The LaFace of the Community award goes to a member of the community selected by the community for their contributions to axe throwing and for exemplifying the best of IATF ideals. The recipients of this award is a community member who leads by example to create a positive and supportive competitor-friendly community. They promote positive sportsperson-like behaviour and are leaders in our community. Not all leaders lead from the front and a deserving person might be working diligently behind the scenes to make axe throwing the best sport and the best community it can be.

This year, in partnership with Throwing It Forward, the IATF was proud to award the TiF Volunteer Award to a Clutch Community Volunteer who went above and beyond in their contributions to support the 2026 International Axe Throwing Championships.

Winner of the 2026 TiF Volunteer Award:

Andrea Heisz

from Valhalla Indoor Axe Throwing Asheville

Andrea volunteered across multiple days at IATC. She offered her experience to each event and upgraded the live streams at each venue. Andrea brought enthusiasm and dedication everywhere she went. Thank you, Andrea!

Tournament Formats

All tournaments at the 2026 International Axe Throwing Championships, excluding the Wilson Cup, begin with a group play stage, followed by a single-elimination knockout stage.

The Wilson Cup is a double-elimination tournament.

Group Play

Based on feedback from IATC 2025, we have revised group play to avoid groups of 6, 7 or 8.

Groups at IATC 2026 will be limited to 4 or 5 competitors. This ensures that all competitors play each of the other competitors in their group.

The top 2 competitors from each group advance to the single-elimination knockout stage. Within each group, the advancing competitors are decided by taking the top 2, ranked by most wins, then by fewest rounds lost, then by head-to-head result, then by greatest score differential. 

Because the number of groups varies with the total number of competitors, the number of competitors advancing to the knockout is not necessarily 8, 16, 32, etc. This means there can be byes in the first round of the knockout stage.

To avoid arbitrary byes, the competitors advancing from the groups are ranked for seeding. The ranking is first group rank (1st or 2nd), followed by most wins in their group, then by fewest rounds lost, then by greatest score differential.

The first round of the knockout avoids rematches between the 1st and 2nd place competitors from the same group. This is accomplished by adjusting the seeding to avoid the match up. This type of rematch remains possible in later rounds.

This means all of the 1st place competitors from the groups seed above all of the 2nd place competitors from the groups. Among the 1st place competitors, those more dominant in their groups seed higher, similarly among the 2nd place competitors.

Tie Breakers

In all tournaments, the first five throws, or first two flights for knives, will be thrown side-by-side on two adjacent targets. Tie breaker throws will be thrown with the competitors alternating on the same target. Competitors will decide which of the targets they will both use for the tie breaker.

Rulesets

All tournaments will employ playoff rules, meaning when one competitor has won the majority of the rounds, the match is over. Similarly, if a round is out of reach, the round is over.

Hatchet

All hatchet tournaments follow the published axe throwing rules from the IATF website: https://iatf.com/match-format-and-scorekeeping/. These tournaments are: Under 60, Under 70, Close But No Cigar, Slayer and the Wilson Cup.

These tournaments, with the exception of Under 60, employ IATF Premier scoring.

The Under 60 tournament employs IATF Standard Scoring.

Knives

The IATC 2026 Knives tournament follows the knife throwing rules from the IATF website: https://iatf.com/rules/knives/

Ambidextrous

The previously unpublished Ambidextrous ruleset is available here: https://iatf.com/rules2/ambi/

The IATC 2026 Ambidextrous tournament employs IATF Standard scoring.

Big Axe

The previously unpublished Big Axe ruleset is available here: https://iatf.com/rules2/big-axe/

The IATC 2026 Big Axe tournament employs IATF Premier scoring.

Reminder: The first 5 throws of Big Axe rounds will be thrown side-by-side on two adjacent targets. Tie breaker throws will be thrown with the competitors alternating on the same target. Competitors will decide which of the targets they will both use for the tie breaker. This procedure amplifies the competitive pressure for the tie breaker and differentiates the stages in the round.

Doubles

The previously unpublished Doubles ruleset is available here: https://iatf.com/rules2/doubles/

The IATC 2026 Doubles tournament employs IATF Premier scoring.

