Leonard Gates delivered a vintage performance on Championship Sunday in Brownsburg, Indiana, securing his 13th CDC Tour title, the most by any player in CDC history, with a commanding 7–3 win over Adam Sevada in the final of the CDC Indianapolis 501, the last event of the 2025 regular season.

Gates, who had already booked his return to the PDC/PaddyPower World Darts Championship via his Cross Border Darts Challenge win earlier this year, capped his campaign with a strong run that saw him sweep aside Danny Young, Jason Brandon, and top-seeded Sevada en route to the trophy. The two-time Continental Cup champion found top gear on Sunday, leading the field with 11 180s while averaging just under 88 across his matches.

Despite the loss in the final, Adam Sevada closed out a dream season by officially clinching the Jay Tomlinson Trophy as the CDC Tour Points leader. The top-ranked American not only qualifies for the World Championship but also earns direct entry to Stage 2 of PDC Q-School in 2026, a crucial step for a player pursuing a PDC Tour Card. His 89.12 average over 46 legs was the highest on the day.

The final Tour event also locked in two additional World Championship berths:

• David Cameron will represent Canada as the top points-earner from north of the border.

• Stowe Buntz, the Tour’s top-ranked player not otherwise qualified, books his return to Alexandra Palace after another standout campaign.

Elsewhere, Mike Scarborough continued to raise eyebrows, following up his run to the quarters on Saturday with another deep push on Sunday, the best back-to-back showing by any CDC Associate player this season.

Meanwhile, Kaidon Newberry and Danny Young both capped off breakthrough sophomore seasons with quarterfinal appearances, officially securing their spots in the 2025 Continental Cup next month in Philadelphia. Joining them will be first-year CDC Tour Card holder Chris McHargue who had a sizzling start to the 2025 Tour and held on to qualify in 16th position.

But there was heartbreak for a legend: Larry Butler, the 1994 World Matchplay champion and inaugural Continental Cup winner, fell just short of qualification, finishing 19th on the Tour Points List. This marks the first full CDC season in which “The Eagle” does not feature in the Tour Championship.

With the regular season now in the books, all eyes turn to Philadelphia on October 17-18, where the top 16 players from the 2025 Championship Darts Circuit will collide at the Continental Cup. The stakes? a $20,000 prize fund and berths in the Grand Slam of Darts, World Championship, and the 2026 US Darts Masters. Tickets are available at ticketsource.com/champdarts.

CDC Indianapolis 501 results
QUARTERFINALS:
Adam Sevada (1) 6-1 Kaidon Newberry
David Cameron (4) 3-6 Alex Spellman (5)
Mike Scarborough 5-6 Jason Brandon (10)
Leonard Gates (3) 6-3 Danny Young

SEMIFINALS:
Adam Sevada 7-5 Alex Spellman
Jason Brandon 5-7 Leonard Gates

FINAL:
Adam Sevada 3-7 Leonard Gates

Continental Cup Qualifiers:
Adam Sevada
Stowe Buntz
David Cameron
Leonard Gates
Alex Spellman
Darryl Christie
Gary Mawson
Jason Brandon
Doug Boehm
Kiley Edmunds
Jim Long
Jacob Taylor
Kaidon Newberry
Nick Linberg
Danny Young
Chris McHargue

2026 Cross Border Darts Challenge Automatic Qualifiers:

Team Canada
David Cameron
Darryl Christie
Kiley Edmunds
Jim Long
Jacob Taylor
John Part

Team USA
Adam Sevada
Stowe Buntz
Leonard Gates
Alex Spellman
Gary Mawson
Jason Brandon

Jim Long produced a composed surge on Friday night to win the DartConnect Championship in Brownsburg, defeating David Cameron 7-3 in the final to secure his sixth career CDC title.

Long advanced with a 6-1 quarterfinal win over an in-form Nick Linberg, then turned back seventh-seeded Gary Mawson 7-3 in the semifinals before closing out Cameron in the title match. Cameron earned his place in the final by dispatching fifth-seeded Alex Spellman 6–2 and then upsetting top-seeded Adam Sevada 7–3.

The night carried major ranking implications. Cameron’s run to the final makes it virtually impossible for Darryl Christie to catch him for Canada’s top Tour Points spot; it would take Christie winning both remaining events with Cameron exiting in the first round twice. In practical terms, Cameron is all but locked for return to Ally Pally. On the U.S. side, Stowe Buntz sits 21 points behind Sevada in the race for the Jay Tomlinson Trophy, which is awarded to the top overall player on the Tour at the end of the season and also confers the benefit of entering PDC Q-School at Stage 2. Both Buntz and Sevada are already guaranteed World Championship berths but you can bet that neither will let their foot off the gas in pursuit of the Tour Points Championship.

Elsewhere, Larry Butler has slipped outside the top 16 and now risks missing the Continental Cup for the first time other than the year he was sidelined after a heart attack. There are three players within 10 points of the final Cup spot, setting up a tense finish and making every dart critical with only two events to play.

