Dart Madness Tour – What is it?

The Dart Madness Tour is a yearly steel tip dart tournament series consisting of 8 – 12 tour stops (qualifiers) throughout the year to qualify players for the Dart Madness Championship event in November of each year. The Championship event will be a 2 day event where 64 invited players will compete in an NCAA Tournament style seeded 64 player bracket – 4 regions (South, East, West and North). Each bracket will have players seeded #1 through #16 playing off to get to the Final Four of Darts!

The Dart Madness Tour is sponsored by Dart Players St. Louis which is a part of Dart Players North America and matches and averages will be tracked on Dart Connect and players will be ranked along with the rest of the Dart Players North America across the country!

New in 2021 – Women’s Tour – Starting in 2021 there will now be a separate Women’s Tour which will have their own 32 person finale bracket at the Championship in November. Details below.

Who is eligible?

The tour is open to anyone except a known PDC professional.

Tour Stops/Qualifiers

There will be 8 -12 tour stops (qualifiers) a year. These are based on St. Louis being the central home base, and for 2021 there will be 7-8 tour stops in St. Louis area. For 2021 there will be 4 stops in Springfield, MO and 2-4 stops in Kansas City, MO. You can see dates and locations for all tour stops on the Dart Madness web site.

Each tour stop will have both an Open and a Women’s qualifier and knockout round. There must be a minimum of 6 women to hold a women’s event, otherwise the women are given the option to play in the Open division. Each stop will have a $30 entry fee that gets you in the singles qualifier which is a round robin to start followed by two knockout brackets – the Championship bracket and the consolation bracket (and for the women just one knockout bracket). $20 of your entry will be paid back that day in payouts for the qualifier. $5 of the entry fee will go into the Dart Madness Championship prize fund and will be paid back at the Dart Madness Championship finale in November. The final $5 per entry fee is for the admin cost and Dart Connect fees as all matches will be played using the Dart Connect scoring application.

Singles Qualifier (Open Division)

  • Round Robin – all games are 501 open in, double out
    •  There will be 4-6 round robin groups
    •  There will be 4-8 players per group
    •  You will play everyone in your group 3 games of 501 oi/do
    •  The winners of each group will advance to the Championship Knockout bracket. Everyone else will advance to the Consolation Knockout Bracket.
    • Total wins determine group winners. In case of a tie, the head to head match of the two players tied will determine the winner.
  • Championship Knockout Bracket
    • There will be 8 players in the Championship Knockout bracket – random draw for who plays who
    • The winners of each Round Robin group will advance to the Championship Knockout Bracket. This will be 4 to 6 players.
    • The last 2 to 4 spots will be the players who had the highest PPR during round robin play but did not win their group
    • The Top 8 round will be a Best of 9 match and the losers will receive 7 tour points
    • The Top 4 round will be a Best of 11 match and the losers will receive 12 tour points
    • The finals will be a Best of 13 match and the winner will receive 20 tour points and the runner up will receive 17 tour points
  • Consolation Knockout Bracket
    • Everyone who did not make the Championship Knockout bracket will play in the Consolation Knockout Bracket – random draw for who plays who
    • Top 16 and above matches will play a Best of 5 match and all losers will receive 1 tour point
    • Top 8 round will be a Best of 7 match and the losers will receive 2 tour points
    • Top 4 round will be a Best of 9 match and the losers will receive 3 tour points
    • The finals will be a Best of 11 match and the winner will receive 5 tour points and the runner up will receive 4 tour points
  •  Tour Points – as mentioned above players will earn points based on how they finish in either the consolation or championship bracket (if less than 16 players then points will be adjusted accordingly)
    •  minimum 1 participation point just for playing
    •  You can play in as many qualifiers as you like
    •  Once a player reaches a total of 57 or more tour points, they are no longer eligible to play in a qualifier for that year (they may still play in the blind draws)
    • NEW in 2020 – To be eligible for the Dart Madness Championship Finale you must play in a minimum of 2 tour stops

Singles Qualifier (Women’s Division)

