Another Three-peat!

Rebel Survivors win the Klassic for the 3rd straight year

2012 KanJam Klassic Champions

"Rebel Survivors"
Eric Klavoon & Dan Klavoon

In the largest KanJam Klassic yet, 32 teams competed on April 1st, 2012 in the 9th annual tournament, including players from Maryland and Pennsylvania. In true KanJam tradition, the winning team took home the "hammer" trophy, earning the right to carve their team name into the handle and earn bragging rights as the top team in a major KanJam tournament. Rebel Survivors, composed of brothers, Eric Klavoon from Lockport, NY and Dan Klavoon from Silver Spring, MD, defeated Little Lebowski Urban Achievers (Mark Stein & Jackson Trinh) four games to one in the best of seven finals to capture the title. In doing so, they are the second team to win the KanJam Klassic three years in a row. The other team to accomplish this feat was Dorkus Malorkus from 2007 to 2009. Rebel Survivors did it in remarkable fashion, posting an overall 40-5 record (including 12-1 in the playoffs) to win the tournament.

To keep with the fun tradition of getting to play everybody, the Regular Season "Scramble" round featured every team playing every other team one shortened game to 15 points within the allotted time. After the conclusion of the regular season, both Little Lebowski Urban Achievers and Rebel Survivors tied at 28-4. Having won their game against Rebel Survivors, Little Lebowski won the head-to-head tiebreaker to place the number one seed from the regular season.

The top 12 teams qualified for the playoffs, with the top 4 overall earning a "bye" for the first round. The top 4 teams from the regular season were:

#1 - Little Lebowski Urban Achievers - Mark Stein & Jackson Trinh: 28-4
#2 - Rebel Survivors - Eric Klavoon & Dan Klavoon: 28-4
#3 - Morkus Dalorkus - Scott Silverman & Joe Smith: 27-5
#4 - No Big Deal - Matt Nelson & Shane Nelson: 26-6

There was plenty of great KanJam action during the regular season, including  several Instant Wins, perfect games, and games that went to multiple overtime rounds. Just to name a few, here are some teams that threw an Instant Win during regular season play: No Big Deal, The Hammer Bros., Tang (John Maxwell & Gregg Maxwell), and R-Squared (Ralph Bishop & Ryan Gunsalus). Some games went as long as 4 overtime rounds or more, like About 5 Yards in a game against Those Polish Guys (Brian Licht & Steve Wojcik) or Rebel Survivors vs. Da Formidable Bubs Crushers (Alex Reinecke & TJ Burns).

Once the regular season concluded, the playoffs began! All playoff games were played to 21 points. In the first round of the playoffs (Wild Card Round, best of 5 series), Milo's Minions (Adam Williams & Nate Schutt), #8 seed, defeated 2010 final 4 contender, Rocky and Bullwinkle, #9 seed (AJ Siergiej & Rob Stephan), three games to none. Number five seed, Italian Stallions (Jon Sandino & Brian Ellis), took down #12 seed, About 5 Yards (Tim Klavoon & Bob Bowers). In the other matchups, all the lower seeds upset their counterparts to move on to the Quarter-finals. In a first time pairup, the father-daughter team of Tip-sy? (Bob Greenauer & LeeAnn Greenauer, #11 seed) swept Northtown Titans (Brian Smith & Justin Waclawek, #6 seed) three games to none. In another first time pairup, Green Eggs and Jam (# 7 seed, Josh Greenauer & Laurie Greenauer) lost their series 3-1 against The Hammer Bros (Connor Vanderpool & Shane Haley, #10 seed).

