There are 2 main tournament organizations in Colorado - Boulder girls softball and Triple Crown Sports (TCS). Fireworks is the granddaddy of all the events (45 years) and was run by another org prior to TCS acquiring them a few years ago. Boulder (18 years) and Sparkler (12 years) are much newer by comparison.
Boulder puts on the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Tourney (IDT), which is very selective and where more of the top organizations play. "The tournament is organized and hosted by the Boulder Competitive Girls Softball Organization, an all-volunteer organization. All profits derived from the tournament go to support girls softball in Boulder." They have 3 divisions that are identified by the cities where the games are played - Boulder 18U (80 teams), Louisville 18U (32 teams competing for 6 spots to Boulder following year) and Longmont 16U (48 teams). The 3 cities are fairly close to each other and far enough north of metropolitan Denver that it's pretty easy to get between the parks. Their 7gg format is very simple - pools of 8 teams with 6 pool games (2 gms/day Wed-Fri) to seed a single elimination bracket (Sat-Sun). Most of the teams are eliminated on Saturday, so all the games on Sunday are played at the main Stazio complex in Boulder. Teams can purchase additional practice games on Monday and/or Tuesday. The Tuesday games are in high demand and well attended by college coaches.
Triple Crown has the Fireworks and Sparkler events. In the last few years they've essentially created a third one that sits atop the other two, Super 64 18U (32 16U). The format of each event is different and confusing. One thing that is consistent is TCS's hybrid bracket that starts with multiple double elim brackets which are only played out to the final 2 teams and then those 2 teams advance to a single elimination championship bracket. For example, the Super 64 bracket begins as 8 8-team dbl elim brackets that feed a 16-team single elimination bracket.
- Super 64 18U (32 16U) is the top tier of the TCS events. TCS uses to US Club Rankings to select teams for their Power Pools and Supplemental Power Pools. All the teams in the Power Pools will advance to the Super bracket. The Supplemental Power Pools are within Fireworks and Sparkler where the top finishers advance to the Super bracket and the others are treated like 1st place teams in the regular pools. The Power Pools have the same format as Fireworks pools (see below). It looks like all these games are played at the main Aurora complex.
- Fireworks used to be the top-tier TCS event. It is a 6gg with pools of 4 teams. The first 2 games are essentially practice games against teams in other pools, although they are tracked as "Pool" games and summarized. The real pool games are the 4-team "Box" brackets that ASA uses in their Nats. The top 2 teams in the Supplemental Power Pools advance to the Super bracket. The rest of the teams are seeded into a single hybrid bracket. The Red and Blue brackets are just portions of the overall bracket and come together in the Championship Bracket.
- Sparkler is TCS's original event and ends up with almost as many teams as the other 2 combined. It has pools of 5 teams that play 4 games. The top 3 teams in the Supplemental Power Pools advance to the Super bracket. The rest of the teams are split into 5 different brackets based on their pool finish. The Sparkler games are spread across numerous smaller parks all around Denver.
Boulder puts on the Louisville Slugger Independence Day Tourney (IDT), which is very selective and where more of the top organizations play. "The tournament is organized and hosted by the Boulder Competitive Girls Softball Organization, an all-volunteer organization. All profits derived from the tournament go to support girls softball in Boulder." They have 3 divisions that are identified by the cities where the games are played - Boulder 18U (80 teams), Louisville 18U (32 teams competing for 6 spots to Boulder following year) and Longmont 16U (48 teams). The 3 cities are fairly close to each other and far enough north of metropolitan Denver that it's pretty easy to get between the parks. Their 7gg format is very simple - pools of 8 teams with 6 pool games (2 gms/day Wed-Fri) to seed a single elimination bracket (Sat-Sun). Most of the teams are eliminated on Saturday, so all the games on Sunday are played at the main Stazio complex in Boulder. Teams can purchase additional practice games on Monday and/or Tuesday. The Tuesday games are in high demand and well attended by college coaches.
Triple Crown has the Fireworks and Sparkler events. In the last few years they've essentially created a third one that sits atop the other two, Super 64 18U (32 16U). The format of each event is different and confusing. One thing that is consistent is TCS's hybrid bracket that starts with multiple double elim brackets which are only played out to the final 2 teams and then those 2 teams advance to a single elimination championship bracket. For example, the Super 64 bracket begins as 8 8-team dbl elim brackets that feed a 16-team single elimination bracket.
- Super 64 18U (32 16U) is the top tier of the TCS events. TCS uses to US Club Rankings to select teams for their Power Pools and Supplemental Power Pools. All the teams in the Power Pools will advance to the Super bracket. The Supplemental Power Pools are within Fireworks and Sparkler where the top finishers advance to the Super bracket and the others are treated like 1st place teams in the regular pools. The Power Pools have the same format as Fireworks pools (see below). It looks like all these games are played at the main Aurora complex.
- Fireworks used to be the top-tier TCS event. It is a 6gg with pools of 4 teams. The first 2 games are essentially practice games against teams in other pools, although they are tracked as "Pool" games and summarized. The real pool games are the 4-team "Box" brackets that ASA uses in their Nats. The top 2 teams in the Supplemental Power Pools advance to the Super bracket. The rest of the teams are seeded into a single hybrid bracket. The Red and Blue brackets are just portions of the overall bracket and come together in the Championship Bracket.
- Sparkler is TCS's original event and ends up with almost as many teams as the other 2 combined. It has pools of 5 teams that play 4 games. The top 3 teams in the Supplemental Power Pools advance to the Super bracket. The rest of the teams are split into 5 different brackets based on their pool finish. The Sparkler games are spread across numerous smaller parks all around Denver.
