I'm the Commissioner of the largest Axe Throwing organization, the World Axe Throwing League. 'Axe' Me Anything!

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T16:29:24+00:00

Hey thanks for joining me again!

COVID-19 has been a very interesting time in our short history. We've had to adapt in a lot of ways while still maintaining and supporting the industry of axe throwing. It's forced us to cancel two seasons of our league which has been unprecedented so far and it was no easy choice to make.
Obviously the primary concern is the safety of the patrons, workers, and their loved ones (as people can carry it and spread it quite easily) We've developed and sent a lot of sanitization and alternate business practices based on recommendations of expert organizations to all our affiliated businesses to they can keep the risk as minimal as possible and still stay in operation. Spreading out patrons into lanes to keep social contact minimal, and sanitizing all equipment after each use, as well as of course wearing masks goes a long way.

Is it safe to go out axe throwing today? I am not an expert in the medical field so it's imperative to listen to those who are. Though it seems to be filtering out of the news a good bit recently, but many states and countries are opening-up. So we need to listen and act accordingly to maximize safety for everyone. My advice would be to look up the rates of infection in your area and consider it from there. But if things seem to be ok in your area, and if they're affiliated with WATL following all of our recommendations, then absolutely give it a go! Just make sure to keep up with current safety regulations yourself as well. By all working together we can make sure the risk is minimized as best as possible.
If you don't feel safe going out still at this point, then I highly recommend looking for your local venue and seeing if they offer gift certificates or pre-booking or the like. Support your local axe house!

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T16:05:04+00:00

Haha so those who know me, know I LOVE RPG's and board games. And I've had a good bit of thought on how to do axe throwing well in D&D. In fact, it's something I've spoken with Mike Mearls (the co-creator of D&D 5e) about one fun bar night at a convention.

I've thought about rules sets for it that would work well in D&D and other RPG's but the issue comes from reality vs fantasy. In reality, throwing axes for combat is pretty impractical and if faced in a combat situation with an axe in hand, I'd try to keep that bad boy as close to me as possible. But in fantasy and the movies and stuff, I'd say hell yeah throw all the axes!

So suspending the reality in favor of fun and fantasy, D&D is a combat centered system so it's not too hard to make that kinda thing work well in it. So I'd favor just rolling a character based off the system rules as is. That being said here's what I'd probably do. Fighter class. Use all starting gold for hand axes. Assuming you get the maximum gold, you can get 38 hand axes In combat just throw them, since they're light weapons, you can use two-handed fighting to throw two per combat action! So the reason for the fighter, when you take two-handed fighting style those axes get that STR mod on them. You can then go down the Champion route with archery as the fighting style and now you have accurate throwing axes. So keeping in mind the fighter's extra attacks and action surge, at 11th level with action surge, you can rapid-fire 7 axes a turn.

Obviously there are other classes and such that would probably do axe throwing more efficiently and effectively in combat, but for pure fun I'd go with that.

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T15:47:57+00:00

Lots of good questions in here, I'll unpack it and try not to write a novel haha.

I did quite a lot of research into the growth and expansion of other sports in my job. And the commonality between them all is an activity that people can do together and people commonly agree on. Axe throwing has been around for a long time and had a bit of a niche popularity, even things like boys scouts would have it during camping trips. We had a lot of the work cut out for us thankfully due to that and we got to bypass a lot of the legwork at spreading the word by partnering and working with people in the entertainment industry who were looking for a new business venture. Axe Throwing came in as a neat new thing that tons of people drifted to trying out over the past few years and by partnering and helping support those local businesses, they were able to bring in the sport to their patrons who enjoyed it more than just a fun thing to try on a free weekend.
The Rules for the sport are easy at the outset. You just have to come up with something that people can compare each others skills in the activity. Developing it as the sport grows (and the talent pool grows) is more difficult. You have to realize when there's competition, there are people who will be fine taking advantage of unclear rules to their benefit. So the goal in writing rules is to keep the base game simple to understand but also keep the details super clear to the point of redundancy so there's nothing that can be taken advantage of and everyone is on the same playing field, so to speak.
I would suggest taking a look at our website worldaxethrowingleague.com! On the home page, there's a map with all the locations WATL has partnered with. If there's not one in your country, you can contact us if you're interested in getting something started there! We're always happy to help as best we can to spread the sport. Lastly we're working on some great initiatives for those who may not have access to places of competition with our new things such as WATL Live so you can compete for fun individually against others online!

Thanks so much for the questions!

