Man all this complaining about competition is getting old. If someone doesn’t like the format or the competition then don’t observe it. Champions are champions because they do what is neccessary to win when it is time to win. Defeat is heartbreaking, that’s the nature of it. Countless what ifs make no difference.
I believe that as a champion, if the format and judging system were different, Gentry as well as other champions would study and adjust and build the routine neccessary to win. Gentry seems to do that better than any one else right now.
Tom Brady is the goat, not the fastest or strongest, nor the best scrambler, or even the best athlete in almost any way you break it down. Guys out throw him every season, farther faster and more accurate. Other QB’s out run him, out scramble, and often times just look better and flashier. But Tom Brady does what is neccessary and dedicates everything to his health and performance. And everybody bashes him, yet he is older and has more rings than others.
Right now Gentry is that guy. Studies the game and dedicates everything to it. This is his full time career and life. He won fair and square. If the rules were different, he is probably capable of adjusting and adapting to build the best routine possible. That’s what makes him a champion.
I am at the same time not taking anything away from the other competitors. Evan is amazing as well and a champion. But unfortunately he did not build the right routine.
The judging system is what it is. I don’t really know how we would make it better for 1a. And nobody ever gives any serious suggestions to change it. Gentry got the dub so that’s that. I think what we could use is a little more transparency in how the judges are clicking or scoring the freestyles. If we could see how the judges were clicking or giving out evals there’d probably be at least a little less fret about the scores.
I’ll get em online tomorrow (or Tuesday… it’s been a long couple days!), BUT only if it will promote people posting #trickcircle tricks and less complaints about judging…
All these top level competitors know how the scoring works. If you want a competition you need to have rules, some people play to the crowd and some play to the judges, but in the end it comes down to who knows how to win a contest.
Congrats to all the winners! And congrats to anyone who even made it to finals, the competition was intense this year!
I would argue that “when it mattered” was all season long, not just during a single event. When you use a single event to decide it all, that’s when statistics are telling you you’re doing it wrong.
Now I realize that performance during a season plays a somewhat meaningful role by seeding a team/player into the playoff brackets, but even that short-changes the accomplishments of the team during the season by treating all playoff contenders as though they had accomplished equivalent greatness during the season, when most of them did not. It essentially erases all meaningful record of the team’s relative accomplishments. (NASCAR tries to recognize regular season success by awarding bonus points that help protect the leading teams against early elimination in the playoff rounds, but that is still inferior to the old, much simpler system in which the team with the most points at the end of the season earned the title of champion.)
The old MLB pennant race system was more valid because the winner was the one with the best record at the end of the season, end of story. It made the decision based on the entire season’s worth of play and nothing else, which is as it should be if you are trying to crown a champion for that year/season. Otherwise you are merely crowning the champion of a single game (or short series of games). And statistically speaking, a single data sample is not significant enough to decide anything meaningful.
As for random variance, that’s why you need a season that is long so that averages smooth out the peaks and valleys that can skew the final results. It is also why games/sports with more scoring opportunities and high final scores are more valid than those with low opportunities/scores. Basketball, for instance, is tremendously more statistically valid than soccer (and all its low-scoring variants like hockey) or baseball.
Of course, yoyoing can’t hope to have a statistically valid competition structure, which is why we need to just enjoy these contests as entertainment (and community-building opportunities) and not as legitimate determiners of who is “best in the world”.
Evan being 0.3 away from Gentry might as well be a tie. If we assigned error/uncertainty then I’m pretty sure that would be the case. So the discussion about Gentry winning because he had the better FS or Evan not winning because his wasn’t clean enough really misses that this was a virtual tie.
Agree with awarding more points for rarity, this would up the creativity.
I thought yoyoing should be more about creativity than pure technical skill. Maybe you don’t agree. For example, I’d much rather watch Neil Young really go for it and play a ragged guitar solo with wrong notes versus Malmsteem shred through the same scale he’s practiced a million times at lighting speed. Something new with feeling versus something cheesy with robot-like precision.
The attitude that the judging system is what it is, and if you don’t like it you should look away is just…ugh. In general, do we all really think that the systems we create are fair and unchangeable? If it could be better, shouldn’t we try to make it better? But hey - maybe most people just want to see shred and/or see the purpose of yoyo contests as being a shredder showcase and not a place for validating innovation.
Does anyone know if Paul Kerbel was using the Marco (galaxy colorway)? It looked like he had a great time and such a unique performance, I’m sad he missed the cut by a two spots - but I think he knew he had a few too many errors:
Except this is a competition so it is about technical skill. Therefore the comparison to music isn’t appropriate because that is more about creativity, musicians aren’t designing songs to compete in a predetermined format that’s based around scoring points
And yoyoing is about creativity, but when you’re talking about evaluating skill you need more concrete ways to measure than the very subjective idea of creativity. Yoyoing videos exist as an arena to demonstrate creativity, so it’s not like there’s no way to show off your innovative tricks.
I absolutely hate Tom Brady, but he’s the best and I’ll admit it(just barfed a little). Gentry is currently the best. He beat the previous champ and knows how to play the game. I honestly believe Gentry is just a gamer and he would win regardless of the format because he would make his routine formated to win.
Absolutely agree about Gentry. I figured alot of people could relate to the Brady comparison. He gets more hate than anyone. Living 10-15 minutes from the stadium (hour on game days ), you have to like them.
Hey, any idea when the women’s or over forty division results will be posted? If you want scoring controversy, figure out the right score adjustments for Val in the over-40!
), you have to like them.