Scott Kirchner wins Super Darts 2013

I was recently invited to the Super Darts 2013 tournament staged at the Hong Kong Kitec Centre. It was held in a huge expo hall with high ceiling and a freezing air-condition. It was also the same hall used by many other Dartslive events such as The World Grand Finals and the Hong Kong Super League Fiesta parties too, so I knew what to expect of the place.

But still, the way it was done up was quite an amazing shock to me. The entrance was plastered with a huge poster of the 16 Super Darts players, all looking like they had just hit their most amazing checkout! And when you walk in and see the stage, it is huge! Patterned like an Ancient Greek temple (perhaps of Zeus!) and painted in gold, there were a pair of monolithic columns adorning each side of the two doorways and the Dartslive board right in the middle of the stage, with two huge screens on either side of the stage.

Super Darts 2013 Stage

The games soon got underway around noon time with all the players being introduced one by one on stage. Most of the time, you only get to see them playing on dartslive.tv or youtube . So seeing these top players in the flesh and up close was a real treat!

Interviewing the Super Darts players

The first round of 8 games soon started and the clash was brutal with many Asian players being eliminated in the first round. These include charismatic Japanese player, Takehiro Suzuki with his trademark grin as well as Haruki Muramatsu, Sho Katsumi and Royden Lam.

Suzuki's game with Spanish player, Antonio Alcinas was the most "interesting". Their game was the only one in the whole tournament where both players used up all their darts for the bulls-up and for both bulls-up too, during the start and the 5th leg (choice game). Suzuki won both of the bulls-up. However, he failed to take a strong lead and took some unusual risks in the last cricket game and ended up losing the game 3-2 to the consistently strong (and charmingly suave) Antonio.

Favourite Hong Kong player, Royden Lam, also lost in the first round to eventual 2nd place Benjamin Dersch. Royden had a slow start, losing the first game but came back strongly after that. Ben played a very careful game, looking anxious and nervous and taking his time to setup his throws, a pattern set to be repeated through the night. In the decider cricket game, Royden missed a few important darts and Ben kept up the pressure by scoring to maintain the lead. Royden failed to capitalise on a few misses from Ben and finally Ben closed the bull to wrap up the game 3-2.

Royden Lam in action

The only Japanese player to go into the second round was the previous Super Darts champion 2012, Morihiro Hashimoto, wearing his trademark green "Annie" jersey. His 1st round game against Ray Carver, USA was the most thrilling game in the first round. The last choice game (cricket) was the most exciting as Hashimoto led from the start and manage to shake off Ray Carver's assault and held on to the lead right till the end.

Paul Lim's first game against Cyril Blot almost cost the crowd favourite "Slinger" the game. He had a slow start - he lost the first bulls up and continue to miss a few important bulls, losing the first game to Cyril. The cricket game, Paul's usual pet favourite, was also a game of misses but Cyril could not capitalise on it and Paul struggled to win the next cricket game in 15 rounds, finally beating Cyril 3-1 to proceed into the second round.

Cyril Blot, in his game against Paul Lim

The player with the most robotic arm has got to be Haruki Muramatsu ! He throws with the trademark Japanese mechanical arm slingshot, keeping the shoulder and arm in a straight plane. However, he was playing against PDC player Mark Webster, who had an awfully good game. Mark hit a 3 in the black and came from the back to win the first 01 game with a high checkout. In the second cricket game, Haruki needed 4 simple bulls to win while Mark only needed 2 bulls. Haruki hit the first 2 red bulls and needed a black bull to win. Blocked by the first 2 darts on the red bull, Haruki rammed his darts into the crowded field and hit the black bull to win the cricket game! In the next cricket game, Mark recovered quickly from the stunning throw and came back to hit a Ton 80 and a White Horse and wrapped up the game in just 6 rounds. In the choice game, Mark played an almost perfect game with a White Horse and finished the game in just a few rounds and wrapped up the game in double time.

In the second round game between Scott Kirchner vs Antonio Alcinas, Scott won the first 01 leg but started missing darts for the next cricket game and Antonio took over the lead. Antonio made the tactical move to close houses instead of scoring even though he was leading by just a few points. Scott came back with a 3-in-the bed on 17 to turn the tables and gave him a comfortable lead to finish the game. In the next 01 game, Scott wrapped up the game with an almost perfect 01 game but just missed on the last dart, which he promptly finish in the next round.

In the Quarterfinals game between Mark Webster and Ben Dersch, it was again all-darts-used for the bulls-up with Mark finally winning the cork. During the decider game of cricket, Ben displayed amazing mastery of number 19 to maintain control over Mark but a strong, sustained challenge from Mark made their cricket game the most exciting (though slow) game to watch. Ben shot triple-19 after triple-19 to maintain the lead and finally breaking Mark in Round 14 with a score of 1100+!

Hashimoto's quarter-finals game was against Paul Lim. Hashimoto won the first 01 game with a 15-dart checkout but Paul Lim was back in his elements again, steadily hitting his targets. Hashimoto also put up a good performance dragging the game into the decider game. In the last cricket game, Paul Lim played defensively to score ahead maintaining a safe lead ahead until he was ready to finally close the game at round 13, thus ending the Japanese player's bid to keep his Super Darts crown.

So, it was Paul Lim vs Ben Dersch and Scott Kirchner vs Lourence Illagain in the semi finals. Lourence lost 3-2 to Scott, who shot an amazing game especially in the last decider leg, hitting a "White Horse" to secure his spot in the finals. In the Paul Lim vs Ben Dersch game, Ben took the first game then Paul squandered away the next cricket game and had to fight hard to win the 3rd game. The 4th game of 01 was fought hard with stress as Paul had to win it although Ben started first. Towards the end, Paul Lim's dart bounced out near the bull when he could have checkout spoiling Paul's chances and losing the game 3-1 to Ben.

Super Darts 2013 Bracket

Scott Kirchner and Benjamin Dersch, before the start of the finals

Scott Kircher, preparing for the final game

That set up an all - American finals between Ben and Scott. Scott had the upper hand in the game, maintaining a steady rhythm and consistency against Ben and quickly enough, Scott won the finals 3-1 and became the first foreigner to hold the Super Darts championship title!

Scott Kirchner, crowned Super Darts 2013 Champion

All Super Darts 2013 players

Although the games started around noon and only finished after 10pm, with various breaks in between games, it was an amazing and entertaining game to watch through it all. There were also some opportunities for photo takings with the various top players and some people were running around chasing the players for their autographs too! Being physically there , soaking in the atmosphere with everyone and watching the players twiddle their darts off camera sure beats watching it over the internet. Truly, the Dartslive team put up an amazing top-notch tournament and a good quality show to boot, exciting for the players (we can tell!) and exciting for the audience too. Now, can I get another invitation for next year's Super Darts!?

Related article : Paul Lim on Super Darts 2013