E-Lacrosse owner John Weaver admits he's never understood the edges box lax very well. When he decided to start a tournament in Holland, there were more than a few sceptics out there who questioned why he was reaching for a market that nobody wanted anyway. And the box be damned, the tournament enlisted Paul Gait as Master of Ceremonies, the Division II NCAA Champion NYIT, the German National Team and the world famous Crease Monkeys as contestants.  There were ten sponsors, including Harrow, deBeer, Gait Helmets, Euro-Lax, Six Tribes, Lax World and Red Bull who provided the 'Red Bull Girls'. There was plenty of beer to to accompany the hours of lax watching, no games before 11 a.m., a full line of tournament merchandise for sale in Europe and the US and individual sign-ups for any player who wanted to come but could not gather a whole team.

 
This tournament holds a significant place in the pantheon of Amsterdam Lacrosse as it was this original tournament that brought lacrosse to Amsterdam for the first time and and that gave the inspirational spark to start this great annual lacrosse event. The tournament  was an initiative by John Weaver (e-lacrosse.com owner) who quickly found Eduard Dopper (captain of Holland’s only lacrosse team at that time, the Maastricht Lama’s) who had proved himself to be a valuable part of the board.  However, the diverse skills of the gentlemen alone was still not enough to meet the demands of the tournament that they had in mind.  Therefore, they decided to enlist the talents of Matt Peterson and appointed him to be the tournament director.

The debut tournament started with 14 men’s teams, divided in two separate divisions; North American and European. Some teams, like Team Steuerbert and Backbert, the German National and Rising Stars teams, came as units. Other players just showed up as independents, having been assigned teams by the tournament staff, some as fill-ins on teams that needed a player or two, but most filled out the rosters of the Lax World Select team and the E-Lacrosse team.

The tournament turned out to be a huge success on AND off the field. Not only did the players get to play some great lacrosse, but they also got the chance to see Amsterdam and enjoy all the city has to offer.

UKLacrosse won the European finals against Steuerbert and in the American league the Crease monkeys won the game over NYIT.

This was the start of a great tournament that was already sure to be a returning ritual.