has been the league leader all season, and tonight he recorded 8 footsnags, including FIVE in one game (Game 5). This guy is unbelievable, and after narrowly losing out on the 2017 footsnag title (JV edged, 35-34) he has been on a mission to claim the 2018 crown. Thus far, he’s posted 43 for the year with the next closest player at 22 (Erik). It’s safe to say that Adam is the footsnag champ this year, and one of the top all-around players in the league. He sits at #5 in the Power Rankings with a 10.9 cumulative KPM.

Barker – This guy is great. He always plays his best against the best, and tonight was no different. When 5 of the 8 players were above 10 KPM, of course Barker was one of them, coming in at 13.4 (third-highest KPM recorded this season). Barker is always accurate, but at times he doesn’t make cornholes at the rate of some other top players in the league. Tonight? He had it all working. He sank 0.70 cornholes per round, shot an incredible 76% and scored 4.4 gross points per round.

Barker was a beast, as evidenced by his stats, and also a killer. He dropped a 10-point round on Coach Mike (poor Coach, he was also the recipient of Adam’s 10-point round) in round 6 of Game 11, winning that round 10-0. Interestingly, Barker went 3-2 and all three wins occurred when partnering with JV – he was 0-2 without JV. So, can Barker win without JV as his partner? I wouldn’t test that theory if I were any of you.

Thanks to his 13.4 KPM, Barker has climbed from #8 to #6 in the Power Rankings with a 10.8 cumulative KPM. Think about this for a moment – our Preseason Kick-Off Champions, Barker and JV, are currently ranked #6 and #10, respectively, in the Power Rankings. If that isn’t an indicator of how deeply talented LEG is, I don’t know what is.

KP – Thanks to KP, we have a new KPM record. Previously Galz held that honor when he posted 14.7 KPM in week 6. This week KP recorded 15.0, which is pretty incredible considering he did it without a 10 or 12-point round.

He was remarkably consistent at 67% accuracy. Normally KP doesn’t knock down cornholes at a high clip, but this week he was an animal. He averaged 1.06 cornholes per round this week (in other words, 1 in every 4 tosses went in the hole), and when combined with his accuracy he scored 4.8 gross points per round.

His great numbers also helped him to a 5-2 record. Here is the interesting thing about KP’s performance – yes, he was great when you crunch the individual statistics. But, his head-to-head match-ups were strangely close all night:

• Outscored Adam, 66-46
• Outscored by Barker, 61-58
• Outscored Justin, 42-36
• Outscored JV, 87-83

Other than the head-to-head with Adam, all others were extremely close, which is a fantastic indicator of how good the other guys were on this night. KP’s 15.0 KPM looks great on paper, and certainly looks much higher than the other guys (Barker – 13.4, Adam – 12.4, Justin – 12.2, and JV – 10.8), but all these phenomenal players elevate their game when playing head-to-head.

Week 11 was the Week of the Year, and the 8 players who participated witnessed something special.

BEVERLY HILLS, MICHIGAN – Last week we talked about Brendan and Paul’s quest for the first 10 KPM of their career. That chase continued in week 10, with both players hungry to record a double digit KPM.

Brendan and Paul both got off to slow starts, struggling with accuracy and low cornhole rates in the first few games, including a Game 4 partnership when they faced off against Galz and JV. Brendan and Paul combined to average only 1.9 gross points per round (2.2 for Brendan, and 1.6 for Paul) while squeaking out 19 total gross points (11 for Brendan, and 8 for Paul) in a 21-1 loss to Galz and JV. Brendan outscored JV, 2-1, in the first frame to give his team a 1-0 lead, only to watch the Galz and JV freight train reel off 21 unanswered points to win the game in dominating fashion.

In Game 5 these guys started to turn things around. Paul partnered with his nemesis, JV, to face Brendan and KP. Paul and JV dominated the game, winning 21-8, with Paul leading the way by scoring the most gross points in the game (39, in just 7 rounds) and outscored Brendan head-to-head, 39-29. Paul averaged a RIDICULOUS 5.57 gross points per round, helped by his 8 total cornholes (good for 1.14 cornholes per round). Although Brendan lost the head-to-head match-up with Paul, he still had the second-highest gross points for the game (29) and averaged an excellent 4.1 gross points per round while sinking 6 total cornholes for the game.

