CLAWSON, MICHIGAN – The sixth season of LEG is drawing to a close, and the 2021 Postseason Tournament has the makings of being the best grand finale yet. On Tuesday night we held a Zoom call to conduct the blind draw in advance of the tournament, only the second time we’ve done it this way. All teams now have approximately 10 days to strategize, but more importantly, choose their team name and coordinate their Halloween costume with one another.

In this article we’ll breakdown all the teams and offer a preview of the Postseason Tournament.

BLIND DRAW

This year’s blind draw was unique because we gave all 18 players one ping pong ball each, rather than giving more ping pong balls (and thus, higher odds) to lower ranked players like we have in the past. The table below summarizes the teams for the 2021 Postseason Tournament.

Team	Player 1	Player 2
Team 1	Dibble	Erik
Team 2	KP	Coach Mike
Team 3	Ray	Galz
Team 4	JV	Thomas
Team 5	Bushie	Paul
Team 6	Scott	Matt
Team 7	Barker	Brendan
Team 8	Jack	Bob
Team 9	Turley	Nick

DIVING DEEPER

Team 1 – #2 Dibble and #10 Erik

Dibble burst onto the scene in 2019, running a train through the league by winning the Singles Tournament and intimidating all the players along the way. Since then, he’s been searching for tournament success and would probably admit to being disappointed in the way he’s played in tournaments the last few years. However, he’s clearly one of the most talented players in the league, capable of carrying anyone to a title.

Erik is arguably the most improved player from the last few seasons. His teams finished runners-up in the 2020 and 2021 Preseason Kick-Off Tournaments, where he also earned All-Tournament Team honors, including the 2021 Tournament MVP. Erik is the second-most accurate player (73%), so you know he’ll score. The X-factor is if Erik’s cornhole rate goes up. If it does, his 4.3 gross points per round could jump closer to 6.0 gross points per round, making this team extremely difficult to beat.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: There is a lot to like about this team, and I’d consider them a heavyweight in this field. Definitely a contender.

Team 2 – #3 KP and #15 Coach Mike

During the blind draw KP praised Coach Mike for throwing well at a recent Michigan State tailgate, and said he could be dangerous in the tournament if he continues to play at that level. Sure enough, KP drew Coach Mike as his partner moments later.

This team’s success comes down to two things:

• Can KP avoid the Postseason Tournament letdown in 2021? In 2020 he won the Singles Tournament over Nick in dramatic fashion, but failed to handle the emotional high and target on his back during the 2020 Postseason Tournament. He defended his title by winning the 2021 Singles Tournament. Can he grow from his 2020 experience and have the poise to navigate a deep tournament field?
• Coach Mike’s back-handed taint tickler. Is it back? Does he throw it consistently? He was on fire in the Singles Tournament before having to leave early, and has continued to look like his old self as this season has progressed.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: This team will be overflowing with chemistry, which is always a great starting point for a partnership. If the dangerous Coach Mike shows up, and KP brings his A-game, this team could compete. Watch them as a dark horse.

Team 3 – #4 Galz and Ray (Unranked)

Don’t let the fact that Ray is unranked fool you. He didn’t play in 2021. Based on his 2020 performance (14.5 KPM), he’d be ranked #6 in 2021. Ray is also a horse shoe player, which translates nicely to cornhole. Ray can play…very well.

Galz almost always makes noise in tournaments, and is one of the few players in the league you can count on to deliver when his back is against the wall. Case in point, he often “waits” for the other team to build a 10+ point lead in matches, just so he can mount a comeback and hand the opponent a “choke”. Galz won the 2019 Preseason Kick-Off Tournament and has finished runner-up in two Singles Tournaments (2018 and 2019). In other words, he knows what it takes to survive and advance.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: This squad is LEGIT – #4 and essentially #6? They are not only a contender, they might be the favorite to win The Cup.

Team 4 – #8 JV and #18 Thomas

If anyone can carry a partner to a championship, it’s JV. He did it twice with Barker, and has two runner-up finishes as well (Erik and Humberto were partners in the two runner-up finishes). JV is also the best closer in the league – he not only hits clutch shots, he *wants* to take the clutch shot. That mentality isn’t for everyone, which is why he distinguishes himself from most of the other players.

The challenge for JV in this tournament will be Thomas. No disrespect to Thomas, but he’s a rookie and not many rookies are successful in their first tournament. It’s hard to navigate the gauntlet.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: Thomas has been known to play in several leagues and tournaments outside of LEG. If he has been playing the last month, those reps could pay off for him and his team because all of LEG has been on a five week (or more) hiatus due to various factors. If other players are rusty enough to be a notch below their normal selves and Thomas has picked his game up a bit from when we last saw him, this team could play a spoiler role in this tournament. That said, I think this team will struggle with some of the heavyweights, so I have to call them a pretender.

