"I'm not here for the score. I'm here for making friends and having fun!".
The Vegas Shoot features two main competition formats for many divisions: the championship category for professionals, and the flights category for everyone else.
In Vegas, the flights make up the bulk of the competitors, and you get everybody - men, women, young, old, all shooting together in one division.
"I like meeting everyone from everywhere. It's nice to be with people like me." - MaryJane (Utah)
The unique structure of flights isn’t common in most other archery tournaments worldwide, which can make it a bit confusing for first-time participants.
Archers in the championship divisions compete over three days, shooting 30 arrows each day. The highest cumulative scores win prize money. If there’s a tie at the top –something that happens every year in the compound open championship – a shootdown determines the final rankings.
"You get to meet people from all over. There's a lot of people here from different countries, and we can all meet and have common ground." - Kest (Montana).
But the flights system works differently, distributing prizes more broadly across the field. Like championship archers, those in flight categories also shoot 30 arrows per day for three days. However, after the second day, competitors are divided into smaller groups called flights based on their scores, so that everyone is competing against people who are roughly their standard – or at least, the standard they showed up to Vegas with.
Each flight typically consists of 25 to 30 archers, and on the final day, each flight functions as its own competition - although there are no shootdowns. The top finishers in each flight earn prize money, but only that flight. It means that you could place 300th overall in the flights competition, but still take home some money. In the compound flights category, almost one in four flights participants will end up taking home some cash, with a $73,000 total prize pool.
But as anyone who has attended will know, the Vegas Shoot isn’t just about scores or prize money—it’s about the camaraderie that makes archery special. The flights system ensures that everyone has a chance to compete on a level playing field while connecting with fellow archers from around the world. It’s this spirit of inclusivity and friendship that keeps participants coming back year after year. Because in Vegas, the real win is the memories made along the way.
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