This head-to-head match-up seemed to be exactly what the doctor ordered, which ignited both players for the rest of the night. They closed their night by partnering again in Game 7 in a showdown with Coach Mike and JV, which is this week’s Game of the Night. Coach Mike asked for the head-to-head match-up with the young buck, Brendan, pitting familiar foes head-to-head at the other end (JV and Paul).

Coach immediately took the student to school, outscoring Brendan 4-3 in the bottom of the first round, tying the game, 1–1, after Paul took an early 1-0 advantage over JV to start the game.

The slow, sleepy start didn’t linger long. Paul and Brendan both outscored their opponents 4-2 in the second round, stretching their lead to 5-1. In the third, Brendan gave Coach a lesson of his own by draining a cornhole and scoring the remaining three bags to throw a 6-1 gut punch. In the blink of an eye, Paul and Brendan ripped off 10 unanswered points to claim a 10-1 lead.

The fourth round was critical for Coach and JV. Down 10-1 with their opponents heating up, they needed an answer. JV blanked Paul 4-0 in the top of the fourth and Coach delivered a 4-1 silencer in the bottom of the frame, closing the gap to 10-8. The next few rounds were nip and tuck, each team adding a couple points to make the game 12-10 after six rounds.

In the top of the seventh, Paul added two more points by outscoring JV 4-2, providing a bit more separation, 14-10. In the bottom of the eighth Brendan nailed a cornhole and an extra point on the board enroute to a 4-1 lead over Coach, making the game 17-10.

Just like earlier in the game, Coach and JV needed to dig deep and respond. Coach clawed back to gain one point in the ninth, while JV matched cornholes with Paul to cancel Paul’s points, keeping his team alive and handing the reigns to Coach Mike.

In the 10th round, down 17-11, JV had to exorcise his Paul demons. He did exactly that, going 4-4 and edging Paul, 4-3 to continue chipping away at the lead, which was now down to 17-12. Coach answered JV’s prayers in a big way in the bottom of the 10th. He dropped two cornholes and scored points on his remaining two bags to score 8 gross points, while Brendan could only manage 3 gross points of his own. Coach sent a powerful message to the young rookie, letting him know it ain’t easy closing matches in LEG. Coach’s 5 point advantage tied the game 17-17, and he needed his partner to overcome his 2018-long mental struggle in matches against Paul. Quick side note – Paul has a cumulative head-to-head advantage over JV this year, outscoring him 172-156, including 112-93 during week 10.

In the top of the 11th round, JV’s burning desire to crush Paul was evident. He was laser focused, teeth clenched, ready to take him down. Unfortunately for JV, his game wasn’t good enough and Paul’s was. Paul dropped a cornhole and two more points to outscore JV, 5-3, and give his team the 19-17 lead.

With the pressure mounting, Coach Mike held a 3-2 advantage in the bottom of the 11th round, closing his team withtin 19-18 with one bag left to throw. A cornhole would win the game, 21-19, and everyone knows Coach wanted to drive the final stake through his opponents’ heart. His final back-handed taint tickler was aggressive (would you expect anything else?), at the hole and just missed dropping for the win. Instead, it came to rest on the board, still giving Coach and JV life, tying the game 19-19.

Once again, it was JV vs. Paul, game on the line. This time JV drew even with Paul, 2-2, and breathed a sigh of relief knowing the game was in Coach’s hands. Brendan ended that relief quickly.

• Coach first throw – missed the board
• Brendan first throw – cornhole
• Coach second throw – missed the board
• Brendan second throw – on the board

With two bags remaining, Coach faced an enormous 4-0 deficit. His third throw missed the board again, and now his only hope to keep the game alive was for Brendan to miss his last two bags and Coach needed to drain a three pointer on his final throw. The rookie was a stone cold killer, swishing a cornhole on his third bag for a 7-0 advantage, clinching the game.

Coach missed his final bag, and Brendan chased a cornhole on his final throw for good measure. He came up short of the hole, missing a 10-point round, but posted an 8-0 knockout punch to win a 12 round heavyweight fight, 21-19.

Brendan’s 8-0 final round to win the game is this week’s Mushroom Stamp Moment, Brendan’s first of his young career. Congratulations to Brendan on the MSM, and on the clutch performance against one of the league’s grizzly veterans.

