The world of team roping has been quietly growing a giant. Yes, Team Roping. World Series Team Roping (WSTR), to be exact. The WSTR had its beginnings in 2006 and is the brainchild of Denny Gentry, who also created and then sold, a numbered team roping system, the USTRC. When Denny thinks, he thinks big. And when Denny plans, he plans to be bigger. In the last ten years, WSTR events has awarded a whopping $54 million dollars to their Finale contestants. In the span of the 2015 season, the World Series Team Roping events awarded $34 million dollars in purses to contestants vying to attend the Vegas Finale. The WSTR Finale is now considered to be the second largest paying equestrian event in the world ($10.5 million)behind the Breeder's Cup World Championships. In fact, the WSTR Finale has surpassed the payoff of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo for the last three years; awarding $10,535,000 in cold, hard CASH and another $250,000 in prizes - and it all has happened right in plain sight. In December. In Vegas. At the South Point Arena, since 2006.

The 2016 season is a culmination of over 100,000 team members competing at over 100 WSTR Qualifiers nationwide, to get to 3,000 teams that will rope for over a $10 Million Dollar Payout. There are going to be 4 divisions that will pay over $7 Million each and one division that should pay over $2 Million.

Each season welcomes firsts, and new records. 2015 introduced the first back-to-back champion in the same division - Eric Randle, of Moody, Texas; who won the 2014 #10 Division as a Heeler, and then returned in 2015 to win the same division as a Header. Also in 2015: Ralph Carter, of Calera, Oklahoma, split $259,000 in the #9 Finale, setting the record as the oldest WSTR Champion, at 80 years young!