My opinion is maybe but not anytime soon. Too great a difference in raw talent and the lack of real sponsor ship is going to hinder that scenario for years to come IMO. Soft tips different story! Americans and Asians will dominate this side of the darting coin.

I think Americans are actually getting worse as a group. We offer no challenge against other countries. Let's face it, we like to play cricket. Go to any bar/pub in the USA on any given night and 95+% will be playing cricket. Our "pro" tournaments offer a best of 3 legs for the most part. Until this changes I don't see any advancement for us anytime soon. The recent world cup was a perfect example of our inexperience. We weren't even on the radar as contenders.

who are these Amerians you speak of?

Darren Young , Larry Butler to start with.

^^^^ them

Saber wrote:

Darren Young , Larry Butler to start with.

lol, never mind i will fix the title

ya keep ya mitts offa me thread ya tool

Saber wrote:

ya keep ya mitts offa me thread ya tool

Lol will do, just remember how to spell Americans

I get it now.

As far as Americans doing well at Dartslive and cashing big paychecks. I think more and more steel tippers from the UK will start playing now that they've seen Carver and Lim make quite a bit of money. Hell, Carver won 2 stages last year and made it to the semi's at the World Final. That's $13,000 each time. $39,000 for 3 events is serious money. Others will want a piece of the pie soon.

JD wrote:

I think Americans are actually getting worse as a group. We offer no challenge against other countries. Let's face it, we like to play cricket. Go to any bar/pub in the USA on any given night and 95+% will be playing cricket. Our "pro" tournaments offer a best of 3 legs for the most part. Until this changes I don't see any advancement for us anytime soon. The recent world cup was a perfect example of our inexperience. We weren't even on the radar as contenders.

I believe JD is right 100% now dont get me wrong I love cricket!! , but until we cut down on the number of events at each tournament and offer higher payouts and play the longer format we will never compete!!

Hat

It's coming -steel tip won't survive over here if they don't change it.It's already in the works with the major league of darts, DPNY and the new worlds

I love Cricket also and to me a great game of strategy and skill. The only draw back is it involves only 7 of the 21 scoring areas( before ya post about doubles and trebles and singles) get my point . whereas 01 involves all the scoring areas, thats food for thought IMO. Thats why in league (mind anyway) they can't count (for the most part) or know combinations or what to leave! I even help the opponents with counting but not combo's lol. I had 5 people come up to the board last night after I took out 139 without hesitation on what I was shooting for. One even said thats wrong LOL (my captain of all people) but they soon realized I was right. Damn Ive nicked me own thread lol.

America will never win as long as they keep with the best of three stuff.

America may have a chance if the Brits move the BDO to the USA. lol

Seriously though, I dont think the yanks play enough 01 to be competitive. Here in Australia, that is all we play in tournaments.

Most of our tournies start with a round robin of 8 groups. The 2 that top each board then progress to the knock out stages.

Regarding the comment about Cricket being a contributing factor in the relatively low number of American contenders for a World 501 title...

I wrote a few articles in alt.sports.darts back in the 1998-1999. One of them contained a summary at the end of the article about Americans, the game of Cricket, and my opinion of why Americans were not contenders for World 501 titles at that time.

If interested, read Darts in the UK - Article II

yeah we suk come on all ya UK guys rub it in we can take it. Finland-Finland ya got to be kidding.

Not sure on what thread I should ask this, but, why do soft tip players always throw at the Bull?

50 points and easy to hit on a soft tip board. Easiest target on the board imo

In soft tip thats the largest scoring segment. BTW don't challenge a soft tip player on bulls.

Saber wrote:

In soft tip thats the largest scoring segment. BTW don't challenge a soft tip player on bulls.

I imagine it's hard for a steel tip player to play soft tip? Also, I imagine it's hard for the top soft tip players going up aginst the likes of Taylor, MvG, an co? And no, I wouldn't challenge a soft tip player on Bulls.....my name is Sam Dilly, not Damn Silly, lol.

Taffy wrote:

Saber wrote:

In soft tip thats the largest scoring segment. BTW don't challenge a soft tip player on bulls.

I imagine it's hard for a steel tip player to play soft tip? Also, I imagine it's hard for the top soft tip players going up aginst the likes of Taylor, MvG, an co? And no, I wouldn't challenge a soft tip player on Bulls.....my name is Sam Dilly, not Damn Silly, lol.

I think if you are good at darts than you can play both pretty well. But if you are a hard core steel tip player and you think you can come over over and dominate soft tip, well imo it just won't happen. There is a certain time it takes to adjust to soft tip and get used to all the different aspects of the game. Even 2 time PDC champ Adie Lewis only cracked the top 16 at a Dartslive Stage event, so it's not all that easy. Imo soft tip players are terrible on their outs when they come over to steel tip. But in all fairness if you ONLY play soft tip 01 games the outs are a bit different. For example. With 138 left, most soft tip players will go 18's 1st to leave 120. Which will give you a nice trip 20, trip 20 out. In steel tip you go 20's 1st. That's just one example out of many.

The transition from steel to soft is easier if you throw a light dart. Personally, the only trouble I had was with the extra 2 inches in throw distance. Once I got used to that, I was fine.

The out combo's take a little extra thought as well because steel tippers arent used to using triples to finish.