League News · 2026 Season

Grid League Cornhole Open: $500 in Cash Each Day, Included in Weekend Ticket Price

October 3 and 4, 2026 · Lakeland, Florida

A doubles tournament played indoors alongside the Grid League Championship, supported by the American Cornhole League. A double elimination tournament each day, $500 in cash each day, 28 spots.

The Grid League Cornhole Open runs Saturday October 3 and Sunday October 4 in Lakeland, indoors and air conditioned, at the Grid League Championship. Bring your own partner, two players a team. Registration is included in the price of your ticket, so there is no separate entry fee. There is a tournament on Saturday and another on Sunday, and each one pays $500 in cash: $350 to the winning team and $150 to the runner-up.

The American Cornhole League supports the event, which means ACL rules, ACL spec boards and ACL approved bags. Grid League runs it. You know exactly what you are walking into.

The Format

Each day is its own tournament. Saturday and Sunday each run a simple double elimination bracket with its own $500 prize pot, and Sunday starts from a fresh bracket.

Double elimination means a team is out only after its second loss. Every team starts in the winners bracket. Lose once and you move to the losers bracket, where you keep playing. Lose a second time and your tournament is over.

The team that comes through the winners bracket meets the team that comes through the losers bracket in the final. If the winners bracket team wins, the tournament is over. If the losers bracket team wins, both teams now have one loss, so they play one more game, the reset final, and that game decides the day.

Two-Game Minimum

It takes two losses to knock a team out, so every team plays at least two games in a tournament.

Prize Money

Two teams get paid each day. The places are fixed and published now rather than worked out after we see how many teams enter, so you know what you are playing for before you sign up.

Both teams get paid in cash on site before they leave the building.

When To Be There

Check-in times and your first game time for each day go out by email before the event, along with the bracket.

Play pauses for about ten minutes when a Grid League match starts so the whole floor can watch, then picks back up.

Rules and Gear

• Boards are regulation and set 27 feet apart, the same as any sanctioned tournament.
• Bags are yours to bring if you own a set. Any brand is welcome, resin fill only and no corn. Borrow a set at the check-in table if you do not own bags.
• Scoring is standard ACL. A bag in the hole is three, a bag on the board is one, points cancel each round and there is no win by two.
• Calls are made by the players. If two teams cannot agree, the tournament director settles it and that ruling stands.
• Every board is indoors and air conditioned, which in Polk County in October is a real consideration.

What Grid League Is

Grid League is a coed team sport where men and women compete on the same team at the same time. Two teams line up on parallel lanes of a specially designed playing surface called the Grid, an 80 foot floor split into two lanes of four quadrants each, with a single central rig between them for the bodyweight elements. Five men and five women from each team are on the Grid for a race, and the two teams race each other through the same set of movements.

Winning a race is worth two points and finishing second inside the time cap is worth one, so a match stays alive longer than the score suggests. The closing Sprint Relay is worth three, which means a match can turn on the last race.

Lakeland is where the 2026 season ends. Saturday is the opening round of the playoffs and Sunday is the conference finals and the championship match. Your ticket covers all of it, and the cornhole lanes sit alongside the championship floor, so between your own games you are watching a national final from a few steps away.

How To Sign Up

Registration is included in your ticket price. Buy a Full Weekend Master Pass at $43 and you are in the field. Both players on a team need one, so a team gets the tournament plus two full days of a championship for $86 total. Groups of five or more take 15 percent off every ticket, which is built for gyms and crews bringing more than one team.

There are 28 spots. Signup closes when they are gone or on Thursday October 1 at midnight, whichever comes first. If spots are still open after that, you can sign up at the check-in table before play starts.

There is no second form to fill out and no separate tournament registration. Bring your ticket confirmation to the check-in table and you will get your lane and your first game time.

Grab a Partner and Get In

Saturday October 3 and Sunday October 4, Lakeland. A double elimination tournament each day, $500 in cash each day, twenty-eight spots, registration included with your weekend pass.

Have a question? Email us at staff@unitedgridleague.com