Circle Contest- a new footbag competition [OFFICIAL RELEASE]

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 25 Jul 2006 20:14

---- nevermind ----

good luck. let me know if you have any questions.

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 25 Jul 2006 20:59

dude... ohh man...

someone else please say what I'm thinking.

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 25 Jul 2006 21:35

quadgun · Post by **quadgun** » 25 Jul 2006 21:38

It's a game!

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 25 Jul 2006 21:55

BAM!
footbag is fun! no?

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 25 Jul 2006 21:55

hehe, definitely.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful feedback. I'm truly honored.

Faco · Post by **Faco** » 28 Jul 2006 00:26

Circle was great! I'm sure it will become a standart discipline.

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 28 Jul 2006 16:13

After whatching the raw footage from worlds one thing pops to mind... How on earth can anyone be expected to make an edjucated/unbiased decision??? I would have been upset if I was any one of those players and didn't get first... With players at such a high and close skill level, ughh, I'd never want to be a judge!
Certainly an interesting/exciting format, but my ego just couldn't handel being judged on such a subjective basis.
Just my first impressions though, could very easily change in a live situation.

busted · Post by **busted** » 29 Jul 2006 07:03

shreddaily wrote:After whatching the raw footage from worlds one thing pops to mind... How on earth can anyone be expected to make an edjucated/unbiased decision??? I would have been upset if I was any one of those players and didn't get first...
Just my first impressions though, could very easily change in a live situation.

My experince watching it live, and also those of my friends with whom I watched it, was that there was no question who won... Felix all the way. As you suggest, perhaps there is something about seeing it live and in the moment that doesn't translate on tape.... like sweat flying from the guy's forehead on spinning tricks.

Except for Vasek's semifinal routine (to Carmina Burana, no less), the cirlce competition was the easily the best thing going at Worlds. It had the flavor of the last 15 minutes of 8-Mile, with huge crowd participation, and the guys really shredded harded. Wonderful stuff to watch.

Btw, since it appears that many of you have not seen any footage, here is a link to the my wife's blog, which has some VERY RAW footage (just over a minute) of the circle competition. It's not much, but a taste at least.

Regards,
-David

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 30 Jul 2006 07:26

I wrote this in the Videos thread but it can go here too

Not as easy to judge as I thought it would have been, but certainly interesting. You need to watch really closely and take note of run length and quality with each pass - I guess I'd approach it by counting contacts and scribbling down some quick notes about what was hit - either single moves, or standout combos, or consecs, so you can mek informed comparisons rather than just go on the vibe of each pass to keep your rankings accurate. It would be very difficult when players are incredibly close in shred level. But well worth the effort. I'd be interested to hear from the judges about how they found judging the event - what they found useful, how they'll approach it in the future.
If it wouldn't make judging more difficult it would be cool to not only have the overall winner but a couple of other awards like best single run and best single trick, like how in The Tour de France they have the overall winner, the king of the mountains, and the sprinters competition all rolled into the one event. But you'd need a different set of judges looking out for each - I guess its better to leave it at the winner and we can argue over the other stuff after the event.

For the record I would have had Felix as 1st, Honza as 2nd and Ales as 3rd. Very close though (this is after a single viewing so while its obviously not like having been there, nor is it the product of having poured over the vid repeatedly in slo mo either).

Just call me hagesy · Post by **Just call me hagesy** » 30 Jul 2006 18:06

honza as second.

I disagree there.

felix, ales, jordan, honza.

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 30 Jul 2006 18:15

Just call me hagesy wrote:honza as second.

I disagree there.

felix, ales, jordan, honza.

