When Adeline Kubicsek got a job at LumberjAxes in Millvale, little did she know that it would change her life. Despite the covid-19 pandemic beginning shortly after she started, the job sparked her passion for axe throwing.

“I look at it as the easier your throw is, the less you put into it. … You don’t have to really throw that axe,” Kubicsek said. “It’s about messing with rotation, not throwing it hard.”

After Kubicsek honed her skills, she entered tournaments and did well, but she knew she could do better. Then, in 2023, she started to win. She grabbed victories in a women’s tournament at ChillAxe in North Huntington and the mixed Urban Over Swiss tournament at Urban Axes in Baltimore before her trip to Toronto, Canada, for the Slayer Series of the 2025 International Axe Throwing Championship, the pinnacle of axe throwing tournaments, June 11-15.

The Slayer Series was open to female, transgender and nonbinary individuals and was a group knockout tournament. Kubicsek competed in a group of five. She won three of her four matches, dropping just four combined rounds, before advancing to a single-elimination bracket.

The matches in the group stage and the first three rounds of the bracket were best-of-five. In each round, competitors had five throws. On the fifth throw, they can aim for the clutch, which allows throwers to earn a maximum of seven points, compared to the usual five from hitting the bull’s-eye.

“I try to go for (the clutch) because I’m confident (I can hit it). … I take it as I have to hit that if I want to win,” Kubicsek said. “I always go for it.”

As expected, the intensity of the competition increased during the knockout phase. After sweeping her first-round opponent, Kubicsek took a 3-1 decision in the second round before facing her toughest challenge in the quarterfinals.

“I knew the girl just came from a long match, so my goal was to just throw my best,” Kubicsek said.

Her best was good enough. Despite needing a decisive fifth round, she advanced 3-2 into the semifinals. Kubicsek kept calm in the stressful moments and continued her title march.

When the pressure was highest, Kubicsek delivered clutch throws. Following a 4-2 win in a best-of-seven, she swept her finals opponent in a dominant 4-0 championship triumph.

“It gave me, definitely, a confidence boost just because of a lot of personal things in my life to have fun and push personal things aside,” she said.

Kubicsek has regularly traversed the country and beyond in pursuit of axe-throwing success, and she emphasized the tight-knit nature of the community.

“A lot of them do travel,” Kubicsek said. “I’ve had a good few of them stay at my house when there were tournaments in Pittsburgh, so we’re all very close with each other.”

After the Slayer Series win, Kubicsek climbed to No. 19 in the world in the International Axe Throwing Federation standard category. She has no intention of this tournament win being her final achievement.

“IATC is the biggest tournament of the year, so now it’s just working on little details of my throw. … So my goal is to win a major tournament (in the next axe-throwing year).”

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