So I guess I’ve been pretty confused about the contest scene here lately.
I feel like I see certain players attending multiple Regional contests every year. For instance, Kieran Cooper was at the Mexican National. Remy Baskin was at the Russian national a couple weeks back. And both of these guys were at pnwr a few weeks back. Weren’t they? Did I miss something? I thought players where generally supposed to represented the areas that they lived in.
Are they just there for the sake of being at the competition, or are they actually competing at these things? How does this work?
So, there’s this thing on National/Continental contests that’s called Open Division. In this division, players that are not from said country/continent can compete separately from the main divisions of that contest, since they actually can’t compete on it because of their nationality.
It’s very simple to understand. Imagine you coming to a contest from very far away and not being able to oficially showcase a routine. That would suck. That’s why Open Division exists.
That makes sense. If you’re going to travel to a competition from afar, you might as well compete if you are competent. Can the locals also compete in the open? I guess so since it’s an open competition.
Honestly, my opinion is that is just for the fun of it. A lot of competitors are also friends, so i imagine Keiran going to Mexico just to hang out with Paul and Betty, and Remy going to EYYC just to hang with everyone there is a perfectly valid reason.
Another reason for this is that many players go as judges of the competition, as well as to represent their sponsors.
That makes sense. I bet they go to represent their sponsors and to maybe help run the merch booths too. Might as well get out there and compete while you’re at it, right?
This has been a pretty enlightening conversation Eric, thank you for clarifying some of this. I was really confused lol. I’m not big on sports or competitions, but I’m slowly coming around to appreciating them.