Seconded. tough between ales and jorden though. Felix definately for first, anyway.

edit: fixed typo

dyalander · Post by **dyalander** » 30 Jul 2006 18:27

I watched it again, more closely this time and I think you guys are right - I would have had it Felix, Ales, Jorden Honza.
I think Honza's solid third last and last runs might have been the reason I had him so high after the original viewing they probably left an impression having been right at the end (and it was 1:30am or something and I'd just done a 7hr bitch of a shift at work) whereas Jorden didnt hit anything in his last couple of goes. Honza and Felix probably had the highest average run length, then Jorden, then Ales. But Ales's difficulty and style is so awesome, and I think he had the best overall run. Felix hit something on almost every turn, whereas the others had more turns where they hit nothing - Jorden would have had 4 or 5 (if you count the time he dropped the clipper but self served) turns where he dropped without hitting anything. They all hit between 6-8 really solid runs each. They all showed something but I think Felix's consistency puts him that little bit above -he showed somethin in almost every turn. After that its so close you could put down an argument for almost any order.

busted · Post by **busted** » 30 Jul 2006 22:57

I think a very interesting question would be to ask the competitors who they thought won, and how the 2nd-4th should have been placed.

I spoke with Ales after the competition (to give him props) and he was not particularly happy with his shred during the competiton, but he's an incredibly humble person anyhow, so who knows?

-David

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 30 Jul 2006 23:22

just a super quick reply, as I just got back in town, and it's late.

I think you all (perceivably anyway) are forgetting that you don't judge the whole contest in one swoop. You judge each round individually, then tally the results from all 3 rounds at the end. That way you only have to consider the immediately preceding ~5 minutes, and give a rank. I realize there's still a lot to consider, but that's footbag for ya.

And for me, if it had been a circle and not a line, it would have been easier to judge. The akward passing threw off the rhythm enough to make me lose some of what had been hit. Although I haven't judged (and I never want to

), I think the fewer distractions the better.

So you guys shouldn't be looking at the whole 3 rounds together if you want to give your ranks. Judge them one at a time, then add it up!

max · Post by **max** » 30 Jul 2006 23:38

Ellis: have you toyed with the idea of having some kind of rebate rule along the lines of "you may rebate the preceding player if he dropped on the first trick attempted"? Just an idea but I think that it may bring huger tricks to the table (first try) while not compromising run length.

Just a note on the final of Circle shred at worlds that I saw on video: I loved how Felix nailed 12 or so symp. whirls just after Jorden did 4 in a row. THAT is some good circle spirit

blitz · Post by **blitz** » 30 Jul 2006 23:49

No rebates. If I'm competing against someone, I'm not going to help him beat me.

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 31 Jul 2006 00:20

I don't think I saw it in the PDF guide, but how do you determine the overall winner of the circle given the rankings from each of the rounds?

Given a set of rankings, there are a number of different (reasonable) ways to choose the winner, and they do not always pick the same winner.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 31 Jul 2006 03:20

blitz wrote:No rebates. If I'm competing against someone, I'm not going to help him beat me.

That is needlessly rude.

In Berlin the circle contest was run once more (again, a massive success) and players were allowed to give passbacks if they chose to. In fact, at the final show people applauded anyone who gave a passback.

I think it is stupid to try to force us to not like eachother just because it´s a competition. I wouldn´t feel good about winning if it was just because I was so selfish that I didn´t give someone else a proper chance to show how good they are.

Think about it.

pillar · Post by **pillar** » 31 Jul 2006 06:31

I agree with Mosher. One of the strong points of the circle competition is that it reflects the way we actually practice and to give a passback is always been a part of that. I remember watching the footage of the circle competition and thinking that it was strange and almost looked rude when the passback I would expect to see in a normal circle did not come. I also think that it would encourage players to hit big tricks as well.

Now a good question is in what ground should the passback happen? I think it shouldn't be an automatic thing. The player giving the passback should feel like the player before him deserves a second chance. I normally have two good reasons to give a passback:

1) The player can obviously hit what he was trying to start with, but something unusual happened and if given another chance, he will hit it and will be able to do better. This is mainly to show good sportmanship.

2) The player is trying something unusual / hard for him and although I'm not sure he can hit it, I would like to see if he is able to. This way I can show good sportmanship and encourage players hitting big tricks as well.

If someone wants to be a jerk and decides not to give passbacks, it's his decision, but I don't think the rules should ban good sportmanship and a long used method to show friendliness in a circle.

Just my thoughts.