ACL Players Guide for the 22/23 Season

The American Cornhole League (ACL) encourages social and competitive play for all ages and all skill levels. The ACL software makes managing tournaments, leagues and custom events easy and provides the critical infrastructure for a statistical database for the sport. Becoming a player allows you to compete against people of your same skill level and always gives you an opportunity to see how you stack up against the best of the best. Please contact us with any feedback or questions.

ACL Membership Levels for 22/23

ACL Players Guide membership levels for 2022/23

Memberships

Player Membership levels	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
Yearly Cost	Free	$10	$40	$100
Player May Participate in ACL Player Events
Player Points Appear in Standings
Minimum $10 Discount at Regional, Conference, Open and World Championship Events
1,000 Bonus Points if Signed Up By Feb 28th, 2023*
Free ACL Wallet Deposits
Free ACL Wallet Withdrawals
50% Off ACLDN (Digital Network) Membership
Access to Personal Statistics
Early Bird Access to Open Events and ACL World Championships (possibly Regional and Conference Events too)

*Note that players MUST purchase their ACL player membership on or before 02/28/2023 in order to receive the 1,000 bonus points. Anyone purchasing ANY membership after 02/28/2022 will not get the 1,000 bonus points. ALL memberships purchased during the 2021-2022 season will expire on 8/31/2022.

ACL Divisions / Skill Levels

ACL player divisions are intended to group players of similar skill levels together for competitive and social play. It is important that players read this players guide, review and establish their Skill Level. This enables a player to know where they stand and compete against players of similar skill level. Conference/Regional Directors may override a Skill Level if they feel a player is sandbagging. The current ACL Skill Rating Levels include:

ACL Pro Division / Skill Level
- ACL Pro means that you have achieved the highest skill level in the sport and have accepted the terms laid out by the ACL to become an ACL Pro.
- ACL Pro players must play in the Open division at Open, Conference and Regional events.
- (PPR Range: > 9) – PPR stands for Points Per Round which is a players average points per round during game play

Open Division
- NEW this season is the “Open Division” which as the name implies is Open to anyone from Pro level players down to Novice level players (similar to how the Advanced division was in the past). This is NOT a skill level, rather it’s a new division that allows directors to combine Pros and Advanced players and will offer maximum points towards player rankings.

Advanced Division / Skill Level
- NEW this season the Advanced Division will NOT allow Pro’s to play in the division at Open, Conference and Regional events. However, not all areas will offer both an Open Division and an Advanced division. In those areas there will simply be an Open division and no Advanced division. There can certainly be top level players in the Advanced Skill Level who have not yet earned/accepted the ACL Pro Player Title.
- This player can execute sliding the bag and airmailing the bag as needed. Player fully understands game strategy and likely plays and practices on a regular basis.
  (PPR Range: > 8.2 – 9)

Competitive Division / Skill Level
- The Competitive Division is intended for players who are good, but not quite ready for the Advanced level. For areas that have a lot of depth at the top end of players, it makes sense for a Director to offer Open/Advanced and Competitive Divisions for Local, Regional and Conference tournaments.
- This player fully understands game strategy, but may struggle with consistency. At times this player looks like they can beat anyone, but then in a subsequent game or round can struggle. (PPR Range: 7.2 – 8.2)

Intermediate Division / Skill Level
- The Intermediate Division is for players that enjoy playing casually but are competitive enough to beat the Novice level players. Players can enjoy the sport and events without having to play the top players.
- This player has a feel for the distance needed to toss the bag, but can be erratic in getting the bag to consistently be in the middle of the board. This level of player is working on developing a consistent pitch. (PPR Range: 6.2 – 7.2)

Novice Division / Skill Level
- The Novice Division is intended for beginners and large events that have a lot of Intermediate players.
- This player has limited experience with the game and usually has very little control over where the bag is going. (PPR Range: < 6.2)

ACL Pro

To become an ACL Pro means that you have achieved the highest skill level in the sport and are able to compete in guaranteed prize pool broadcast events. ACL Pros earn money by competing in ACL events and obtaining sponsors.

For full details about being an ACL Pro or Qualifying to be an ACL Pro in the 2023-2024 season please read How To Earn A Pro Spot

Player Types

Players are responsible for updating their type in their ACL Player Profile.

Juniors – 17 and under as of August 31st, 2023
College – Undergraduate College Students (Full Time or Part Time)
Adult – 18 and over as of August 31st, 2023 (who are not College Eligible)
Senior – 55 and over as of August 31st, 2023

ACL Events

ACL Player Events are created based on the following:

Area – Local, Regional, Conference, Open, Pro Nationals, Pro Shootout Qualifiers
Division – Pro, Advanced, Competitive, Intermediate, Novice
Special – Pro Shootout and other special events
Charity – Charity events integrated with the ACL

Directors may set up events specific to other criteria like Gender, Skill Level, and ACL Player Type. Not all of these event types are currently supported by the ACL software but anything that impacts the Overall Competitive ACL Open Standings is supported.

