The 2024-25 National Crokinole Association Finale: Who Will Win it All?

After a year and 32 tournaments of crokinole action, we are at the climax of the 2024-25 National Crokinole Association (NCA) tour, with only the 2025 World Crokinole Championships left to determine who will win the season! With an increasingly competitive field and players like Fortino coming out of the blue to tear through the crokinole brackets, it could be anyone who takes this year’s title of World Crokinole Champion. However, this blog will only focus on who can win the tour as a whole, and what they need to do at Worlds to take first place. Here are the four competitors who are in the running to win the NCA Tour!

Who’s in the running?

Here’s a very quick recap of how the standings work for the NCA: a players score is determined by their top 5 performances throughout the season, with points being given based on your placement at a given tournament. The points awarded vary depending on the tier and the style (Singles or Doubles) of the tournament. To learn more, check out the National Crokinole Association website. 

Given the scoring system and the current standings, there are only four players remaining who can win the entire tour: Josh Carrafiello, Justin Slater, Jason Beierling, and Andrew Hutchinson. Here is a chart to show their top 5 and total scores, before the 2025 World Crokinole Championships:

Players in the Running for the 2024-25 NCA Tour Title: Current Scores before the 2025 World Championships

With the scores on display, let’s now take a closer look at each player, and what they need to do to win the NCA Tour. For each player, we’ll break down the different scores and conditions they need to win the tour. Let’s get into it!

Josh Carrafiello

Carrafiello has had an impressive run this season, winning both the Doubles and Singles Ontario Championships, and placing second at highly competitive tournaments including Turtle Island, London, and most notably, the World Championship Singles, his first time ever competing in the fingers division. His performance has taken him to the top of the NCA standings, giving him a small advantage going into this final event: that is, if everyone else in the running does poorly, which is unlikely. Here are the scores that would win Carrafiello the NCA 2024-25 Season:

247 (Win BOTH Singles and Doubles): For all players in the running, this is a given- winning both divisions would undoubtedly guarantee winning the entire season. Still, this is the only way that Carrafiello guarantees his victory in the 2024-25 NCA Tour. 

244 (Win either Singles or Doubles): If Carrafiello wins either division, he’ll still bump his score up 3 points. While that will benefit him, we will see with the other players that this does NOT guarantee that he’ll win the entire tour. 

241 (Remain where he is): Given that all of Carrafiellos scores below first place are second places at singles events, the only way he can increase his score is by winning. It is possible that he wins neither event, and everyone else also falls short of their win requirements, giving him the tour title. 

Needless to say, the pressure is on Carrafiello. The only way he can guarantee he wins the tour is by winning both divisions. The biggest reason for that is because of who is right behind him in the standings: Justin Slater. 

Justin Slater

Slater is quite literally on the tail of Carrafiello, only being one point behind him. Slater holds more wins throughout the season (World Doubles, Belleville, and Elmira), and only falls short because of a lack of 2nd place spots at tournaments. 

250 (Win BOTH Singles and Doubles): This would give Slater the highest score possible in the NCA tour, and guarantee him the win. 

245 (Win EITHER Singles or Doubles): If Justin wins EITHER bracket, it will put him at 245 points, and guarantee that he wins the season: 

• Carrafiello wouldn’t be able to pass him in points: Even if he won one division and Slater won the other, that would only put Carrafiello at 244 versus Slater’s 245 points. 

• Beierling could only get 244 points at best (1st in Doubles, 2nd in Singles if Slater wins the Singles division), meaning he would not be able to pass Slater. 
• Hutchinson could only get 242 points at most if Slater wins a division (IF Slater won Singles, and Hutch Won Doubles + placed second in Singles)

242 (Place 2nd in Singles): This will depend on how Carrafiello and the other players do. If Carrafiello doesn’t win either division, and Slater places second in the Singles, he would inch past Carrafiello in the standings and win the season. 

Given that Justin only needs 1 victory to seal the season, all eyes should be on Slater to see how he does in the divisions. Given that the year 2017 was the last time Slater didn’t win in either doubles or singles, his chances are looking pretty good. Still, he’ll have to fend off the competition, which we’ll look at now. 