  • Round Robin – all games are 501 open in, double out
    •  There will be 2-4 round robin groups
    •  There will be 4-8 players per group
    •  You will play everyone in your group 3 games of 501 oi/do
    •  All players will advance to the Women’s Knockout bracket.
    • Total wins determine group winners. In case of a tie, the head to head match of the two players tied will determine the winner.
  • Women’s Knockout Bracket
    • All women will go into a one seeded knockout bracket. They will be seeded by how they finish in the round robin group play and their PPR. If there is just one group, then they will be seeded by how they finish in the group. For seeding ties will be broken by PPR. If there is more than one group, all the group winners will be seeded first based on PPR. Then all the second place finishers will be seeded next based on PPR, etc. until all players are seeded.
    • Top 16 and above matches will play a Best of 5 match and all losers will receive 1 tour point
    • Top 8 round will be a Best of 5 match and the losers will receive 2 tour points
    • Top 4 round will be a Best of 7 match and the losers will receive 4 tour points
    • The finals will be a Best of 9 match and the winner will receive 12 tour points and the runner up will receive 7 tour points
    • If only 6 – 8 players then points will be as follows: 1st – 7, 2nd – 4, Top 4 – 2, and rest 1 point.
  •  Tour Points – as mentioned above players will earn points based on how they finish in knockout bracket
    •  minimum 1 participation point just for playing
    •  You can play in as many qualifiers as you like
    •  Once a player reaches a total of 40 or more tour points, they are no longer eligible to play in a qualifier for that year (they may still play in the Open division qualifiers and the blind draws)
    • To be eligible for the Dart Madness Championship Finale you must play in a minimum of 2 tour stops
    • If there are not 6 women to hold a women’s qualifier that day, then the women can choose to play in the Open division. Whatever points they earn in the Open division will be added to their Women’s Tour point standings. This is the only scenario where points earned in the Open Division can be added to the Women’s point list – when there isn’t a Women’s event available to play that day.
  • Women can play the Open Division any time – a women can play the Open division any time they wish and any points earned will go on the Open Division Tour points list. A women cannot play both the women’s and Open Division qualifiers in the same day. They must decide which event they wish to play. If a woman shows up late and misses the start of the Women’s group play and decides to play the Open division, their points will count towards the Open division standings and not the Women’s point list.

Blind Draw

  • Blind draw (to follow qualifier if time permits and there are enough boards) – open to all for a $10 entry – 100% payback plus added money if possible
  •  single elimination – best of 5 – Crk, 501, 501, Crk, Choice

Qualifier Payouts

Qualifier payouts will be vary based on the number of players that play and based on receiving sponsorship money from host venue. The host venue will be asked to pay sponsorship money of – $100 minimum, $150 if we reach 30 players, $200 if we reach 48 players.

Championship Knockout Bracket payout example (based on 30 players):

  • 1st Place – $200
  • 2nd Place – $100
  • Top 4 – $50
  • Top 8 – $25

Consolation Knockout Bracket payout example (based on 30 players):

  • 1st Place – $100
  • 2nd Place – $50
  • Top 4 – $25

Women’s Knockout Bracket payout example (based on 10 players – will pay out only 1st and 2nd with less than 10):

  • 1st Place – $100
  • 2nd Place – $50
  • Top 4 – $25

Tour Points List – How will it work?

The tour points list will be used to determine the 64 players invited to the Dart Madness Championship each November. It will also be used to determine seeding for the championship. The tour points list will be maintained on the Dart Madness Tour Points List web site and updated after each qualifier.

New in 2021 – Women’s Tour Point List – Starting in 2021 there will be a separate women’s tour point list which will be used to determine the 32 women invited to play in the Dart Madness Championship. Like the open tour list it will also be used to determine seeding for the Championship.

