Scotty 'Scotty B' Burnett

What an event. Go to youtube and do a search for like Dartslive World Grand Final Hong Kong or Paul Lim World Champion. This event set the new standard for how major finals should be run!

Not really a lot of shenanigans to write about this trip. As our whole crew put good times aside and put several hours a day into practice the few days prior to the event. Outside of hitting the open air street market with Chris White and David Fatum for a few hours, spent the 2 days in Hong Kong leading up to the final in the hotel room. So threw with John Part, Chris and David each day.

We did however attend the opening of CoCo Duck bar, a new iDarts / Dartslive venture. Had a great time of course. Had a great time watching the North Americans playing singles and pairs against locals. Hats of to Steve, your a class act and never cease to impress!

So lets start with the draw. If you read my last blog, then you were not surprised either to find out Chris White was on my board. Have a look at the draw here we are all in block B: http://www.darts-theworld.com/en/gf/tournament.html

I had a fairly tough 1st match in Stephen Tam. The scoreline does not represent how well he can play, but I was the better man that day and won 3-1. My second match was against fellow Puma/Shot! sponsored player and buddy Scott Mackenzie. Scott had just beat another fellow Shot! player, Rick ESPY Espinoza.

Seriously this draw did not work out well for Shot!. All 4 Puma/Shot! players were drawn on the same board! Means potentially only 1 would make it to the stage.

Scott remarked he was a little nervous before the match, and it showed in the opening 01 leg as I won handily. Well, he shook the nerves off and hti back with a stellar cricket leg to level it 1-1. I would win both 01′s and Scott would win both Cricket’s. Into the deciding leg we go. I won the bull and Scott smartly choose Cricket again. I finally found my rhythm on the triples and pulled out a heaving scoring leg to win 3-2. Unlucky Scott mate. Truth be told, I was a little nervous too but I wasn’t gonna tell you that!

Chris won both his opening matches as well which set up the clash we were both hoping for in the Top 16.

As we usually seem to do, we traded legs setting up the decider. Chris won the bull, and I had to go with Cricket. Such a great match but overall great friend Chris was just too strong for me that day. Well played mate!

I took this loss pretty hard and had to go outside for a private pity party. But my best running mate to the end Chris would have none of it. He followed me right out and said the things you say to brothers after a tough loss. My spirits were quickly raised when I finally realized Chris had just qualified for the stage by making the Top 8!

Now it is times like this I had the words to describe how insane the stage and set up was the The World Grand Final. Like I said earlier, just go you youtube and watch it!! Steve and Dartslive have not once failed to impress me on my 4 trips over this year. And things only looking better for next year!

Want to finish up congratulating long time friend Paul Lim on a very impressive display of darts all day long. Paul knocked Chris out in the Semi Final match. The final, it looked like Sho might take it, but Paul did as he does and finds another gear and proved (AGAIN!) to the World why he is the most consistent soft tip player in the World!!

What a trip to Asia!

Hong Kong Open (Steel Tip), The World Stage 8, & IDF World Cup in Shanghai, China

I traveled with Chris White and Rob Heckman the very long 14+ hour plane ride from San Francisco to Hong Kong. After arriving we meet up with good friends Jay Barlow and Trish Grzesik that flew in from Canada to see what all the buzz is about in Asia!

We started our evening at the Hong Kong open to visit with friends and see how David Fatum and Scott Mackenzie were doing in the doubles at the Hong Kong open. David and Scott finished 3rd in a very solid international field. Good run boys!

While there we meet up with a local friend Patrick (owner of Dfactory in Hong Kong) for some good times. The night started at a Mexican style bar complete with sand all over the floor and Sombrero’s! After a few cervezas and a couple Sangrias, we were off to an iDarts bar somewhere in downtown Hong Kong. We were there for a bit playing a few games, and having a few more cervesas! David joined us shortly and we had a blast! The bar was buzzing with groups of local players on each of the 6 or so boards. This is only the second iDarts bar I have visited but let me tell you the service is consistently fantastic and the iDarts theme is very welcoming and attractive!

The following day, at the last minute (literally!) we decided to play the 4-person team event at the Hong Kong Open. So Team Can-Am was set with myself, Chris White, Robert Heckman, Jay Barlow and David Fatum. This is also the day of the Shoot Out for The World tournament. With luck on our side, the round robin lasted a while and we (along with many others!) stole away to the iDarts bar for the Shoot Out. I was not pleased with my score. I think it was around 4600. The previous night I was shooting in the mid 8000′s with 8 gram bar darts! Frustrating! lol

So we all piled back into the cab to finish the 4-person event. While there, we were cheered on by one of my sponsors, managing director of Puma Darts Peter McCormick. Peter also attended the World event and came over to Shanghai with us for a few days as well. Always great fun when we get to catch up! We lost in the top 8 to a very strong Philippine team headed by Paul Lim. They went on to win the event. Congrats to Paul, Lourence, J.P., Ronald and Ramon.

For the Stage 8 event the following day, I would love to report that I did better. But the rising star Benny Dersch ended my day in the top 32. I am happy it was a TV match. Benny has been on a tear the last 12+ months all over the soft tip circuit. I did pick up a few points and happy to say I am safely into the top 48 for the Grand Final; seeded 35th.

Congratulations to good buddy David Fatum for winning The World Stage 8! Great run all day long!