Brendan’s final game, and his MSM performance also helped him reach 10.0 KPM! Had he scored 6 points in the final round, he would have landed at 9.9 KPM. That’s how little room for error Brendan had, which is even more clutch he pulled it off.

News and Notes:

• Brendan capped off a great night with the MSM, and earned a 10.0 KPM while going 4-2 overall and shooting 57%. He jumped from #9 in the Power Rankings to #7, and will end his 2018 campaign in style. Unfortunately Brendan is headed back to Tuscaloosa to finish school, but we all look forward to his return to Michigan and LEG.
• Paul made a hell of a run at the 10 KPM for the second straight week, but once again finished just short. He ended his night at 9.8, which is nothing to be ashamed of, and finished with a career-high 61% accuracy (good for second-best on the night, JV was tops at 62%). The only thing that held Paul back from his goal was a low cornhole rate, which was 0.43 per round. Paul is starting to hit another gear in the second half of the season.
• Erik played only one game, and won it. He also had one of his more accurate nights of the season, hitting on 50% of his throws. Erik scored just one cornhole in the game he played, which drove his KPM down significantly, landing at 6.2. However, he did record two footsnags, bringing him within 13 of Adam, who is our league leader (Adam leads 35-22).
• Coach Mike and Bushie spent most of their time playing and talking with Carol and Alex, our honorary guests. Bushie only played one regulation game, which was not a good one. He finished with a 4.7 KPM because of the rust and inaccuracy from only playing once in the last three weeks. Coach Mike finished 0-3 with a 7.0 KPM on 40% shooting, one of his worst nights of the year.
• JV had a very accurate night, shooting 62%, but he couldn’t get anything to go in the hole. His 0.26 cornholes per round was unusually low, but the fact that he still averaged 3.0 gross points per round was impressive despite the cornhole rate. His 8.7 KPM and 4-3 record won’t wow anyone, but it was mostly driven by the low cornhole rate.
• Galz did what Galz does – 3-1 record, 12.9 KPM, 58% accuracy, 0.90 cornholes per round, and 4.1 gross points per round. He stayed at #2 in the Power Rankings, but continues to gain on #1 Tony despite the fact that Tony doesn’t play. Tony set the bar high, at 12.5 KPM, and Galz is like Tiger Woods in his prime, chasing everyone down. Galz cumulative KPM is 12.1 and he’s as hot as ever. It’s going to be exciting to see if Galz can overtake Tony for the #1 spot before the end of the regular season.
• KP had an odd night, which sums up his entire season. His KPM was 13.3, which is his season-high and second highest in the league this year. But, he experimented with a new throw, which resulted in low accuracy (56%) and a 1-2 record. He did score more cornholes (0.96 per round, best on the night) and gross points (4.2 gross points per round, also best on the night), which aided his high KPM. But KP can’t find consistent confidence or results. With the 2018 Postseason Tournament quickly approaching, KP has to find his game or risks starting the first 3 seasons without a championship.

BEVERLY HILLS, MICHIGAN – KPM. Kornhole Power Metric. King Puzzy Masher. Kurtis Peters Meter. It’s been called many names, but no matter your definition it has become an obsession in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

The KPM is a composite metric used to evaluate how talented the players are. It considers a player’s accuracy, cornholes per round and gross points per round, all of which are the key statistical measures of how effectively one plays the game. Wins and losses can be skewed based on partner and opponent combinations, so the KPM has become the basis for LEG Power Rankings.

The general gold standard for a “great night” is a KPM of 10 or better, which means a player would average 3.20 gross points per round, 55% accuracy and 0.58 cornholes per round.

Through the first eight weeks of the 2018 season, only different eight players have recorded a KPM of 10 or better. In week 9, Paul was hungry to become the ninth different player to reach double digits, while Brendan Bush made his rookie debut this week and wanted to prove capable of making a big splash.

Paul played very well all night long, and even pushed his KPM above 10 at various points of the evening. However, a few late stumbles in his last few games caused him to finish at 9.8 KPM on the night, with 3.2 gross points per round, 55% accuracy and 0.53 cornholes per round (just shy of the standard 0.58 needed to reach 10.0 KPM).

Brendan’s LEG introduction was a bit rough, losing his first two games 21-7 and 21-4, respectively. But Brendan showed fight you’d expect from an Alabama Crimson Tide, battling back to win six of his last eight games to finish the night at 6-4. He was also very accurate, shooting 62%, averaged 3.3 gross points per round and 0.39 cornholes per round. His low cornhole rate held him back from reaching a KPM of 10, but his 9.6 KPM was excellent, especially in his rookie debut.