American Cornhole League ACL Players Guide

ACL Player and Fan Code of Conduct Policy

ACL Bags Policy

The ACL believes that ACL players should be able to have a choice when it comes to bags. The ACL has set guidelines and created a list of Approved Bag Manufacturers. Players are required to use properly stamped bags from this list for Monthly Regional, Conference and National Tournaments. A Director may use a different Bag Policy or provide bags for Local Events. If a player does not have bags on the list we ask for the Director to provide that player with an approved set.

ACL Bags Policy

ACL Player Tournaments

*Important! A player must pay and play in at least one game in the tournament in order to earn ACL points. This is true for all levels (Local, Regional, Conference, Open, Pro).

LOCAL Tournaments (Unlimited):

Local points tournaments can apply to ANY singles, BYOP doubles or blind draw doubles tournament. If you are playing in a tournament that does not include ACL Points, ask your Director why?!? Points are awarded based on where a player/team finishes in the tournament.
NEW ACL Open Standings will take a player’s Top 15 Local Tournament Finishes and use them towards their ACL Rankings.
In order for a local tournament to be counted for ACL points you must have 6 players (for singles) and 6 teams (for doubles). If you do not have 6 singles or 6 doubles then that tournament will NOT count for ACL points.

MONTHLY REGIONAL Tournaments (10 max per region):

A Regional Director may run one Monthly Regional Points Tournament for each Division (Open, Advanced, Competitive, Intermediate, Novice) and by Tournament Type (Singles, BYOP, Blind Draw) per month.
Each Regional Director must offer a minimum of three Divisions (Open, Competitive and Intermediate) and include at least two tournaments for each (one singles and one blind draw or bring your own partner doubles).
The maximum number of Monthly Regional events a Regional Director can run is 10 (10/01/2022 – 07/16/2023).
Tournaments may be run on different days. Example: 1st Tuesday of every month is Regional Singles. 2nd Tuesday of every month is BYOP doubles. 3rd Tuesday of every month is Blind Draw Doubles, etc…
In order for a Monthly Regional tournament to be worth Regional points you must have 6 players (for singles) and 6 teams (for doubles). If you do not have 6 singles or 6 doubles then that tournament will NOT count for ACL points.
Monthly Regionals MUST be seeded starting no later than November.
NEW All directors MUST offer a minimum $10 discount for Platinum and Gold ACL Members at Regional, Conference and Open events.
Payouts will vary based on Regional Director.
Players may play in more than one Monthly Regional Event in a Month, but only the top score for singles and top score for doubles/blind draw will count as their Monthly Regional Score for that month.
NEW ACL Open Standings will include your Top 6 Monthly Regional Singles + Top 6 Monthly Regional Doubles (Blind Draw or BYOP) scores for Points Rankings.

*Points tables for Stack Brackets can be found at the end of this document.

CONFERENCE and STATE CHAMPIONSHIP Tournaments:

Again this year will be a State Championship event for each state. Therefore in 2022-2023 there will be two Conference events per Conference AND one State Championship per State. The State Championship events will count for Conference points.

The Top 100 players in each conference will be invited to the Conference Championship event and Conference Pro Qualifier which will be held in August or September 2023. More details on those events later in this document.

ACL Open Standings will include Top 2 Conference/State Singles + Top 2 Conference/State Doubles (Blind Draw or BYOP) finishes.

ACL Conferences are formed at the discretion of the ACL.
Each Conference will hold 2 Conference Events and 1 State Championship per State throughout the 2022/2023 season.Conference/State Event dates MUST be approved by the ACL National Directors. We do not want Conference Events to be run the same weekend as ACL Open Events in the same geographical area.
NEW The 2 or 3 Day Conference/State events MUST offer Open, Advanced, Competitive and Intermediate (Singles, BYOP, Blind Draw). As well as Women’s and Senior singles.
Conference Events MUST be seeded
Players may only play in their assigned Conference events and the State Championships of the State they live in. Players who are located close to conference lines and who would like to compete in a conference other than their assigned conference MUST compete in a majority of their regional events within the desired conference. A player cannot change conferences after 2/28/2023.