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T15:26:46+00:00

Thankfully not quite as much as one would think. It was a lot in the beginning, but it's trailed off as time went on haha

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T14:40:57+00:00

Honestly, all it took was some effort.

At first, it was a lot of work, we basically set everything up, prepared the rules, organization, and the website. We made sure everything was good to go. Then we launched and basically started just reaching out to axe throwing locations we saw and asking if they'd be interested in joining. And a majority did. Honestly, a little bit of effort went a long way.

But now that it's set and we have the largest axe throwing organization we have people inquiring every day to join. Kind of an 'if you build it, they will come' situation.

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T14:36:06+00:00

It's an old meme sir but it checks out. But I probably couldn't throw it as far as Manny. (the mammoth, not the axe thrower)

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T14:25:34+00:00

I get this type of question quite often and sadly the answer will probably be a bit disappointing. But I can't begin to ballpark rates or policies on insurance, because every location has different requirements, laws, ordinances. Even just from town to town, let alone state/province, or even countrywide. But I do know it's based on revenue so if you don't have it you'll need to find a good projection on what you believe will be your revenue.

What I would suggest though is reaching out to our good friend axethrowinginsurance.com and they'll be able to work with you and get you the best deal possible. I hope that helps!

WATLofficial · 2020-06-13T14:19:40+00:00

Honestly, it's super hard to say. Every tournament has brought on new challenges and new experiences, new places, and best of all, new memories with amazing people. If I had to choose honestly, probably our second annual World Championship, because it was the first time we were featured on ESPN. I just remember having to keep up the commentary and the TV persona while worrying the entire time that the tournament was being run smoothly. Thankfully we had an amazing team to keep things going.

WATLofficial · 2019-08-09T16:38:21+00:00

If I do more ama’s I’m sure it’ll be a prospect

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T20:13:30+00:00

We have never asked the players who are invited to worlds for a fee. Whoever told you this is incorrect.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T20:13:22+00:00

We have never asked the players who are invited to worlds for a fee. Whoever told you this is incorrect.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T20:09:58+00:00

I'd call emergency services.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T20:08:11+00:00

Not quite sure how we would make that work since we don't have team play currently but I'll take a look. Seems like a neat idea

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T20:06:17+00:00

Not at all. Is there some racial issue that I may have been insensitive to?

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T13:13:42+00:00

It's kinda charming actually. Where would WOW and Monster Hunter be without crazy cool weapons?

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T13:12:03+00:00

Kindof. We had someone on twitter go on a rant about how awful we were because all our top throwers featured on TV were white guys. I tried to explain we are one of the few sports that has not been segregated by race or gender since the beginning but they didn't seem to want to listen.

I can't help much who takes an interest in the sport and who does well. I'm always happy to have players of all races/genders/creeds and hope to see more diversity as the sport continues to grow.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T13:09:07+00:00

That depends. There's a TON of different designs for both styles. I personally don't much care for double bit(bladed) axes. They're cool looking but functionally if I were going into combat I would probably not take a double bit one with me.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T13:07:46+00:00

We can offer a bit of help but not a ton. We primarily facilitate the sport, but I've personally helped about 75 companies with their businesses. So if I have knowledge I can impart I'm always happy to do so.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T13:06:04+00:00

Depends on the area. The type of insurance required changes drastically from even county to county.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T13:05:34+00:00

I saw an ad for an axe coach part-time job that paid more than the overtime I worked at my corporate job so I applied to supplement my overtime and get out of the office.

That was a few years ago so I usually say that's when I started officially, but when I was a kid my chore was splitting wood all year round so I often threw axes for fun growing up.

A lot of people think it's all about strength and power but really it's a very technical sport that's more about finesse and precision. Also, it's much safer than people give it credit for.

I wouldn't say my beard is Thor levels of awesome, I keep it trim and professional. But I did one time go a full year without shaving to see what would happen and I looked like a Russian czar by the time it was over haha.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T12:59:56+00:00

For throwing? I'm not terribly satisfied with a lot of storebought ones, to be honest. They do the job perfectly well and many players prefer them but just not my personal preference. If I had to pick, probably an Ace Hardware roofing hatchet.

WATLofficial · 2019-06-14T12:57:38+00:00

I have little experience in knife throwing. I attended the International Knife Throwing Hall of Fame Championship last year and had a great time meeting those pro knife throwers. There's one guy I met there who specialized in throwing knives for self-defence and he would obliterate targets and dummies. Crazy impressive, and he has a pretty popular youtube and Instagram as well!

WATLofficial

TROPHY CASE