World Pizza Games Return to Pizza Expo 2025
If the International Pizza Expo represents “the greatest pizza people in the world in one place,” as Pizza Today contributor and World Pizza Champions former President Mike Bausch says, the World Pizza Games Finals and Block Party is the pizza industry’s “homecoming” event. If anyone should know, it’s Bausch. Under his tenure, the World Pizza Games became “the most legit pizza acrobatic competition in the world.”
This year, the World Pizza Games return to Pizza Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, March 26, with some events stretching into Thursday. Ahead of the World Pizza Games, Bausch offers Pizza Today readers an inside look at what goes into the games and tips to winning the coveted first-place prize (hint: no juggling).
“Freestyle Acrobatic Dough Tossing could be an Olympic sport,” he says. “I hope it would do better than the breakdancing did this year.”
Fastest Pizza Box Folding
Bausch says a lot of preparation goes into making sure all competitors have an even playing field. Challengers each get five identical 12-inch pizza boxes, and they can ask the judges to arrange them however they like – spread out, in a stack – but the box-folders themselves cannot touch the boxes until the judge counts down “Three, two, one, GO!”
Judges hold stopwatches, and contestants’ times are recorded to the 100th of a second. At the 2024 World Pizza Games, David Whisker of B.C. Pizza took first place, folding all five boxes in 00:18:094. This year, the competition starts at 12:30 p.m. on March 27, and the first-place winner will be awarded $1,000.
Fastest Dough
In this category, contestants are provided with five 12-ounce dough balls and five 12-inch pizza screens. Once the competition starts, they must stretch each of the five dough balls to entirely cover the screens as quickly as possible.
Bausch says contestants take different approaches to stretching the dough. “Some people will take all five (dough balls), compress them and press them all out,” he says. “Some people do it individually.”
And while the challenge sounds simple enough, Bausch says that is far from true. Throwing the dough down on the disc with too much force will cause it to contract. “Dough is a living entity, it’s like a plant,” Bausch says. “You have to be gentle right at the end.”
Brittany Saxton of Six Hundred Downtown took home first prize for fastest dough in 2024 with a time a full seven seconds faster than the next-fastest challenger (00:30:087). The first-place winner of the 2025 competition – starting at 11:15 a.m. on March 27 – will be awarded $1,000.
Largest Dough Stretch
Competitors each will be given an 18-ounce dough ball; from there, they have five minutes to toss the dough or work it on the table to create a round or oval shape that is as wide as possible without creating any holes in the dough. The dough is measured at the widest point, and another measurement is taken at the midpoint, with the final measurement being the average of the two.
Bausch says most competitors first work the dough on the table, methodically stretching it out. He points out that taller people are able to hang the dough, letting gravity contribute to the stretch. Once again, he says slapping the dough on the table to be measured will cause it to contract, so contestants have to decide between waiting until the last second to stop stretching their dough and allowing time to gingerly place it before the judges.
“You want to get this dough to be as razor thin as possible while not poking a hole,” Bausch says, adding that by the time contestants are finished, there is no raised edge to the crust.
In 2024, Matt Hickey of Caliente Pizza & Draft House finished in first place with an average dough measurement of 94.4 inches. The first-place winner on March 27 (this event starts at 1:30 p.m.) will be awarded $1,000.
Freestyle Acrobatic Dough-Tossing
The “most prestige,” according to Bausch, is reserved for the dough tossing entrants. Competitors choose the music for their performance, and routines can be no longer than five minutes for the trials and 10 minutes in the finals. Dough used for this category has more salt and no olive oil, so it is more elastic and not slippery. Competitors will be given 10 refrigerated, 8-ounce dough balls, although they can bring their own dough, if they choose.
Contestants in the Freestyle Acrobatic Dough Tossing competition must first pass preliminary competition at noon on March 26 before advancing to the Individual Acrobatic Dough-tossing Finals at 6 p.m. that day, with the Masters Division convening at 7 p.m.
“Whoever wins throughout the day gets to go on to compete at night in front of what is like the homecoming of all pizza – everyone in a room with entertainment and drinks,” Bausch says.
The judges grade contestants on a 10-point scale based on dexterity, difficulty of tricks, synchronization to the music, variety of tricks, drops (half a point is deducted each time a competitor drops their dough), as well as creativity and entertainment value. Bausch says the most successful competitors smoothly transition from trick to trick, and juggling is frowned upon.
In 2024, Pablo Gil of Pizza Man Dan’s won first place with 410.9 points, and previous first-place winners are eligible to compete in the Masters Division. The first-place winner in each of the Freestyle Acrobatic Dough Tossing competitions (First Division and Masters) will win $1,000.
Pizza Triathlon
Finally, pizza pros whose skills know no bounds will be put to the test in the Pizza Triathlon, where competitors are judged on box-folding, dough-tossing and dough-stretching. Each competitor is given:
- One 12-inch pizza box.
- Two 22-ounce dough balls.
- A 16-inch pizza screen and a 24-inch pizza screen.
Challengers are asked to fold the pizza box and stretch the pizza dough so it covers both screens as quickly as possible, with times recorded to the hundredth of a second. In 2024, Tara Hattan of Zasas Pizza & Wings completed the challenge with a time of 00:52:022. The first-place winner of the Pizza Triathlon starting at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, will be awarded $1,000.
What You Need to Know
Competition in the World Pizza Games is reserved for Pizza Expo attendees, and challengers must register for the competition when purchasing their Pizza Expo pass. Learn more about the World Pizza Games and past winners at pizzaexpo.com.
Winners of the World Pizza Games will be announced at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, in the Pizza Expo exhibit hall.
To get the latest news about the world’s largest pizza show, visit the Pizza Expo 2025 NEWS HUB.