For the remainder of the playoffs, all matches would be best of 7 series. In the Quarter-finals, Rebel Survivors (#2 seed) swept The Hammer Bros, 4-0. The Hammer Bros played extremely well, matching perfect buckets through 5 overtime rounds of game 4 before the defending champs defeated them in the 6th overtime round to knock them out. In a close match, the #1 seeded Little Lebowski Urban Achievers went to a deciding game 7 against Tip-sy. To make it more dramatic, the game went to overtime where Lebowski shot first and scored four points. Tip-sy got three points on their first throw, but then missed the goal completely on the throw back, resulting in a trip to the final 4 for Little Lebowski. Milo's Minions (#8 seed) defeated #3 seed, Morkus Dalorkus (not to be confused with the great Dorkus Malorkus), 4-2. Italian Stallions (#5 seed) took down No Big Deal (#4 seed) in six games as well.

Rebel Survivors continued their hot playoff run, sweeping Italian Stallions four games to none in the Semi-finals. Italian Stallions played outstanding jam, notching an overall 3rd place finish in the official KanJam tournament. For the second series in a row, Little Lebowski Urban Achievers went to a deciding game 7, this time against Milo's Minions. They reached game 7 after trailing the series 3-1. One win separated a finals rematch for both teams; Little Lebowski faced Rebel Survivors in the 2010 KanJam Klassic and Milo's Minions squared off against Rebel Survivors in the 2011 KanJam Klassic. With a lead of 16-14, Mark Stein from Little Lebowski shot a clutch deuce followed up by a bucket to force Milo's into an Instant Win attempt. After failing to connect with the dramatic shot, Little Lebowki moved on to the finals for the 3rd time in the KanJam Klassic. Milo's Minions just missed the finals for what would have been a third straight finals appearance (including the KanJam World Championship). Once again, another great performance by the Minions.

2012 KanJam Klassic Runners-Up

"Little Lebowski Urban Achievers"
Mark Stein & Jackson Trinh

With the top seeds making it all the way, the Finals featured the top two teams from the tournament; the #1 seeded Little Lebowski Urban Achievers vs the #2 seeded Rebel Survivors. Scott Silverman did a fantastic job as the series announcer, scorekeeper, and referee. This would be a rematch of the 2010 KanJam Klassic finals between these teams. To start the series, Rebel Survivors threw all buckets with only one miss, winning the first game 21-12. The second game went to overtime where Rebel Survivors put on the pressure with 6 points. Failing to connect for a bucket on the first throw, Little Lebowski lost game 2 and trailed in the series 2-0. In another back and forth game, both teams matched points to extend game 3 into overtime. In overtime, Little Lebowski outscored Rebel Survivors 6-4 to bring the series to 2-1. Both teams were on fire in game 4, going perfect until 18 points, and eventually getting to 21 in just 8 throws. In overtime, Rebel Survivors won 6-4 to take a 3-1 series lead. In game 5, both teams continued to match buckets and went to a 4th straight overtime game. Rebel Survivors kept shooting 6 points, but Little Lebowski matched them through the first 3 overtime rounds. In the 4th overtime round, Rebel Survivors shot their 10th straight bucket with yet another 6 point round. Little Lebowski scored 3 points on the first throw but missed the throw back. In doing so, Rebel Survivors clinched their 3rd straight KanJam Klassic title, and are just one tournament win behind the all time team in the Klassic (Dorkus Malorkus won the tournament 4 times - 2005, 2007-2009). For Eric Klavoon of Rebel Survivors, the win marked his 5th overall KanJam Klassic title, which is the most for any player (2004 and 2006 as Sole Survivors and 2010-2012 as Rebel Survivors) in this tournament. In fact, he is the all-time winner in both official KanJam tournaments (6 KanJam World Championship titles and 5 KanJam Klassic titles). Click here for a full list of KanJam Klassic champs.

Thanks goes out to the staff at the Sahlen Sports Park for setting up the rental and to all the participating teams. Also, thanks to those that helped with setup, take down, and helping run the tournament. Proceeds from the tournament were donated to "Carly's Club" at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Visit www.carlysclub.org for more information regarding this charity. We look forward to next year's Klassic! Until next time...