Team 5 – #7 Bushie and #13 Paul

This duo reunites just one year later, after they finished runner-up in the 2020 Postseason Tournament as the “Pull N’ Tug Brothers”. Both players have improved their game since last year’s second place finish, so it’s possible they make another deep run.

Maybe more interesting than their tournament performance is how they’ll top last year’s team name. “The Ambiguously Gay Duo”? “Karma Chameleon”? “Who’s in My Mouth”? “Bob Kraft’s Backroom Bandits”? The suspense is killing me!

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: Despite their sensational 2020 Postseason Tournament performance, this team is a dark horse in this tournament. On paper, there are just too many other teams I’d rank ahead of them (Dibble and Erik, Galz and Ray, Turley and Nick, and Barker and Brendan), which prevents them from jumping into the contender status.

Team 6 – Scott (Unranked) and #17 Matt

Scott is a former champion, winning the 2018 Postseason Tournament, and he also has two runner-up finishes (2017 and 2019 Preseason Kick-Off Tournaments, respectively). Scott is ready for another deep tournament run, but will he get enough help from his partner?

Matt, like Thomas, faces the uphill challenge of being a rookie. He has shown flashes of his potential in 2021, while also having some low moments, like his week 3 bun run with Coach Mike.

I like Scott’s game a lot, and always feel like he’ll have his team in the running for a championship. It’s very clear that this team’s success hinges on Matt.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: History tells us this team should be a pretender because no rookie has ever won a doubles tournament championship. Is this the year, and the team, to break history? It’s possible, but also hard to imagine given the talent on the other teams. For that reason, I have to label these guys as pretenders.

Team 7 – #6 Barker and Brendan (Unranked)

Barker rode JV’s coattails to two championships, and Nick’s to another championship. Once again, Barker finds himself in a nice comfortable partnership heading into a tournament. He’ll look for Brendan’s shoulders to carry him to a fourth championship in this tournament.

Brendan is unranked because he has not appeared in 2021 regular season action, but he’s clearly one of the better players in this field. He is fresh off a 2021 Singles Tournament runner-up, and while he should feel great about that result, he also has a bitter taste in his mouth because he was capable of claiming that championship.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: This team features two of the top six or seven players in the league, one of which is hungry for his first title after coming oh so close in this year’s Singles Tournament (Brendan). The other (Barker), hungry to prove he wasn’t the one riding coattails. This team is a contender.

Team 8 – #16 Jack and #11 Bob

This season Jack eclipsed the 10.0 KPM mark for the first time in his career, and Bob made an enormous leap from 8.2 KPM in 2020 to 12.8 KPM in 2021. These guys are rising stars in the league, but their tournament success comes down to their consistency and their draw. If both players can throw accurately all day, and not get caught up in trying to go bag-for-bag in the hole with some of their opponents, they’ll be in good shape. Their mentality needs to be any scoring bag, even one on the board, is a great bag. Make it difficult on their opponents and try to grind out victories. After that, they’ll need a little luck on which teams they draw during their tournament path.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: Both players are improving rapidly. Unfortunately this tournament field is super talented, making this team a pretender. However, they are capable of creating chaos by pulling an upset or two, and this team should be in the running for the Toilet Bowl Championship.

Team 9 – #5 Turley and #1 Nick

Is there a luckier player in the league when it comes to tournament drafts than Nick? My god. For this blind draw we had protections in place to ensure none of the top-4 ranked players could be partners. So what does Nick do? He draws the #5 player, the highest possible ranking he could partner with. Truly unbelievable. In the 2020 Postseason Tournament Draft Lottery, he was selected with the second pick by Barker, who had just a 3% chance of earning that pick (they went on to win that tournament). Nick has also been randomly partnered with Steve-O twice, and both times they won the tournament.

Listen, Nick is an excellent player. He’s #1 for a reason. But he doesn’t need any help!

Turley has had a breakout 2021 campaign, hitting 70% of his bags and posting a 14.6 KPM (up from 11.4 KPM in 2020). A Postseason Tournament title would be the cherry on top of an incredible year.

Contender/Pretender/Dark Horse: No doubt, this team is a contender! Nick is the most decorated player in LEG history with five championships and two MVPs. Turley, on the other hand, has not had much success in tournaments…that is the wildcard for this team. How does Turley handle the pressure of advancing deep into this tournament?

PREDICTION

Every year, in every tournament I find myself saying, “this is deepest pool of talent we’ve had for a tournament”. It’s not lip service! It’s true! Of the 18 players in this tournament field, only two are below the 10.0 KPM threshold (it’s safe to assume unranked players Scott, Brendan and Ray would clear that mark). When the KPM metric was developed, 10.0 was considered a great night/season. Now, we are blowing that out of the water!

With so many good players, victories will be hard to earn in this tournament. Ultimately, someone has to win and there are two teams that I think separate themselves – Galz and Ray, and Turley and Nick.

My gut is telling me Galz and Ray pull this one out, with the championship match being decided in the third, and final, game.