Las Vegas Open 180s recap

What a great weekend with a worldwide cast of dart players all playing to obtain the top prizes, making new friends, and showing their talents on the live stream with USA Darts. 

The weekend events started with the 501 National Championship where Aaja Jalbert defeated Lisa Yee for the championship in a final field of 16 women and Alex Spellman defeated Elliott Milk for the championship in a final field of 32 men. Congratulations to all four in making the 2025 Finals. We decided to keep count on the superlatives and players shot 168 maximum shots of 180.

DartConnect RegConnect was a time saver for the Open in 2025. Tournament organizers found 2024 to be overwhelming for the staff, so in 2025, the step to Reg/Connect eliminated exceedingly long lines and the need for six cashiers for every event. Players who utilized the new process were relieved to avoid the long lines and know that they were entered into the event. Some players asked to confirm that they were in the event and were quite thrilled to know the new process really worked to their advantage.

New to the tournament this year was a station where players could ask questions pertaining to the tournament, the processes, where boards were located, and if they were called to a board. There were a couple of strange questions where players attempted to be jokesters. The Question/Answer Desk also maintained the tournament’s lost and found items (phones, dart cases, bracelets, supplies, and even clothing). 

Televisions were placed in the control area where players could browse the bracket and watch the streamed matches by USA Darts. With two sources of finding out where players were called, the main control area was free to focus on calling matches and starting games on time.

Players for the Las Vegas Open saw the comeback of the 180, Round Of 9, and Deadeye certificates. Our weekend vendors donated prizes for a raffle of the donated items to inspire the players to report their accomplishments. To our surprise, the players not only wanted to be in the raffle, but they also wanted a signed certificate by ADO President Widmayer and opted to get their picture made for publication. Prizes donated included a darts base station from The Dart Shop, 10 t-shirts and 12 L-Style L3 EZ flights from DPFL, a gift certificate from Stingerz, and a gift certificate to A-to-Z Darts. 

Brooke Masten hit her very first ever Deadeye in a tournament for which she received a specially notated certificate with congratulations for making that shot. A total of 487 180s, 159 round of 9s, 9 deadeyes, and 2 170 outs were found in the leaderboard with a majority of those reported to enter the raffle. 

Be sure to check out the smiling faces in the pictures on our Facebook page.

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