International Darts League
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The Topic International Darts League is a darts tournament held at the Triavium in Nijmegen, Netherlands. The tournament is sponsored by Topic - a Dutch-based electronics software and hardware manufacturer.
Currently held in May, it is the second leg of the BDO’s Grand Slam title of televised majors, along with the Bavaria World Darts Trophy, the Winmau World Masters and the Lakeside World Professional Championship.
Although held as a tournament for BDO players, Dutch broadcaster SBS-6 invited five non-WDF/PDC players for the first time in 2006. These players were Phil Taylor, Colin Lloyd, Ronnie Baxter, Roland Scholten and Raymond van Barneveld.
This was done with the agreement of the Schoofs Management & Events/Maximum Score - the owner and promoter of the tournament. [1]. A similar invite was made to PDC players for the Bavaria World Darts Trophy later in 2006.
The format has changed slightly over the years - the 2006 competition had 8 round-robin groups of 4 players. The top two players in each group qualified for another round-robin phase. Again, the top two players in each group progressed, but this time to the quarter-finals of the knockout stages.
Despite the presence of the PDC players, the tournament is a WDF/BDO ranking event, with all available points going only to the WDF/BDO players competing.
Raymond van Barneveld has dominated the tournament - held in his home country, by winning it for three of the four times its been held.
[edit] Sponsors
2003-2005 Tempus, 2006-present Topic
[edit] Final Results
| Year | Champion (average in final)[1] | Score | Runner-Up (average in final) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 |  Raymond van Barneveld (97.77) |
8-5 |  Mervyn King (97.50) |
| 2004 | Raymond van Barneveld (101.64) |
13-5 |  Tony David (95.04) |
| 2005 | Mervyn King (91.89) |
13-11 | Tony O'Shea (91.74) |
| 2006 | Raymond van Barneveld (99.54) |
13-5 | Colin Lloyd (95.25) |
- ^ Each player's average score is based on the average for each 3-dart visit to the board (ie total points scored divided by darts thrown and multiplied by 3)
