The Outrageous 2019 tournament crowd at Rage Montreal

Our story

The idea sounded wrong.

Throwing axes for fun? Indoors? As a business? Before signing a lease we put a few targets up in the workshop next to our escape game, bought some axes and started throwing. It was ridiculously fun. The rest followed.

Opened: March 2016
Address: 1436 rue Atateken, downtown Montréal
Targets: 10
Federation: IATF
Visitors: Over 500,000 people
Outdoor events: Over 200 since 2017
Group: A\Maze

Before 2016

Targets in the workshop

Phil, one of the future founders, was the first to suggest axe throwing. A\Maze had recently opened, and the entertainment business still felt new to us. We were curious, ambitious and prepared to try almost anything. Almost.

Opening a place where people paid to throw axes sounded completely unreasonable. So we tested it. We built a few targets in the workshop beside the escape game, bought some axes and tried to figure out how to throw them. There were no convenient tutorials explaining the right grip, distance or rotation. We missed, adjusted and threw again.

We broke two axes before we stopped. But every time one stuck, we wanted another throw. The questionable idea suddenly felt much less questionable.

The concept was proven. Phil, Polina, Anton and Alexander decided to open an axe-throwing centre.

2016

An old library on Amherst

Finding a home for axe throwing was not simple. We needed high ceilings, enough depth for the lanes, permission to make noise and a landlord who would not end the conversation the moment we explained what we wanted to do inside the building.

After months of looking, we found a space on Amherst Street, today’s rue Atateken. It had once been a library, and it was not even officially on the market yet. The shelves were gone, but a few old books remained. The room was unusual, imperfect and exactly what we needed. We fell in love with it. We spent roughly two months turning it into lanes with wooden targets.

Then we needed a name. After hours of ideas, arguments and names nobody remembers anymore, we landed on Rage. It sounded a little aggressive, so we softened it to Rage Academy for the landlord, and probably for ourselves. It did not last. Everyone was already calling it Rage.

In March 2016, Rage opened its doors. We thought we were ready. We were not. During the first night, we broke roughly half the axes we owned. Handles snapped. Targets reacted differently than we had imagined. The first months were about figuring out how axe throwing actually worked as an activity: the axes, the handles, the wood, the distances and how to coach people. Much of what feels normal at Rage today came out of those chaotic first months.

The Rage storefront on rue Atateken, in the snow

2016–2018

Montréal discovers something new

In 2016, axe throwing still required an explanation. You come in. We give you a real axe. You throw it at a wooden target. No, you do not need to be a lumberjack. It was not the obvious choice for a first date, a birthday or a company outing. That was exactly why people became curious.

The first throw usually went badly. Sometimes the first ten did. Then an axe stuck. Someone shouted. Someone immediately became competitive. Within a few minutes, a group of adults who had walked in saying “We’ve never done this before” was bragging about every axe that landed.

The big moment came during a free axe-throwing day in October. More than 450 people showed up to try it. The wait reached 90 minutes, and the line stretched almost the full length of the block. Local radio stations and newspapers picked up the story. That day gave Rage the push it needed.

Success like that had to be managed. Alexandra Teteryuk and Justin Symons came on board as managers, alongside a full crew of great coaches: Raven, Bear, Eagle, Panther, Stag, Wolf, Falcon, Fox, Owl, Rhino and many others. For them, the place became more than a job. They put their energy, sweat and hearts into it.

Alexandra Teteryuk, manager at Rage, axe ready to throw

A Rage coach in Viking costume, axe in both hands

Two throwing knives raised, ready to go, at Rage

2017 →

Rage goes outside

In 2017, we built movable outdoor targets and began taking Rage to events. There were many, but the first, and still one of the most memorable, was the Festival d’hiver de Québec. It was minus 36 degrees. The coaches had to take turns outside because nobody could remain at the throwing line for long. Even in that weather, the wait reached 60 minutes: three throws, then back in line to try again. It was our first major event outside Montréal and proof that Rage could work almost anywhere.

Since then, Rage has taken part in more than 200 outdoor events: private parties, company gatherings, Montréal Comiccon, neighbourhood celebrations and festivals across Québec.

After enough setting up and tearing down, we built a better solution: a 14-foot trailer with its own targets, lighting and cages. It can park almost anywhere and be ready for throwing within an hour. Today, the trailer travels to festivals, corporate events and street parties, and Rage no longer stops at the door of 1436 Atateken.

Rage’s first outdoor booth at the Festival d’hiver de Québec, 2017: targets in the snow and a line of curious people

A neighbourhood winter festival: two Rage targets in front of a stone church, families lined up

The Rage trailer in the snow on a winter night

The leagues

When throwing became a sport

Then came the competitive years. At first, people wanted to know how to make the axe stick. Then some wanted to make it stick every time. They asked about rotation, distance and consistency. They wanted scores. Then they started buying their own axes. That is when you know something has changed.

League nights grew around the same targets used for birthdays and first dates. Rage became one of the original venues in the federation system that eventually developed into the International Axe Throwing Federation. Manager and competitor Philippe Lafleur, Alexandra Teteryuk and many others put years into building the competitive side of Rage. They coached new throwers, organized seasons, maintained the rules and gave people a reason to return every week.