Jason Beierling

Beierling has had a fantastic season thus far, taking victories at both singles (London) and doubles (Scenic City) tournaments, and placing in the top 4 in a plethora of singles divisions. While his fight to win the season will be tougher than Slater and Carrafiellos, he is still very much in reach of winning the NCA tour. Here are the different ways Beierling could win the 2024-25 NCA Season:

247 (Win BOTH Singles and Doubles): As for all the competitors in the running, if Beierling takes a double victory at Worlds, he will seal the season victory. 

244 (1st in Doubles and 2nd in Singles): If Beierling can win Doubles and place second in Singles, assuming that it isn’t Slater that beats him, Beierling could also take the victory this way. 

242 (1st in Doubles OR in Singles): Assuming that Beierling meets either of these conditions and Carrafiello or Slater DO NOT gain any points, Beierling will win the division

• NOTE that if Slater places second in Singles, and Beierling only wins one division, Slater would win in tie breakers (Tied in 1st place wins, tied in second placements, and Slater with two third placements versus Beierlings one). 

While Beierlings success hinges a bit more on other’s performances than Carrafiello and Slater, it is still very much possible for him to win the NCA tour. This brings us to our final contender, Andrew Hutchinson. 

Andrew Hutchinson

Hutchinson has been busy this season, racking up wins across the tour: in his top scores are Turtle Island and the US Open, and he also won the Windsor Tourney as well as the Crokinolympics Singles AND Doubles division. He has the toughest battle to win the NCA tour, but you are a fool if you think you can count Hutchinson out. Here are his two paths to victory: 

245 (1st in BOTH Singles and Doubles): Perhaps this is redundant at this point, but for Hutch, this is the only way he can guarantee that he wins. 

242 (1st in Doubles and 2nd in Singles): Hutchinson’s only other path to victory is to win doubles and place second in singles. This is dependent on neither Carrafiello or Slater winning the singles division, as they would then surpass his 242 points. 

• NOTE that if Beierling won singles and tied at 242 with Hutchinson, Hutchinson would win in tiebreakers (the exact tie breaker depends on if beierling places second in doubles or not, but it doesn’t matter, as Hutch would take the victory either way)

This means that Hutchinson HAS TO WIN DOUBLES, or he will automatically be out of the running for the NCA Tour Champion title. That being said, he and Jeremy are fresh off of a win from the US Open, so Hutchinson has the momentum to take this path to victory. 

What Would I Like to See?

Asides from a complete Tracey domination of both brackets, I personally would like to see a World Crokinole Championship Final that would also determine who wins the season. A few examples would be:

• Carrafiello wins the doubles (putting him at 244), then a final between Carrafiello and Slater in the Singles division.
• Hutchinson wins the doubles, then a final between him and Carrafiello in the Singles division.
• Beierling wins the Doubles, then a final between him and Slater in the singles division. 

This would be (I believe) the first time we’ve seen a final event that is also determinant of who wins the NCA tour, adding even more excitement to an already momentous event. Whether it’ll happen or not hinges on the performance of these top four players. 

That being said, there are so many players outside of these 4 that could throw a wrench into the plans of any of these players, which makes this tournament that much more exciting. Connor Reinman, while not in the running for NCA Champion status, will be looking to defend his World Championship status. We just saw Devon Fortino yet again make it to the finals, almost winning against Hutchinson, Reinman, AND Carrafiello for a victory. We’ve seen Shawn Hagarty creeping up into the top 4 at tournaments, perhaps looking for his first tournament victory at Worlds. We have international competitors such as Ryotaro Fukuda who could be looking for a massive upset. 

There are many, many more examples (apologies for those unlisted, this post would become much longer than it already is), and the point is this: you cannot miss this event, as it’ll be the crokinole showdown of the year. If you’re coming, stick around and cheer on the finalists; if you can’t attend, stay tuned in online to see who makes history; if you’re reading this, SHARE this with everyone you know! 

Best of luck to everyone, and stay tuned for updates on the 2025 World Crokinole Championships. 

To watch the 2025 World Crokinole Championship Coverage, tune in on and subscribe to the Tracey Boards YouTube Channel. Tracey Boards is the Official Board Builder for the World Crokinole Championships. To learn more and to buy your own board, go to Tracey Boards today!