{"id":7822,"date":"2021-05-19T11:55:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T11:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=7822"},"modified":"2022-03-29T13:24:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T13:24:44","slug":"the-cornhole-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecm.eng.auburn.edu\/wp\/emag\/?p=7822","title":{"rendered":"The Cornhole King"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

He\u2019s watched it, heck… 10 times now? Maybe 100? Who knows? If he sees it, he\u2019s watching it. If it\u2019s on, he\u2019s watching it. He\u2019ll keep watching it as long as ESPN keeps showing it… until it sinks in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did they seriously go to Myrtle Beach and win? Did he seriously take down Draven Sneed in overtime? Are people actually recognizing him in public? <\/span><\/p>\n

No joke, the other night at El Vaquero, his favorite Mexican place back home in Phenix City, three people walk over and go, \u201cAren\u2019t you one of the guys who won the championship?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Same thing happened at the gym. Four guys come up to him and ask if he\u2019s Travis Moore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAuburn completely runs in my blood, my whole family went here,\u201d Moore says. \u201cSo, representing Auburn was awesome. But never in a million years would I have thought it would have been through cornhole.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018WE CAN DO THIS\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When he was a senior in high school, he beat a pro in a charity tournament. The guy came up to him afterward, looked him in the eye and said, \u201cMan, you ever thought of really doing this competitively?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Moore, \u201921 civil engineering, knew this whole cornhole thing might be with him for a while. That\u2019s when he knew he might be pretty good. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, he got serious about it. Found a partner. Started entering local tournaments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then he entered college. Things changed. Priorities shifted. Classes such as thermodynamics and hydrologic analysis just kind of have a way of dominating your calendar. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe took some trips through the College of Engineering while I was in high school,\u201d Moore said. \u201cI was like \u2018Man, this would be awesome.\u2019 I knew how prestigious an Auburn Engineering degree is and I thought, \u2018Let\u2019s do this thing.\u2019 But it\u2019s definitely been a grind.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is why, for his first three years as an Auburn engineer, if he got the boards out, it was for kicks, not cash. <\/span><\/p>\n

But last summer, Moore started throwing again, doing tournaments again, getting back into fighting shape, and then some. Thanks to the free time from the pandemic, the competitive itch was back. <\/span><\/p>\n

And when he started scrolling and saw the crazy stuff his old Phenix City buddy, Blaine, was doing while flattening the curve, it turned into full-blown hives. <\/span><\/p>\n

If he wanted a partner that could help him take things to the next level, he was looking at him. Which was wild. He didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever really played cornhole with Blaine. He couldn\u2019t even remember ever talking to him about it. But he sure as heck was about to start. He picked up the phone. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, \u2018Man, we can do this.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DYNAMIC DUO<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Auburn Wildlife Enterprise Management senior Blaine Rosier was bored. He saw a board. One Gen Z thing led to another. <\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019d never played cornhole much. But starting a TikTok account to see if he could get more followers than his sister? Posting videos of himself tossing 1-pound bean bags into a hole? Hey, why not?<\/span><\/p>\n

His first video went up on April 2, 2020, just him doing some simple front yard trick shots back home. Nothing special, not in his mind. He hashtagged it #QuarantineLife. He posted some more. <\/span><\/p>\n

He started getting fancy: airmails \u2014 dropping the bag straight into the hole \u2014 over the Cam Newton statue, four baggers into the bed of a moving pickup, having his brother lie down on the board, head just beneath the hole, only to get up four perfect throws later without a scratch.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going by followers, Cornhole Blaine<\/a>, as he quickly became known online, has the second most popular cornhole account on TikTok. For context, the American Cornhole League<\/a> (ACL) has 14,000 TikTok followers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Back when Moore first called to pitch the idea of partnering, joining a league and running the tables, Rosier only had a few thousand followers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Currently? It\u2019s 300,000. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s barely been a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

He and Moore just smile and shrug. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMan, to be honest, I don\u2019t know how TikTok works,\u201d Rosier said. \u201cOne video was just us throwing on the green space. I posted it that night and woke up and it had, like, 2 million views.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Moore laughs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHeck, the other day we looked and it was over 18 million,\u201d he said. \u201cThe caption is \u2018College Cornhole Is Where It\u2019s At.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it ever. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

COVID MEETS CORNHOLE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

2020 was the year for competitive cornhole. Partly because nothing else was on, sure, said Trey Ryder, 27, media director and color analyst for the American Cornhole League<\/a>. But also, he said, because it\u2019s just kind of addicting. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are like, \u2018Why the hell is cornhole on ESPN?\u2019\u201d Ryder said. \u201cThen, 20 minutes later, they realize they\u2019re sucked in.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The pregame pastime that\u2019s dominated tailgates for the past two decades had been growing beyond fall Saturday afternoons for years, inspiring multiple so-called governing bodies that invoke self-proclaimed sanctioning powers with varying degrees of seriousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods offers $150 cornhole kits stamped with the American Cornhole Association\u2019s seal of approval. <\/span><\/p>\n