Open Tournaments (16 minimum):

Each player may play in as many Open tournaments as they wish.
There will be a MINIMUM of 16 ACL Open Tournaments during the season.
Open tournaments are a minimum 2-Day event and include Open Doubles and Singles based on skill levels. Opens that do NOT have an ACL Pro Shootout with them must also have Women’s Singles and Senior Singles as part of the event.
Doubles will be $120/team and Singles will be $60/player. Each team will play a minimum of 6 doubles games using the ACL Rounders format. After ACL Rounders is over all players are split into 3 or 4 levels for doubles. Each level then competes in a double elimination doubles bracket. Level 1 is the top level and will earn the most points and earn the most prize money. All players will play no less than 8 doubles games!
Doubles will be a 60%+ payout. 85% for level 1, 15% for level 2, level 3 and level 4 winners get their entry fee back ($120/team), 2nd place get half their money back..
Singles will be $60/player. All players MUST play in the skill level shown on their player profile. The only exception is Advanced level players can choose to play in the Open Division with the Pro’s or the Advanced division with no Pro’s. All singles entry fees are then added up and 60% of the entry fees are split across the divisions with Open winning the most, Advanced 2nd most, etc…
Event MAY also include a Pro Shootout Qualifying event
NEW – ACL Open Standings will include your Top 2 Open Singles + Top 2 Open Doubles scores.
NEW this year, all Open Winners in Open Singles and Level 1 Doubles will be invited to play in the “ACL Open Tournament of Champions” event at the 2023 ACL World Championships. Open singles winners will play in the $5,000 winner take all single elimination singles championships and Open Level 1 doubles winners will play in the $5,000 winner take all single elimination doubles championships.

Conference Championships Events

Anyone finishing in the top 100 in their Conference will be invited to participate in their Conference Championship event. This event will be held in August/September 2023. The event will include:

Free jerseys/shirts to anyone who qualifies for the event
Free entry into the Blind Draw tournament with a guaranteed prize pot
The right to play in single and doubles
The right to play in the Conference Pro Qualifier where the winner will earn the right to be a Pro for the 2023-2024 season.

Dekarounds

Dekarounds are one way of determining what skill level an ACL player may be. A dekaround involves a player throwing by him or herself a total of 10 rounds (40 bags) and totaling their score. A player can throw by themselves by starting on one side of the board, throwing 4 bags and counting their score for round 1. They then walk down to the other board (staying on the same side) and throwing 4 more bags and counting their score. After 10 rounds (40 bags total) you see what your total score is. An average of 91 or above puts you in the Advanced Skill level. 75-90 is Competitive, 60-75 is Intermediate and 65 and below is Novice.

To make it even easier the ACL has a way to track your score for a dekaround. To do so you can follow these steps:

1. Go to https://www.iplaycornhole.com/ and click on Login in the upper right hand corner.

2. On the next screen login to your ACL account. If you do not have an ACL player account you can click on “Join ACL” and create a new ACL account (it’s free!)

3. Once logged in click on “Dekaround”

4. Then click on “Start Dekaround Tracker”

5. Now you are ready to play! After you throw your first round you enter how many bags you made in the hole and how many were on the board, then click the right arrow to move to the next round. After you’ve played 10 rounds you can click on “Save Game” and your game will save. You can then look at your average Dekaround score and history of your Dekaround in the ACL system!

ACL Standings

ACL will have separate standings for each of the following: Pro Singles, Pro Doubles and ACL Open Standings. ACL Open Standings are also split out to form Conference Standings for each Conference and State Standings for each State.
Details on Pro Singles and Pro Doubles Standings can be found in the ACL Pro Players Guide ACL Pro Guide.

ACL Open Standings is a Combination of:
- Top 15 Local Tournament Points + Top 12 Regional Points (Best 6 Regional Singles Events, Best 6 Regional Doubles Events) + Top 4 Conference Points (Best 2 Conf/State Singles Events, Best 2 Conf/State Doubles Events) + Top 4 Open Points (Best 2 Open Singles Event, Best 2 Open Doubles Event).
- Points are used for seeding and to determine Pro eligibility.
Conference Standings are simply the ACL Open Standings split out by Conference.
State Standings will now only include local and regional events along with the State Championship event.
NEW Women’s Singles Standings (more details on the next page, $25,000 Guaranteed in Prize money!)
NEW Senior Singles Standings (more details on the next page, $25,000 Guaranteed in Prize money!)
Players can also check the Player Detail tab to see how their standings are generated from individual tournaments.
Ties for seeding will be randomly broken.
Standings end on 7/16/2023

Bonus Points!

There are 1,000 Bonus Points for any player purchasing a Gold or Platinum membership on or before 02/28/2023.
NEW There will be 350 Bonus Points awarded to any player that participates in at least 50 ACL Points Tournaments. This includes Local events and every tournament you enter at an Open/Regional/Conference event. For instance, you attend an ACL Conference Event and enter Doubles, Singles, Blind Draw and play one Sit-N-Go, that would count as 4 of your 50 ACL tournaments entered.

Can You Get to 5,000 Points?

The maximum number of Open points for the 2022-2023 season will be 5,000.

