Today, we are proud to announce the newest and biggest box lacrosse tournament in North America – It’s the LaxAllStars North American Invitational international box lacrosse tournament!
The LaxAllStars North American Invitational will run in Syracuse, NY during the last days of September, and 2016 will be the first ever edition of this soon-to-be annual tournament. Syracuse has amazing venues for box lacrosse, the dates work out well for just about any team or player to participate, and the location means we will see amazing talent from Canada, Native teams, AND the United States.
People have talked about an event like this for years… well, now it is happening!
This tourney does not seek to supplant or challenge the Mann Cup (how could anything even try to do that?), President’s Cup, or anything even remotely like that. In fact, this tourney is so different from all of the other North American events, our goal is for this event to help push box lacrosse to the next level, by offering something a little different.
We truly hope all of those classic Cup tourneys stay just the way they are! But for our tourney, the long 7 game series are out. It’s going to be frantic, and all go down relatively quickly. This tournament brings all the intensity of a world class box lacrosse event, and crams it into four action-packed days of excitement. We can’t wait!
Here are some more details:
LaxAllStars North American Invitational
Location: Syracuse, NY
Dates: September 28th through October 1st. That’s four full days of box! Games start up on Wednesday morning, and will continue through Saturday night. On Saturday, final placement games will be played building up to the Championship Game.
Who’s Running The Tourney? LaxAllStars.com and Scott Neiss (Israel Lacrosse) are running the show. Scott has YEARS of NLL and FIL experience, and has organized World Championship and other box lacrosse events. LaxAllStars.com has been a World Championships media partner, and we’ve run our share of events and games. We’re both dedicated to box lacrosse, and ready to make this awesome!
Format: Men’s box lacrosse tourney featuring 16-24 teams. The tourney’s game length and schedule will be modeled after the amazing Ales Hrebesky Memorial Tournament in the Czech Republic. We respect and love that tournament, and we want to see a comparable event on this continent. Each team will play 1-2 short (approximately one hour) games per day, starting with two group play games for seeding, and then finishing with a single elimination playoff. All teams will get at least four games, with the potential for six.
Rules: Games will be played under slightly modified FIL Rules.
Website: CuseLax.com – check it out!
Teams: Participating teams will include Sr A, Sr B, Jr A, men’s club, and one off teams consisting of top level players. We expect to have teams from Ontario, Boston, New York, Vermont, Baltimore, Onondaga, Quebec, Kahnawake, other parts of Canada, and other Native nations, and possibly even Europe.
Will a group of pros decide to come together and form their own team just for this tournament? We wouldn’t rule it out!
Bonus Features: There will be clinics for box lacrosse coaches to learn the game from some of the best. There will be vendors on site throughout the week. There will be games to watch, people to meet, and a non-stop atmosphere of box. When one game ends, another will start up only minutes later. It’s is going to be an EPIC 4 days of box lacrosse in Syracuse!!!
Are YOU excited for the LaxAllStars North American Invitational? Because we are VERY excited!
We love box lacrosse, do you?
You should!
We sincerely hope the LaxAllStars North American Invitational helps the game to continue to grow, and that teams from all over can test themselves out on the floor against the best the continent has to offer.