On the stats sheet, Buntz led the field in average at 90.28 over 27 legs, while Cameron topped the 180 chart with 12, three clear of both Long and Mawson. Big finishes lit up the early rounds as Jeremiah Millar and Trevor Buboltz each produced a 170 checkout (Millar’s came in a losing effort to Kiley Edmunds in the last 32).

The weekend continues Saturday in Brownsburg with the A-Z Darts Trophy — a double-in/double-out “Saturday Special,” and the penultimate stop of the 2025 CDC season.

QUARTERFINALS:
Adam Sevada (1) 6-2 Jacob Taylor (8)
David Cameron (4) 6-2 Alex Spellman (5)
Stowe Buntz (2) 5-6 Gary Mawson (7)
Nick Linberg (14) 1-6 Jim Long (6)

SEMIFINALS:
Adam Sevada 3-7 David Cameron
Gary Mawson 3-7 Jim Long

FINAL:
Jim Long 7-3 David Cameron

Stowe Buntz claimed his ninth career CDC title and fourth of the 2025 season on Saturday night, defeating Alex Spellman 7–3 in the final of the CDC Showdown in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois.

In a grueling evening under the “win-by-two clear legs” format, Buntz was dominant – dropping only 10 legs in the event and never being pushed to extra time. After dispatching Joey Lynaugh 6-2 in the quarterfinals and dominating Leonard Gates 7-1 in the semifinals, he delivered a commanding performance in the final to halt Spellman’s bid for a Saturday sweep.

Spellman had lifted the Cosmo Darts Championship title earlier in the day but couldn’t replicate the magic in the nightcap. His path to the final included a 6-1 quarterfinal win over Kiley Edmunds and a hard-fought 7-5 victory over top-seeded Adam Sevada in the semifinals. Spellman and Sevada also shared top honors in the 180 count, each firing in nine maximums.

The breakout performance of the night came from Jason Wilbur, who reached his first CDC quarterfinal after a 6-3 win over sixth seed Gary Mawson in the last 16. Wilbur was the only unseeded player to make the last eight, as ranked players proved too difficult to overcome elsewhere.

Jacob Taylor led the field in average at 88.91 over 24 legs, but ran into a tough extra-leg battle against Lynaugh, who sent the Canadian packing 7–5 in the round of 16.

With another title added to an already stellar season, Buntz continues to narrow the gap between he and Adam Sevada at the top of the 2025 standings with both vying for the top U.S. spot in race to the PaddyPower World Darts Championship.

The 2025 Championship Darts Circuit resumes Sunday with the Boomerang Tours Fiesta, and will conclude with a three-event stretch in Indianapolis, September 19–21 where the field for the Continental Cup will be confirmed, along with three automatic berths at the Alexandra Palace in December.

QUARTERFINALS
Adam Sevada (1) 6-4 Jason Brandon (8)
Kiley Edmunds (13) 1-6 Alex Spellman (5)
Stowe Buntz (2) 6-2 Joey Lynaugh (10)
Leonard Gates (3) 6-1 Jason Wilbur

SEMIFINALS
Adam Sevada 5-7 Alex Spellman
Stowe Buntz 7-1 Leonard Gates

FINAL
Alex Spellman 3-7 Stowe Buntz

Stowe Buntz capped off the Indianapolis weekend with another statement win, defeating Adam Sevada 7–6 in a thrilling final to capture the DJD Duel title and his eighth career CDC Tour victory.

The top seed was in dominant form throughout the day, dropping only two total legs in defeats of Trevor Buboltz and PDC Tour Card holder, Danny Lauby, to reach the quarterfinals. There, a whitewash 6-0 win over Jacob Taylor and a 7-4 semifinal triumph over David Cameron set up his third finals clash of the season with Sevada. This time, the Neon Nightmare was able to successfully parry multiple charges from The Reaper, holding his nerve after two multi-leg leads were erased and holding throw in the decider to hoist the trophy.

Sevada’s path saw him dispatch Scott Estle and Patrick Guariglia in quick fashion to reach the quarterfinals where he was unbothered by yesterday’s finalist, Jason Brandon, sweeping him aside 6-1. He then survived a last-leg decider against second-seeded Leonard Gates in the semis to return to the finals stage where Buntz exacted his revenge for their last two meetings.

Buntz’s 92.14 average over 43 legs led the field by a wide margin, with Cameron’s 87.58 the next closest. Sevada led the event in 180s, landing 12, two more than Gates.

The Tour’s elite rose to the occasion on Sunday, with all four semifinal spots claimed by the top four seeds. Friday’s champion, Darryl Christie, was the only unseeded player to reach the last eight, falling to Gates 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

With momentum firmly on his side, Buntz now sets his sights on Chicago, where the 2025 Championship Darts Circuit resumes August 23-24 with Events 11 through 13.