We capped off the evening with birthday wishes (and Sake!) for Rick Espy Espinoza at the popular Japanese style BBQ place right next to the iDarts club.

Now off to mainland China! We arrived in Shanghai to a welcome dinner provided by the tournament director Joe Mei. Hats off, Joe. You are a class act!

The next day Joe had 2 local friends take us to the ancient town of Qibao. You can see some of the photos of Qibao below. Had a great time!

Later that night we went out with Peter for a dinner with Tyler who is a large Puma distributor in China. After dinner we went to the Kangaroo bar and the rest of Team USA and Team Canada showed up for some drinks. Benny and I were honored to be asked to play on the bars league team that night. Which was a bit of a task as I was “wearing” my first beer of the night all down the front of my shirt and pants. Yes, I was sober. And yes, everyone had a laugh! Such a good time playing with the local league players. They welcomed us in with open arms. We were all asked to sign the walls and ceiling. Team USA member Randy Van Deursen was able to sign the ceiling without standing on a chair like the rest of us! Intimidating not only on the dartboard, but in height! I think I heard him say he was 6’7”! A stop by the Green Dragon so Chris could show us why his favorite movie is The Color of Money, then ended the night at a new friend JoJo’s bar called the Koala Bar. No, we did not intentionally only visit animal named locations LOL!

Enjoyed a relaxing morning the next day. Most of the North American players went to the venue to play in a singles side event going on. But I got to sleep in YES! Got to the venue in the afternoon to spend some quality time with a whole group of Chinese Youth players. Mark my words: There was a future world champion in that room! Flawless technique, picturesque follow through, and solid math setting up for doubles! I was told 3 days a week at school, they spend about 3 hours a day practicing. Signed a bunch of autographs, gave away a few sets of darts and made a WHOLE bunch of new friends! The photos below give you an idea of how serious the Youth players, and the Chinese government are about darts!

The opening ceremony was amazing. So much pageantry and effort went into both the opening and closing ceremony. Again hats off to Joe and the entire IDF staff and to the Chinese Government. Both Team USA and Team Canada were wearing Shade made shirts. Thank you CoCo for your generous donation of the shirts. They looked great! The USA was represented by: Robert Heckman, Ray Carver, Johnny Kuczynski, Benny Dersch, Rick Espinoza, Brian Stamey, Stacy Bromberg, Randy Van Deursen and myself. Randy actually gave up his spot so Benny could experience it. You’re a good guy Randy!

Ok now we get to the heart of how the next 2 days of the World Cup went. 97% humidity! 01 singles I lost early to Benny Dersch that went on to win the event, then Chris White knocked me out shortly after that in the looser bracket. Congrats Benny! Another impressive showing! I composed myself for the start of the Team round robin events. We had so many people on Team USA we rotated players out for each of the 4 matches to be played that night and ended up winning our group.

The second day of the event still proved to be even more humid at 98%! I was better prepared this day as I “borrowed” 2 wash cloths from my hotel. One was for wiping away the tremendous amount of perspiration from my head. The second I drenched in cold water and draped it on the back of my neck and pulled my collar over it. Rewetting the wash cloth about every 30 minutes worked superb! I wish I had the 01 singles to do over because I was playing great in the cricket singles! Sure I was still covered in perspiration, but my body core temperature was much lower. I lost an early match 2-1 to Chris. Again! Seriously it seems I only played Benny and Chris this week! But went on a great run in the looser bracket. I had a solid performance against one of the top Japanese players Yuji Eguchi. All 3 legs over 800 points. I won the match the last 3 rounds with 5 bulls, 6 bulls, then dbl bull single 20 triple 15 for the win. I was a bit emotional after I lost to eventual finalist Zdravko Antunovic from Croatia. Good buddy Paul Lim won the event. Well done mate!

After the singles the knock out round for the Team event started. As we carried 8 people on Team USA (9 actually) it was decided we would go with the top 3 finishers in the 3 singles events to this point. The starting team would be Ray Carver, Benny Dersch, Stacy Bromberg and myself. We all played superb and won our spot in the Final where we would meet Team Japan the following day.

This day started out weather, perfect! Nice and cool. The conditions today would have been great the previous 2 days! I was able to leave my hand towels at home for the finals!

The finals is a race to 9 wins with each country playing a series of Doubles matches. Japan started off with an early lead of 4-2 I believe. We battled back to our own lead of 6-4. Japanese team captained by Mitsumasa Hoshino regained the lead again at 8-7. We leveled back to 8-8 to set up the deciding leg. You could truly feel how bad each team wanted the win. Japan won the bull and started. USA would not be denied here. With the tension as high as it could get, I had a great 180 coming in to set me up with a 58 out. Hoshino was frozen at 170 so never got a decent look at it. Fat 18, double 20 was the way home. I don’t think I could have walked the darts in any cleaner. One of the greatest feelings in the world when that winning shot goes in so smooth. Go Team USA!

A very big congratulations to the Japanese team. They fought very hard and valiant.

We finished the night with a trip to a Brazilian steak house that only took 2 hours to find. After an incredible meal, Chris and I hooked back up with Tyler to a proper last night in Shanghai at a crazy good night club.

This one going back on the calendar for next year. I am hoping schedules work out so I can maybe go in a few days early and see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and more.

The World Grand Final is in a few short weeks. Hope to be writing my next blog on my brand new computer with $130,000 sitting in my bank account!