Chasing Crows 2023

Chasing Crows is a one-day PDGA Tier C tournament that will be played on Saturday, November 18th 2023 in Varaždin, in the format of two 18-hole rounds, as the last 10th event of the Croatian Disc Golf League in the 2023 season.

This tournament is the perfect opportunity for all beginners in disc golf to try a more "serious" competition, because the holes are relatively short (45 to 65 meters), there are practically no bushes where discs could be lost, and in each round the same 9 holes are played twice, so it is easier to improve your play. One round of competition lasts up to 90 minutes.

The tournament program is as follows:

Registration
The event will be played in the following categories: MPO (open for men and women), FPO (open women), Red (players of both genders PDGA rated up to 900), Green (players of both genders PDGA rated up to 850) and Purple (players of both genders PDGA rated up to 800). Any player can register for a competition in a higher category (eg all players can register in MPO), but you can only play in a lower category if your rating allows it, eg someone with a rating of 801 cannot play Purple).
Players who are not PDGA members and do not have a rating can play the Purple category only if they have not played PDGA tournaments so far, or have played PDGA tournaments and the last 6 rounds (or less if they have not played 6 rounds) are not worth more than 800 rating points on average. If those rounds are worth more than 800 to them, then they can play the Green, Red or MPO / FPO category. A player who has no rating and the last 6 rounds (or less if 6 rounds have not been played) is worth more than 850 rating points cannot play the Green category but can play Red or MPO / FPO.

The number of participants is limited to 45, that is, the competition will be played in a maximum of 9 groups of 5 players.
The registration fee for the MPO, FPO, Red and Green categories is €15, and the registration fee for the Purple category is €7.
The registration fee includes the organization of the tournament, a fee to the Croatian Flying Disc Association, a small trophy for the best players in each category and raffle prizes.

The registration fee must be paid to the Lagoda bank account before or after the tournament:
Lagoda j.d.o.o., Varaždin, HR6323400091110550349
If you do not pay the registration fee in advance, it will be possible to pay in cash at the tournament.

To sign up for the tournament, open a separate registration page.
Competition results and live results will be published on the PDGA website.

The Play
The competition will take place in the following format:
Round 1 - groups will be formed with mixed categories and according to strength groups determined according to PDGA rating. We will try not to put players from the same clubs/countries in the same groups in the first round, so that through the game they can socialize with other players that they meet less often.
Round 2 - groups formed by result, without mixing categories.

The Course
The 9-hole course is set up at the location along Vodovodna Street, and in each round all 9 holes will be played twice. Thecourse is suitable for beginners and the holes are 45 to 65 meters long.
You can download the course map on this page in PDF format.

Slightly worn baskets produced in Croatia are used, and almost all of them are slightly elevated compared to the standard height of the baskets.
All tee pads are set up with artificial grass carpet.

This layout has been played in 9 PDGA tournaments so far, and the current records are men's 39 (-15) played by Martin Doerken (Germany, round rating 1021), Zack Bevelacqua (Slovenia, round rating 1014) and Derek Robins ( Great Britain, rating round 1014), and in the women's 42 (-12) which was played by Wiebke Jahn twice in the tournament "the Wedding of Tina & Dinko" (rating rounds 976 and 968).
You can find a list of the best results at the course at the bottom of the page or in the PDF document.

Parking
Participants can use the Varaždin City Cemetery parking lot, which is about 350 m from the meeting place. Please do not park in Vodovodna Street to avoid potential problems with the residents of that street.
GPS parking location is (google maps): 46.308110, 16.327241

Lunch and toilet
There are no toilets or any covered or closed facilities at the course.
Since the day of the tournament is the Remembrance Day holiday, pretty much all shops, and most cafes and restaurants will not be open, so the options for going to the bathroom or taking a break between two rounds are limited.
For the above, we suggest going to the Gossip bar 750m away (5-10 min walk from the course), which will be open on that day, and there should be enough room for tournament participants and all other regular guests.

For lunch, in agreement with the Gossip bar, we offer an pre-order lunch (grilled meat, a side dish, and a vegetarian option if necessary) at a price of €15 to €20 per person. Exact information about lunch will be sent to registered players via e-mail.

Weather
You can follow the weather forecast for Varaždin on the Yr.no page. In case of bad weather, you can follow the lightning radar or the precipitation radar display.

Photos and social networks
All the photos we take at the tournament will be added to the Google Photos Album at the end of each day and you can download them and use them for social networks.
When posting on Instagram, preferably use #chasingcrows #vodovodnadiscgolf #varazdin and tag Lagoda Disc Golf @lagoda_disc_golf and the local tourist board @volim.varazdin

Ace Pool
All players who wish to do so can pay €1 in cash, which is placed in a special piggy bank.
The player who hits an ace in the tournament becomes the winner of the entire prize fund of the Ace pool. If two or more players hit an ace in the same tournament, they share the ace pool. If no player hits an ace, the ace pool is carried over to the next Lagoda tournament, and so on until the ace pool is paid out in one tournament.
A player who wants to participate in the Ace pool must pay €1 before the start of the first round. If a player hits an ace and has not paid in the ace pool before the start of the first round, then he is not entitled to the prize.

CTP – Closest to the pin
On hole 1 / 10, we will organize an additional competition in "who threw the disc closest to the basket", and it will take place during the game in all three rounds. There will be a meter next to the basket post, and the player whose disc comes to rest near the basket can measure the distance from the post to the disc. The player whose disc has the smallest distance from the basket after the completion of the second round of the competition wins the prize.
For the result to be valid, the disc must be 5m or less from the basket, and you should send a photo from the distance shown on the meter to the official tournament WhatsApp group and indicate the distance in centimeters to the basket.

Prizes and Tournament respect raffle
At the tournaments we organize, smaller prizes are awarded to the best three players in the MPO, FPO, Red and Green categories who pay the full amount of the registration fee, and a prize to the winner of the Purple category (who pay a reduced registration fee), while we additionally reward all players who earned it by being respectful to the tournament and other participants. The raffle is held at the end of the tournament, after the Winners ceremony in all categories. The usual top raffle prize is a disc golf backpack.

In order for a player to be able to claim a raffle prize, he must:
1. Be present at the Players meeting (when we read your name at the beginning of the meeting you should be present)
2. Pay the registration fee for the tournament in advance or during the tournament (no later than the beginning of the Winners ceremony)
3. Play all rounds of the tournament
4. Register on time (mandatory check-in) if this is stated in the tournament schedule
5. Be present at the Winners ceremony

If the player is drawn in the raffle, but has not met all four criteria, he cannot claim the prize, the next player is drawn.

The same player cannot win a raffle prize in two consecutive tournaments.
In the Chasing Crows 2023 tournament, the prize cannot be won by players who won it in the DraFo Warmup 2023 tournament.

Past tournaments
Up to now the event was played twice.