Lisa Burke
(North Platte, Nebraska, August 12, 2024) – Get ready to have a smashing good time because the National Avocado Launching Championship is coming back to North Platte for its third year on Saturday, September 14th, 2024. This year the unique competition will be held at Pals Brewing Company and is also in correlation with the Western Nebraska Craft Beer Festival.
Teams of up to three will compete to score the most points by launching avocados at targets using catapults, trebuchets, slingshots, water balloon launchers — basically, any launcher that is human-powered. No air guns, potato guns, flames, laser beams, or booster rockets. And no matter how much you want to show off your bulging muscles, throwing by hand is not allowed.
This is a competition of precision starting with pool play and then transitioning to a single elimination bracket. Teams will be launching the avocados at upside down cattle tanks with point values written on the bottoms. The purpose is to accumulate points. Prize money will be awarded to the final four teams with first place receiving $3,500, second place taking home $2,000, and the other top two teams winning $750 each. The competition is capped at 60 teams. On Friday, September 13th an optional practice event will be held at Pals Brewing Company, giving teams a chance to hone their devices at the actual competition site. Teams must RSVP in advance for the practice event to insure they have a time slot reserved. Then, on Saturday, September 14th teams will be required to attend a pre-launch meeting and mechanism inspection on competition day with check in running from 8:30am-9:30am. Then, the competition will kick off and avocados will fly starting at 10:20am.
Teams that register for the National Avocado Launching Championship will be offered half price general admission tickets to the Western Nebraska Craft Beer Festival.
Spectators of the National Avocado Launching Championship are welcome free of charge.
Registration is open now through August 29th and is $200 per team. So, grab your friends, sign up now at AvocadoLaunching.com, build your device, and get ready for a good time at the 2024 National Avocado Launching Championship Presented by the U.S. Army in North Platte!
For more information visit AvocadoLaunching.com. Questions can be sent to Visit North Platte at 308-532-4729 or [email protected]