Here’s how it will work (Open Division):

  •  Players will be ranked by tour points – highest to lowest – the top 64 players in the tour points list will get invited to the Dart Madness Championship. (Note this ranking is for invitations only and not the final seedings at the Championship)
  •  If players are tied in points then they will be ranked by their PPR performance in the qualifiers. For example:
    1.  Steve 69 points (71.8 ppr)
    2.  Dan 64 points (68.6 ppr)
    3.  Dave 62 points (65.3 ppr)
    4.  Bill 60 points (79.1 ppr)
    5.  Kevin 57 points (69.4 ppr)
    6.  Kurt 53 points (59.6 ppr)
    7.  Larry 49 points (62.3 ppr)
  •  For invites all that matters is to be ranked 64 or higher, if anyone does not or can’t accept their invitation it will go to the next player on the list – #65, then #66, etc.
  •  Seeding for the championship will work as follows:
    •  All players with 57 points and above will be seeded by PPR – so based off the list above the seeding would be as follows – Bill #1, Steve #2, Kevin #3, Dan #4, and Dave #5. Even though Bill is #4 in the rankings, his 79.1 PPR makes him #1 in the seedings.
    •  Next all players with points from 45-56 will be seeded by PPR – so Larry would be seeded #7 and Kurt would be seeded #8 because they are in the same point group but Larry has the higher PPR.
    •  Next all players with points from 35-44 will be seeded by PPR.
    •  Next all players with 25-34 points will be seeded by PPR.
    • Next all players with 15-24 points will be seeded by PPR
    •  Next all remaining invited players will be seeded by PPR.
  •  Once we have the 64 player seeded list, the bracket will be set as follows:                                            DM_Seeding2
  •  For the NCAA way of looking at it, each region will have four #1 seeds, four #2 seeds, etc. like this:                 DM_Seeding1
  •  The final four bracket will be:     DM_Seeding_finalFour

Here’s how it will work (Women’s Division):

  • Players will be ranked by tour points – highest to lowest – the top 32 players in the tour points list will get invited to the Dart Madness Championship. (Note this ranking is for invitations only and not the final seedings at the Championship)
  • For invites all that matters is to be ranked 32 or higher, if anyone does not or can’t accept their invitation it will go to the next player on the list – #33, then #34, etc.
  •  Seeding for the championship will work as follows:
    •  All players with 40 points and above will be seeded by PPR.
    •  Next all players with points from 30-39 will be seeded by PPR.
    •  Next all players with points from 20-29 will be seeded by PPR.
    •  Next all players with 10-19 points will be seeded by PPR.
    • Next all remaining invited players will be seeded by PPR.
  • Once we have the 32 player seeded list, the bracket will be set as follows:
  • womensSeeding1
  • For the NCAA way of looking at it, each region will have four #1 seeds, four #2 seeds, etc. like this:
  • womensSeeding2
  • The final four bracket will be:     DM_Seeding_finalFour

Dart Madness Championship

The Championship will be held the weekend before Thanksgiving in November each year. As mentioned above the top 64 players in the open and the top 32 players in the women’s rankings will be invited to play in the Championship finales. Entry fee is $50 and must be prepaid so we know who is attending and we can set up the seedings. There will be other events all weekend as well – doubles, triples, and blind draws.

The location of the tournament and the schedule for the Championship is to be determined each year.

Championship Payout (estimates)

Open Division: 1st – $1800   2nd – $900   Top 4 – $500   Top 8 – $200   Top 16 – $60

Women’s Division: 1st – $700   2nd – $400   Top 4 – $200   Top 8 – $50

Total Payout Goal ($5000+ for Open, $2000+ for Women)

  •  Entry fees (64 X $50) = $3200  Women – Entry fees (32 X $50) = $1600
  •  Prize fund (collected at each qualifier) = $1400-$1600 for Open, $400-$500 for Women (this is an estimate)
  •  Sponsors/Advertisers = $200-$500 (looking for sponsors and advertisers)

These are estimated payouts based on making the estimated reserve money from each qualifier and getting sponsors/advertisers to contribute as well. Payouts could go down or could go up based on money collected and costs.

DartMadness.org

The DartMadness.org web site has a complete list of rules – corking, player conduct, etc., dates and locations for the qualifiers, standings and the ranking list.