RawSko - Ray of Light (intermediate or open?)

[mtoolan]

like taylor, im in no position to say either way which way you should compete, but i really dug the vid. good shred, cool style, and i liked the song.

i just watched it again and that one string with the weaving butters, osis>ripwalk, blender, and osis>blurry whirl was sick.

[david]

I wrote a big post but I am obviously the minority so I won't bother posting it. Sorry for having high standards.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

dc

[mikeanello]

David,

Don't get yourself down over this. What you posted earlier made perfect sense to me and I believe to a lot of other people.

What it all comes down to is personal choice. If someone wants to compete in one division over another, so be it. What is unique in this thread is that he asked the modified community for their opinions, and he is getting them.

This is a great discussion. I am getting a lot of new information from very intelligent and experienced people. What every has to realize is that we are sharing opinions. There are no winners and no losers when sharing opinions and no one needs to convince anyone else that their opinion is the right one.

Check the definition.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opinion

o·pin·ion
–noun 1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.

Peace.

[footjam_heger]

If I judged this video I'd say "go for open, definitely!"

the competition is not all about difficulty. you can hit drifter, steppingmoves, pixie (bothsided) and some more. that's pretty good. what you need now, is a good structured routine. how to structure a routine is another bigger issue and would go beyond the scope. but fact is, with a good planned routine you can achieve something big even without having "professional" footbag skills.
of course, you're not gonna win the open competition.
anyway, I think the intermediate is open for real newbies, for people who wanna try to play on stage.

from my point of view, players who try to go for open are more appreciated than these who win the intermediate easily.

some say: "compete in open if you're a possessor of a medal from an intermediate-competition" infact, there's no rule which bans players from competing in open.

Again, I would say: compete in open.

[Zac Jackson]

i say compete open if you wish. but remember that youll be competeing with the elite of the game. if you were to compete intermediate youd be competeing with possibly Zeb and kyle whom in my opinion are very close in skill with you. unless they compete open as well, who knows


ZacJ

EDIT:

forgot to mention that your game iss looking reaaally good and that the vid was TIGHT! keep it up!

[Just call me hagesy]

firstly i really like your style, you will be a pro one day.

However

i think you should compete intermediate. The open should be that, the elite, like the Top 20 in the world, the ones who throw fives and sixes in their run consistently. The players whom we watch and say damn thats how good i wanna be.

If i was watching, having never heard of footbag before (hypothetically)I would wanna see the best players in the open, I would not want to see some top intermediate player with stage fright dropping 10 times in the routine.

There my thoughts.

[Lackey82]

Hey Ben!

Awesome to see your game again! I certainly didn't get to play with you enough at the March!

I'm pretty sure you're still a bit more advanced than I am, but nonetheless I think we're in the same boat. I won the Intermediate comp at Montreal Spring Jam 2, and this is my strategy for myself. See if you think it makes sense.

Next time I compete in a smaller tournament where I think I should win if I compete intermediate and am happy with my play, I'm going to go to Open. However, at a national or world-stage competition, I don't think I'm an Open player because of the sheer number of truly skilled players that have earned it more.

I think the better int. players at world's will give you a decent run for your money, and you can win if you work for it. I think that will inspire you more!

[Outsider]

I think if you have been pretty successful at an intermediate comp already, and are guiltless, then you should play Open, and never play Intermediate again.

I do not agree with the above statement. Yeah, your blades are sharp, your skills are good. You've come a hell of a long way since the first vids I saw you post here a while back. Yeah, you might do okay even in Open, in the first round. What they mean by "Open" is that the category is open to anyone who wants to give it a try. "Intermediate", on the other hand, is more resticted than the Open category, since its mostly supposed to be a category for newer players. Big-shots and most experienced older players ain't allowed in Intermediate anymore.

Somebody else here recently asked about the difference between intermediate and open categories at Worlds:

http://www.modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.php?t=16434

This is what I had to say there:

I think its safe to say that if you've never competed before, or only competed a very few times, your inexperience qualifies you as an intermediate even if you think your technical skills would put you in the Open category. Unfortunately, unless you're just a natural showman, once your music starts and the clock starts ticking and you know you can't simply start over, you suddenly become much worse at stuff that you ordinarily think of as easy. Nerves, man... Experience competing helps you to deal with those, and without that experience, your skill-level can easily slip a couple of notches when you're alone under that spotlight. Lots and lots of practice can count for alot too, but its not the whole story.

Like I was saying, you could go either way, but let me give you another way of thinking about it, another way of thinking about what King Monkey had to say: one could say that once you've won an intermediate event, its sort of like the start of your Intermediate Year. Just because you've come in 1st place in one intermediate event does not automatically mean that now you're pro. Rather, it means that you're well on your way to being pro. You could think of it as being off to a very good start on your Rookie Year. You can't stay in Intermediate forever, but just 'cause you win you're first Rookie event doesn't mean that you're not still a Rookie. Just 'cause you ace your first test as a freshman doesn't mean that you're instantly moved up to upper-classman.

Hmm, lets see... KICKASS 2 was in late September - early October. Thus, World Championships this year still falls within your Rookie Year. And though far from guaranteed, wouldn't finishing in First Place in Intermediate at Worlds be a cool way to finish your rookie year?

[King Monkey]

Obviously im just speaking from my own in experience, and in Australia we have very very few tournaments. Everyone knows everyone, and there is a mentality that once you have done well at Intermediate, you go Open. This probably has to do with how few players we have and how low the level is compared to other countries. I used to feel like it was more of an honour to be considered for the Open division, that my skills were recognised enough. But again this had to do with how few players we have. That being said i have been to a Worlds and the level for intermediate there (2005) was pretty intermediate from what i remember, although the top 2 routines were better than some of the Openers. Not sure what my point is there. Anyway im sorry if my ideas offended anyone.

I think though that its a mistake to go into a tournament thinking, 'I cant beat the Top 10 players, so ill go Intermediate', which is the impression im getting from some of the posts in this thread. I think it shouldnt be as black n white as that. But as someone else said, alot of it has to do with what you want your tournament experience to be.

[Not-so-ripped Warrior]

Really great vid. Your game looks awesome.


For me though you're a definite intermediate at World's and any other major competition

[RawSko]

Thanks alot, guys. I appreciate all the help. My routine is easier to practise not anyway at 1:30.

I'm stoked to compete open in 2008 though!

thx again

[krawallier]

i didn't even watch the video yet ... but: if you're thinking about competing in open then you should go for it - the more players there are in the open categories, the more legitimate the competition seems to outsiders - also for yourself, it can be a new level of playing. if you are thinking you could win intermediate, you should be playing open already. cause honestly, winning an intermediate competition feels nice the first time (oh yes it does), the second time it feels like you can't really take it serious. the only legitimate reason to me is gaining more experience from playing 3 rounds instead of 1.

go open.

[footjam_heger]

haha that's funny. There has been a major shift from Open to Intermediate.

I think it's about mentality and attidude. People in Europe tend to advise for Open, players from the States are more likely to advise Open.