These two also partnered in Game 8, playing JV and Bushie. Down 8-1 after the top of the third round, Paul and Brendan went on an amazing 20-0 run over the next two rounds to win the game 21-8. They dominated, led by Paul crushing Bushie 15-3 during that span and Brendan smothering JV, 12-4.

Brendan was also featured in the Game of the Night, partnering with Galz to battle Adam and Joe in Game 6. The head-to-head matchups were Brendan vs. Joe and Galz vs. Adam. This one proved to be a marathon, taking 13 rounds to determine a winner. Adam carried his team early on, getting the best of Galz through the first four rounds, outscoring him 18-14. On the other end, Brendan shouldered the scoring burden by outscoring Joe 14-8 through four rounds and accounted for all nine of his team’s points, leading to a 9-7 advantage.

In the top of the fifth round Galz broke things open against Adam, draining two cornholes and adding another bag on the board for 7 gross points, while Adam could only muster 2 points. Galz gave his team a 14-7 lead and turned it over to Brendan who got the best of Joe, 5-4, making the game 15-7. However, something very interesting happened in the bottom of the fifth round – despite getting outscored 5-4, Joe seemed to find a rhythm and confidence. He dunked a cornhole in true Joe fashion, scored another bag on the board, and had his other two throws narrowly miss cornholes before sliding off the board. This development was a big turning point in the game.

During rounds six through nine, Joe helped his team claw back by elevating his game and gaining 3 points, including rounds of: 3-3, 3-1, 3-2, and 4-4 against Brendan. On the other side, Adam and Galz were in a classic dogfight, with Adam getting the best of Galz, 15-13. During this key stretch, Joe and Adam went on a 6-1 run to shrink their deficit to 16-13.

In the 10^th, Adam notched another point while Galz struggled to score just one bag. Joe again drew even with Brendan, making the score 16-14. Things went wild in the 11^th round when Adam dropped three cornholes on Galz, outscoring him 9-4 and giving his team a huge momentum shift and 19-16 lead. After a slow start, Joe and Adam put together an incredible 12-2 run against two of the better players on this night.

Brendan showed great composure for a rookie. He hadn’t outscored Joe in six rounds and his team was on the verge of a devastating loss after building a big lead. Brendan put three bags on the board in the bottom of the 11^th, which added one more point for his team, making it 19-17.

Galz netted two cornholes in the 12^th en route to a 7-point round, meanwhile Adam scored three of his throws, including a cornhole, but could only score 5 points and gave up 2 to Galz. The score was now tied, 19-19 going to the bottom of the 12^th round.

For the second straight round Brendan’s composure resembled that of a league veteran. He scored two of his first three bags, while Joe missed his first three shots. Each player had one bag remaining, and Brendan had given his team a 21-19 lead to this point. Joe needed to score on his last throw to keep the game alive, and fired an airmail cornhole to swing the score in his favor, 3-2. Brendan had a chance to win the game with a cornhole on his final throw, or cancel Joe’s advantage with one point. He could do neither, missing the board and shaking his head in disgust at the opportunity he had just missed. Joe’s Italian balls were enormous on that final throw. Down 21-19 and needing points on his last throw, he turns a potential game-ending deficit into a 20-19 lead for his team. Absolutely clutch stuff from Joe in this game.

In the top of the 13^th round, things turned back over to the #2 and #5 ranked players in the league, Galz and Adam, respectively. Galz is known for rising to the occasion when his back is against the wall. Adam, a great player, hasn’t proven to be consistent in a similar position.

When Adam’s opening throw missed the board, everyone saw Galz licking his chops. Sure enough, cornhole for Galz to kick-off his round. Adam found the board on his second throw, but still faced an uphill battle when Galz also registered a point on his second bag, keeping his advantage at 4-1 through two bags.

