Kubb championship turns 15

Jul. 6—EAU CLAIRE — The Scandinavian lawn game kubb will once again take over the Eau Claire Soccer Park this weekend for its American championship.

To celebrate a milestone for the event, Eric Anderson, director of the U.S. National Kubb Championship, said there will be a few additions to the festivities.

"It's our 15th year so we're super excited about it," Anderson said.

Event organizers have arranged for a local artist to draw caricatures of participating teams this year. At lunchtime on Saturday, a local band will play live music.

And after the COVID-19 pandemic last year prompted the event to suspend its concessions stand, food will be returning to the event this weekend. That will include Swedish brats — a mustard-infused bratwurst topped with crispy fried onions and wrapped in lefse — prepared by local organization Girls on the Run.

Between Friday's kid kubb tournament and the main team event goes from Saturday to Sunday, Anderson said there are about 500 participants. With spectators there to watch people play, organizers estimate the total turnout reaches about 1,000 people over the weekend.

After the pandemic canceled the 2020 event and last year's championship attracted 122 teams, the event has fully rebounded to its target size.

"This year we were back at capacity at 128 teams," Anderson said.

Among them will be Poplar Culture — a trio of Drew Brandenburg of Eau Claire, his brother Jeff visiting from Germantown and their friend Matt Franson of Eleva.

This is Drew Brandenburg's sixth year playing in the championship, which has become a reason for family and friends to gather in Eau Claire.

"In my home and my family, it's really grown to a little bit of a holiday," he said.

He will be hosting people from four teams at his home on couches and on campers and tents on his lawn this weekend. Visitors to his home will be coming from as far as Houston, Texas, Salt Lake City, Utah and Naples, Fla.

Just over half of the teams at this year's championship hail from Eau Claire or other neighboring communities, Anderson said. But there are others traveling from elsewhere in Wisconsin, Minnesota or farther away.

"People are coming from at least 19 different states this year," Anderson said.

The annual kubb championship has brought tourists to Eau Claire, as well as influenced one of the ways the community markets itself to visitors.

Jason Kruger, sports sales manager at convention and visitors bureau Visit Eau Claire, said the estimated economic impact of this weekend's kubb championship is $105,000. That is based on a formula for how much participants are expected to spend on lodging, restaurants, shopping and fuel.

Being the U.S. home to kubb also helps Eau Claire create an identity to attract other niche sports competitions.

"It allows us to market ourselves as a nontraditional sports hub," Kruger said.

In addition to kubb, the area has regularly hosted a ski jumping competition, chainsaw sculpture carving contests and other uncommon events.

Kubb arrived in Eau Claire in the early 2000s with the lawn game's local popularity attributed to Anderson and others teaching people how to play.

Drew Brandenburg said he took his first kubb lesson about 15 years ago at a winter event in Boyd Park.

"I was pretty much hooked from that day on," he said.

The game's use of strategy — kubb has the nickname "Viking chess" — is what has kept him playing and competing.

Kubb involves tossing wooden batons at wooden blocks set out on a playing field known as a pitch. The strategy comes when deciding which of your opponents' blocks to knock down to create the surest way toward a final throw to topple the large, final block known as the "king."

Saturday's team championship starts with a round-robin tournament, ensuring that every team will play at least five matches.

As the day goes on, teams will get grouped into three brackets based on their records. The top four teams from all three brackets — bronze, silver and championship — will be recognized with medals. Sixteen teams from the championship bracket then move onto Sunday's playoffs to determine the ultimate champion.