I see some prelims that looks pretty good, but they are in 36th place, and the ones above 10th place don’t look that much better. So how do they decide the placement?
Here you can check Prelim judging rules for WYYC
They are scored under similiar system as normal 2-3 min freestyles, but with difference in perfomance category.
Judges will use clickers to give plus and minus points. At both contests that I went to (both small state contests) this is how it was done. String hits, cool elements, difficult elements, etc. get plus points, string misses, missed binds, loss of control, etc. get minus points. Person with the highest point total wins and then the top however many are going to finals, obviously, go to finals. This is Technical Execution scoring that is also done in the Finals of contests but only count for 60%, not 100%, of the final score.
Alright, cool! Thanks for clearing that up.