Adam needed something big on his third toss and dropped a cornhole to even the scoring at 4-4. Galz silenced his opponent with 3 points on his third throw, claiming a 7-4 advantage. One point on his final through was not going to be enough to extend the game, so Adam played aggressively for a cornhole. He missed, and that secured a 21-20 victory for Galz and Brendan. Galz swung for the fences on his last bag, going for a 10-point round since the game was over. He missed, but was still clutch enough to close the win. It was a long, epic game. Adam, despite the loss, did outscore Galz 55-53 in gross points, while both players dropped 11 cornholes. Brendan ended up outscoring Joe, 36-32, for the game thanks largely to his hot start in the first four rounds. Joe was incredible through the last nine rounds, keeping his team in the game with 6 cornholes.

The week 9 Mushroom Stamp Moment goes to Bushie for his clutch and overpowering performance in Game 3. His team already had a commanding 16-4 lead, and Bushie ensured there would be no comeback when he dropped a 10-point round on JV, outscoring him 10-0 and winning the game. It’s Bushie’s fourth 10-point round in the last three weeks, and it helped him average 3.63 gross points per game in the Game 3 win. Congratulations to Bushie for earning the week 9 MSM.

News and Notes:

• Galz was a monster, scoring 4.2 gross points per round, hitting on 63% of his shots, sinking cornholes at 0.84 per round, and recording three 10-point rounds this week while posting a 13.0 KPM (best of the night). He finished the night 7-4 and retains the #2 spot in the Power Rankings.
• Somehow Adam went 6-6 overall, which is mystifying considering his 11.6 KPM, 66% accuracy and 3.8 gross points per round. He did lose some heartbreakers, 21-20, 21-17, 21-16 and 21-15. Adam was the most accurate player this week and had the second-highest KPM while adding 3 footsnags.
• KP tinkered with his throw, which created bouts of inconsistency, including the opening game of the night when he went head-to-head with Galz and was manhandled 28-8 in just eight rounds. Galz played well, including winning the game with a 10-2 round. However, KP averaged just 1.3 gross points per round in the game, a truly mind-numbing statistic. He rallied to shoot 60%, score 3.7 gross points per round, knocked in 0.66 cornholes per round, recorded two 10-point rounds, and posted an 11.4 KPM while going 6-3 overall.
• JV was very accurate this week, shooting 64%, which helped him to a 10.4 KPM. JV was also clutch in several moments this week, including Game 2 when he was head-to-head with Adam and blew the game open in round 4. JV and Galz held a 6-4 lead going into the bottom of the fourth round when JV turned up the heat. JV had a 7-4 advantage after three throws from each player, then Adam missed his final toss. JV’s strategy on his fourth throw was to hit a cornhole while also dragging a second bag into the hole. JV executed perfectly, pushing one bag in as his fourth throw also went in the hole. He gave a Tiger Woods-esque fist pump to celebrate his 10-point round, upping the score to 12-4. He and Galz ended the game just 1.5 rounds later, 21-4. In Game 4, JV and Brendan found themselves in a tight, 20-17, match against Adam and Paul. JV appeared to have closed the game, leading 2-0 over Adam with just one throw remaining for each player. Adam made a clutch cornhole on his final throw to take a 3-2 advantage and seemingly close the game to 20-18. Mr. Clutch (JV) didn’t allow the celebration to last long. He fired his final shot into the hole to reclaim a 5-3 lead and give his team the 21-17 win. For the second time in two games, JV had ripped Adam’s heart out.
• Paul’s quest for a 10 KPM fell short, but he still had a fantastic night. He scored his first 10-point round of the season, shots 55%, and scored 3.2 gross points per round while going 5-7 overall. He moved up in the Power Rankings from #14 to #13.
• Brendan made an impressive rookie splash with his 6-4 record, 62% accuracy and 9.6 KPM. He debuts at #9 in the Power Rankings, ahead of talented players like Justin, Coach Mike, Bushie and Paul, and just behind Preseason Kick-Off Champions, JV and Barker.
• Bushie had a solid night, including one of his more accurate performances in recent weeks (52%). Bushie wasn’t making cornholes at a high clip (only 0.38 per round), which hurt him a bit. Bushie wasn’t happy with his 2-6 record, but he ended the night with a very solid 8.5 KPM, a 10-point round (his fourth of the season) and this week’s Mushroom Stamp Moment.
• Joe had his best night of the season, and maybe of his career, earning a 7.0 KPM on 40% shooting. Joe was an integral part of almost pulling an upset in the Game of the Night, and he showed up in key moments with clutch throws. Joe’s game continues to improve every time he shows up, he just needs to find a bit more consistency for his game to take the next step.