Cornholes Success Through Covid
Cornhole has relatively thrived throughout this Covid period that has halted and crippled other major sports leagues. The biggest reason for this has been its ability to stay on schedule with events and its ability to stay safe. After having to cancel a major tournament the league broke the bigger events down to several smaller events thus helping fill the voids left by other sports on ESPN programing channels while reducing Covid spreading. They coupled this with temperature screenings upon entrance and a strict policy allowing only participants in the arena and no fans.
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Game Play Guidelines - The ACL also implemented strict guidelines during the beginning of play that limited player interaction. Players were required to completely step away from the board after each throw giving well over six feet of separation between individuals. On top of this players were restricted from touching each others bags with a designated bag collector at each end of the court.
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Mask Policy - They implemented strict mask rules requiring player to wear either masks or face shields at all times. Directors seen not enforcing these guidelines can be punished and potentially terminated. Standard protocol is players get one warning and anything after results in vacating the property.
Geographic Advantages
While a nationwide growing sport the geographic elements of the ACL's conferences have allowed for safer playing. With a total of 14 different conferences across North America the members are able to stay somewhat spread apart preventing large crowds as much as possible.
​While not perfect this structure has limited cross country travel outside of the major national and world events. Couple this with the above guidelines and you have an effective defense strategy.
Virtual Competitions
With social distancing the ACL has explored the usage of virtual tournaments thus further limiting physical contact promoting social distancing and expanding the reach of the ACL for international players. The process requires players to play on a live feed and virtually report their scores within the time-frame allotted by the director.
Rise of the Ghost
Playing the ghost is a popular practice strategy that has been adopted as a playing technique during Covid. The way it works is the ghost gets a determined amount of points every throw. So for example, if you are playing ghost six every round they get six points In order to score you must throw seven or more, if you do not the ghost scores. This process is continued until one of you reaches 21.
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This style of play again limits physical contact and supports the social distancing guidelines ultimately keeping players healthy for the big national events.
In Conclusion
The ACL has designed a method through Covid that has allowed them to continue their upward trajectory. Specifically by decreasing event size into smaller satellite tournaments allowing them to stay safe and fill the needs of ESPN vacancies. The innovation to virtual play has also played a major role in their success as it promotes a safe environment for all athletes. This has also allowed the ACL to continue their plan for expansion by connecting more with international players. Lastly, with the strict guidelines put in place at in person events the ACL is able to portray a positive PR image that is displayed over ESPN and seen by viewers all over.