The American Cornhole Organization cites its 2005 birth as all the bona fides real players weighing allegiance need consider. <\/span><\/p>\n

But in 2015, a tailgate culture impresario named Stacey Moore, commissioner of the North Carolina-based ACL, turned competitive cornhole \u2014 first professional, then college \u2014 into a well-oiled, broadcast-ready machine complete with proprietary stat-tracking software, tournament-organizing apps, broadcast rights, pro contracts, and bratwurst and baked bean sponsors. Things were getting big.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then came COVID. Then, again, came cornhole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of cancelling its season, the ACL announced a series of regional qualifiers in a bid to turn 2020\u2019s lemons into lemonade that could \u2014 pandemic protocols in place \u2014 quench ESPN\u2019s urgent thirst for live competition. <\/span><\/p>\n

It worked. <\/span><\/p>\n

TheRinger.com recently wrote an article on the game\u2019s ascendance<\/a>, crediting it not only to a COVID-caused primetime sports vacuum, but to Ryder\u2019s uncanny telestrator wielding talent for turning cornhole into high drama. And, dang, Ryder says, the drama doesn\u2019t get much higher than what those boys from Auburn did in Myrtle Beach over New Year\u2019s live on ESPN. Not on some digital streaming thing. Not on ESPN3 or whatever \u2014 the flagship.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ENGINEERING MEETS CORNHOLE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moore kind of laughs at the question, thinks about it for a second. Well, there\u2019s probably plenty that the friction-focused researchers over in the Department of Mechanical Engineering\u2019s Tribology lab would find interesting about the game \u2014 what causes a bag to slide too much on the board, what makes it slide just right \u2014 stuff like that. And maybe the Auburn University Biomechanical Engineering (AUBE) Lab around the corner could use their motion capture technology to help him analyze and improve his technique. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, no sir, for him personally, there are no engineering principles or experiences he\u2019s applied to perfecting his throw, the one that was already perfect enough to win the ACL National College Cornhole Doubles Championship. <\/span><\/p>\n

Wait, he takes that back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cActually, if I were to connect anything with engineering and cornhole it would be being down in that championship, 12-1,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were getting dominated. And when you\u2019re in a physics II class or thermodynamics, and on that first test you get a 30 or 20 something? You have to come back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wait, did you really get a 20 on a test?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYessir.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wait, were you and Cornhole Blaine really down 12-1?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYessir.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Moore starts grinning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018BOARD IT\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Jan. 2 \u2014 Travis Moore and Blaine Rosier vs. Alex Lippard and Draven Sneed, Auburn vs. North Carolina State, the only teams left. <\/span><\/p>\n

The day before, Sneed had won the singles national championship; Moore had tied for 5th. The Wolfpack seemed primed for the sweep \u2014 singles and doubles. And maybe they would have pulled it off… had Draven Sneed kept his mouth shut. Moore almost still can\u2019t believe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHeck,\u201d he said, \u201che yells down to his partner, \u2018Board it \u2014 let me get it.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Now, without getting into cornhole strategy and the fine print of the point system, just know that this was trash talk. The crowd \u201cooohed.\u201d Someone shouted, \u201cI like it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah, everyone in that room knew what (Sneed) meant by that,\u201d Ryder says. \u201cOf course, most people probably thought it was the wise, safe decision because Draven had been having his way and had won the singles title.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Rosier, throwing against Lippard in the final round, had brought Auburn back and put them in a position to actually win the thing in overtime \u2013 if it got there. Lippard had one bag left. He could have gone for gold with an airmail. Risky, but doable. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the safe bet was just to just get it on the board. Lippard could just send it back to Sneed and let the superstar throw for another crown. Which is what he did. But not before the \u201cBoard It\u201d heard \u2018round the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Moore shakes his head.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he said that, I was just like I can\u2019t let this guy win again,\u201d he said. \u201cNo way.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Moore was first up in overtime. He missed to the right. Sneed missed to the left. Moore slid it in. Sneed slid it in. Moore missed to the right. Sneed, again, missed to the left. <\/span><\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s heart pounded. His ears rang. His bag went in. He pumped his fist and pinched himself. Unless Sneed pulled off some miracle throw to drag in one of his errant bags, it would, at worst, head back to Cornhole Blaine for double overtime. At best? War Damn Eagle. <\/span><\/p>\n

The singles champ started to sweat. He took his hat off. Now he was the one playing it safe. He decided on the easy slide to send it back to Lippard for double overtime. <\/span><\/p>\n

The bag dipped halfway into the hole\u2026 and just hung there. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt misses off to the back side,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Jeff McCarragher shouted. \u201cAuburn with the comeback!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Auburn crowd in the stands went wild. Moore nearly bear-hugged Cornhole Blaine to the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trey Ryder, easily the world\u2019s premier cornhole connoisseur, was nearly speechless.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2026 a\u2026 finish!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n