Electric Showdown At World Darts Championship Makes Rowdy Crowd Go Wild In Viral Clip

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There are a number of relatively obscure sports out that there have still been able to amass a diehard and loyal following around the world. That includes darts, a game most people probably associate with dive bars and basement dens but is actually at the center of some fairly high-stakes competitions.

None of those events is surrounded by more prestige than the PDC World Darts Championship. In December, dozens of the world’s top professional players gathered in London in the hopes they might be able to walk away with a chunk of the £2,500,000 purse—including the £500,000 prize reserved for the champion.

Now, I’m not going to pretend I keep my finger on the pulse of pro darts. As a result, I’d be lying if I said I’m familiar with the careers of Michael van Gerwen and Michael Smith, who headed into the WDC respectively ranked third and fourth in the world and ultimately earned the opportunity to face off against each other in the finals on Wednesday.

However, as someone who’s spent more than a decade writing about sports on the internet, I do know what an absolutely electric highlight looks like when I see it—and it’s hard to top the Absolute Scenes we were treated to courtesy of the viral showdown the two men ended up at the center of during the championship showdown.

If you’re not familiar with the rules of darts, each round (referred to as a “leg”) sees players start with a score of 501, which they need to winnow down to zero as quickly as possible. The fastest way to achieve that feat is with a perfect game that involves hitting the “triple” green section located in the 20-point segment six times over the course of your first two turns before using your last three darts to score the remaining 141 on the board using one of a few possible combinations.

That’s much easier said than done (although it can be done), However, The Michaels were able to treat an increasingly raucous crowd in London to what is arguably Peak Darts during the third leg of the second set of the title match thanks to an incredibly tense back and forth that saw Smith recording the nine-dart W after Van Gerwen narrowly missed out on the chance to do the same before his English opponent stepped up to seal the deal against the Dutchman.

It looks like it might be time to get way too into the world of professional darts.