Dear IATF Community,

We want to take a minute to address some of the concerns and dialogue around the results of Round 1 and share more context around our position and what happened.

Last week, the IATF team made the difficult decision to not accept the Round 1 scores of 7 competitors. Through our diligence in certifying the Round 1 scores of the over 600 throwers who competed, we discovered that these scores were thrown outside of the official dates set for Round 1 competition.

The rules around when you can throw your Round 1 scores are clear and have been consistent since its inception in 2018. What made the decision difficult was knowing how much hard work every thrower dedicates in order to qualify for Round 1 of the Wilson Cup every year. We do not relish removing competitors from competition.

Here are some key considerations we want the community to understand:

1. The hosts and throwers are responsible for throwing during the set times.

1. The dates for Round 1 were publicly announced in June 2025. The member organizations hosting heats decide when over the 3 allotted days they would like to host.
   
   

2. The hosts should not have offered times outside of the official Round 1 dates and the throwers should not have accepted them.
   
   

3. The IATF website clearly states that Round 1 cannot be thrown outside of the official dates.
   
   

4. Round 1 is held on specific dates and the requirement of showing up to throw at a specific time, under pressure, with other throwers, is part of the format of the event. Regardless of whether you agree with the format of Round 1, the elements of performance under pressure are features of this event and of competition in sport.

2. In order to support a healthy sport and community, fairness is a must.

1. We strongly believe that it is our responsibility as the governing body of this sport to uphold the rules and standards as well as operate with integrity and fairness. Fairness requires that we enforce the rules consistently and predictably. Integrity requires that we do this regardless of popularity or status and without special exceptions.
   
   

2. So many people have contributed so much to this community to make it great. In order to respect that, we must treat everyone consistently and support those who compete fairly within the parameters. 
   
   

3. Leadership within a sport and a community means competing within the rules, taking accountability when you make mistakes and respecting your fellow athletes that competed within the rules.
   
   

4. The competitors who recorded scores outside of the Round 1 dates did not compete in Round 1. Thursday was not Round 1. Feelings of frustration and disappointment around not qualifying are understandable and valid.
   
   

5. 600+ throwers arranged their schedules to compete during the proper Round 1 times. To allow throws made outside of the tournament times, would undermine all those competitors who followed the rules set out for Round 1.
   
   

3. The IATF did our due diligence to train and support the member organizations before and throughout Round 1.

1. All hosts were given specific instructions and training for how and when to run Round 1 over multiple member meetings and calls. We provided support throughout the weekend and reviewed scores as they were submitted via AxeScores.
   
   

2. At no point did any organization reach out to the IATF to ask for support or guidance for potentially running heats outside of the pre determined dates.
   
   

3. The throwers who did contact us to ask about throwing outside of the official Round 1 dates were told that was not possible.
   
   

4. The scores of the heats in question were recorded on paper on Thursday, and entered into AxeScores over the weekend.
   
   

5. The heats at Celtic Axes were immediately flagged as unusual when they were entered on Friday, March 20th. Our team reached out to the organization several times over the weekend to get clarity on how and when those heats were run.
   
   

6. The heat at BATL Grounds was discovered in the process of certifying the heats with BATL.

It is our responsibility as the governing body of the sport of axe throwing to uphold the standards of integrity and fairness, and we will continue to do this by enforcing the rules as they are written at that time. Rule changes cannot be reactionary, and take a great deal of planning, consideration, and evaluation before being implemented as we have demonstrated in our implementation of the Premier rules and touch-Clutch changes.

Our goal is to continue to grow axe throwing as a global sport that is taken seriously on the international stage. We thank you for your continued support in this endeavor.

Thank you for your participation so far in the first round of the 2026 Wilson Cup. We are overwhelmed every year in the lead-up to IATC by your enthusiasm and appetite for this event. The feature tournaments are nearly all close to selling out and we are locking down the Wilson Cup 256 in record time. IATC is a massive undertaking to organize and produce and we are grateful to have such a passionate community to work for.

Thank you for taking the time to read this statement. We can’t wait to see many of you next month in Toronto. For those of you who aren’t able to attend in person, we celebrate 10 years of axe throwing with you wherever you are.

- The IATF Team