Some Rage throwers eventually competed far beyond Montréal. Max Machado represented the venue at a high level and appeared in Going Clutch, a documentary about competitive axe throwing. Simon Arseneault qualified for the International Axe Throwing Championship several times and once finished among the tournament’s top ten. Marie-Anick Savard joined the league years later, qualified in 2025 and reached the final 32 on her first trip. Philippe Lafleur, Jonathan Côté, Khalil Boukhris and many others carried the Rage name through different seasons and competitions.

On one lane, someone is holding an axe for the first time. On the next, someone is preparing for an international tournament. Sometimes the first person eventually becomes the second.

Philippe Lafleur, manager and competitor, axe in hand in his lane

A competitor in front of his target during a tournament at Rage

19 May 2019

Outrageous

By 2019, we wanted to see how far the competitive side could go. On May 19, forty-eight throwers from Canada and the United States came to Rage for Outrageous: a double-elimination tournament with one very simple prize. $3,000. Winner takes all.

Three years earlier, we had still been explaining what axe throwing was. Now people were travelling to Montréal specifically to compete at Rage. Another edition of Outrageous was being prepared for 2020.

Then COVID arrived. The leagues stopped. The events stopped. The room went quiet. Behind closed doors, Alex Tsyrfa carried the place through that period. Eventually, the doors reopened. The first axes flew again. The leagues returned. So did the noise.

All 48 Outrageous 2019 throwers, gathered for the photo

The Outrageous 2019 winner holding up the giant cheque

A throw under the federation banner, Outrageous 2019

2025

More than one place

Rage was not always limited to one address. There was a pop-up at Dix30. There was Rage South Shore. We helped open a Rage venue in Guatemala using our targets, equipment and approach to coaching.

Later, TNT Axe Throwing operated locations in Saint-Henri and Dix30. In 2025, TNT became part of Rage. TNT’s coaches arrived with their own habits, stories, axes and regulars. Some of the people welcoming guests at Rage today were wearing TNT shirts not long ago.

Each location carried part of Rage somewhere new. Each taught us something about building lanes, training coaches and creating an experience people wanted to repeat. By 2026, everything had come home to Atateken: the original room, the combined team, the regulars and ten years of lessons under one roof.

A coach from TNT Axe Throwing, axe on his shoulder, in front of the target

2020–2025

The faces changed. The reason did not.

It was not the first time Rage had changed, and it will probably not be the last. Coaches left and came back. Regulars became coaches. New people walked through the door and made the place their own.

The business changed too. Alexander eventually became the sole owner, and Rage became part of A\Maze, the Montréal entertainment group that grew from the escape game beside which those first targets had been built. Today, the group also includes A\Maze escape games, Art Chaos and Memento, the craft brewpub in Pointe-Saint-Charles.

On paper, they are completely different businesses. In practice, they all come from the same belief: the best nights are the ones when people actually do something together. The activity changes. The reason does not.

Alexander, owner of Rage, axe on his shoulder in front of the raccoon mural

2026

A new look

Ten years leave marks on a place. Thousands of axes have hit these targets. League champions have been made here. First dates, birthdays, company parties and terrible first throws have filled the room with noise.

In 2026, we introduced knife throwing alongside the axes. We renovated the venue, updated the design and gave the room a new identity. The logo changed. The walls changed. The room kept growing with us. In the spring, we hosted an IATF regional tournament, bringing competitors from across the region onto the renewed lanes.

The next chapter is already under construction: the Rage kitchen and bar, so people can stay after the final throw and the night does not have to end when the axes stop flying. But stand behind the line, release the axe and hear that first THUNK. For a moment, it is 2016 again.

2026

Ten years later

The strangest part of looking back is realizing how little of this could have been predicted. We did not know those first workshop targets would lead to leagues, outdoor festivals, international competitors or half a million guests. We did not know people would travel to compete here. We only knew that throwing an axe was fun. Ten years later, that is still the part that matters most.

Axe throwing looks like an individual activity, but the best moments happen between throws. You watch your friends. You laugh at the terrible attempts. You celebrate the good ones. You discover that the quietest person in the group is somehow terrifyingly accurate. For a while, everyone stops looking at another screen and starts paying attention to the people around them.

That is what Rage has always been about. Not only the axe that sticks, but the noise that follows. The person who celebrates it. The friends who saw it happen. The story that gets repeated later.

Half a million people have walked through the doors since 2016. Almost every one of them started in the same place: standing behind the line, holding an axe and wondering whether this was a good idea. Then they threw it.

The early years, in photos.

Pallets for benches, the first lanes under fluorescent light, the arcade corner before the mural, the first red logo and the crew from the early days. Click to enlarge.

The empty caged lanes, before the redesign

The arcade corner and its games, before the mural

The early Rage crew, gathered under the old sign

The Outrageous 2019 crowd under the old RAGE sign

The league

Competition nights.

The same targets, a different kind of quiet: ten throws each, a bracket on the wall, and people who have shown up every week for years. Click to enlarge.