1,000 Membership Points
350 Bonus Points (50+ ACL Events played in)
1,200 points at Open Events
800 points at Conference Events
1,200 points at Regional Events
450 points at Local Events

New Women Singles Points Standings and Paths to Becoming an ACL Pro

Guaranteed Minimum $25,000 in Prize Money!

Women singles will now be required at: (Women singles will consist of Pro and Non-Pro women at these events)

· State Tournaments

· Conference Tournaments

· Open Events that do not have Pro Shootouts (8 minimum)

· ACL Pro Nationals (4)

· ACL World Championships (1)

Women will earn points as follows:

· Top 2 State/Conference Women’s Singles results (Using Conference Points Table)

· Top 3 Open/National Women’s Singles results (Using Open Points Table)

· World Championships Women’s Singles results (Using Open Points Table)

Women will earn ACL Pro Status as follows (must be 18 years old or older):

1. Top 20 Women in the ACL Pro Singles Standings

2. Top 8 Women in the ACL Women’s Standings (who did not qualify via #1)

3. PDC – The top 16 Women in the ACL Women’s Standings (who did not qualify via #1 or #2) will earn PDC status for next season

Women Singles Prize Money

Guaranteed minimum $25,000 in total prize money split up as follows:

Minimum 70% payout as follows:
50% payout at all Women’s Singles Points events
20% payout to the top 50 Women in the Women’s Singles Standings at the end of the season
If this 70% does NOT exceed $25,000, the ACL will cover the rest and put it into the Women’s Point Standings Payout

Seniors

New Senior Points Standings and a Path to Become Part of the ACL PDC Program

Guaranteed Minimum $25,000 in Prize Money!

Senior singles will now be required at: (Senior singles will consist of Pro and Non-Pro seniors at these events)

· State Tournaments

· Conference Tournaments

· Open Events that do not have Pro Shootouts

· ACL Pro Nationals

· ACL World Championships

Seniors will earn points as follows:

· Top 2 State/Conference Senior Singles results (Using Conference Points Table)

· Top 3 Open/National Senior Singles results (Using Open Points Table)

· World Championships Senior Singles results (Using Open Points Table)

Seniors will earn ACL PDC Status as follows:

1. Top 16 Seniors in the ACL Seniors Standings

Seniors Prize Money

– Guaranteed minimum $25,000 in total prize money split up as follows:

Minimum 70% payout as follows:
- 50% payout at all Senior Singles Points events which include a minimum of 8 Opens, 4 Nationals and the World Championships
- 20% payout to the top 50 Seniors in the Seniors Singles Standings at the end of the season
- If this 70% does NOT exceed $25,000, the ACL will cover the rest and put it into the SeniorsPoint Standings Payout

The 2023 ACL World Championships!

The 2023 ACL World Championships will be a multi-day event which will be held in August 2023 (location TBD, MINIMUM 5 day event).

Qualifying for the World Championships

Any non-pros who finish in the top 250 of the ACL Open Standings at the time when the World Championship registration opens will be given first shot at purchasing entries into any event at the 2023 World Championships!

All remaining spots for the ACL World Championships will be offered to ACL Platinum members first, then everyone else if open spots remain.

2023 ACL World Championship Guaranteed Prize Pool Events Include

ACL Pro Singles Championship
ACL Pro Doubles Championship
ACL Pro Blind Draw
NEW – ACL Open Singles Tournament of Champions
NEW – ACL Open Doubles Tournament of Champions

Other Events Will Likely Include (events are subject to change):

ACL Pro Qualifier
ACL Team Event
Advanced Singles, Doubles, Blind Draw
Competitive Singles, Doubles, Blind Draw
Intermediate Singles, Doubles, Blind Draw
Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles
Mixed Doubles
Senior Singles, Senior Doubles, 70+ Senior Singles
ACL Director Blind Draw

Seeding for all Championship tournaments (with the exception of Blind Draws and Team events), will be based on ACL Points

**Events at the ACL World Championships require players to play in the skill level shown on their ACL Player Profile (no exceptions). This includes doubles where both players must be the same skill level. For example, to play in Advanced doubles, BOTH players must be listed as Advanced in their ACL Player Profiles.

PLAYERS AND GUESTS THAT PARTICIPATE IN ACL EVENTS MUST COMPLY WITH THE ACL CODE OF CONDUCT AND CODE OF ETHICS. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY RESULT IN THE IMMEDIATE FORFEITURE OF PRIZE MONEY, REVOCATION OF MEMBERSHIP AND BAN FROM FUTURE PARTICIPATION.

Any questions please contact us

ACL reserves the right to make changes to the player’s guide at any time.

Stack Bracket Points Table

ACL Approved Bag List for 22/23

Click here for the full list