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.















