I can't believe Will Wesson won X Games Real Street

skierman

skierman

Active member
With all that heavy competition and having two Level 1 team members as judges for the X Games Real Street comp (Josh Berman, Freedle Coty), I'm so happy to see that Will Wesson beat the odds and pulled out the big "W"!!

I bet Berman didn't make a cent off his and Freedle's vote for Will to win. Amazing turn of events.
 
13640910:PcParkFreak said:
I think he means easier...
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ye i agree i just think its weird that he wrote that will beat all the odds right after saying that

the competition was definitely heavy as fuck but i wouldn't say that the odds were stacked against him
 
13640912:bnsoares1 said:
ye i agree i just think its weird that he wrote that will beat all the odds right after saying that

the competition was definitely heavy as fuck but i wouldn't say that the odds were stacked against him
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someone was dropped as a child...
 
13640921:will_powder said:
someone was dropped as a child...
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yep funny story actually.

As a young child i was born and raised in the magnificent city of San Antonio, Texas. Many know of the dangers and menaces of the southern United Sates wilderness, a region many lethal creatures call their home. One sweltering day, very early in my life, i found myself locked into a baby chair placed on the counter. Next to me my mother was preparing an early dinner of chicken and beans. She carefully layed out the ingredients and cooking supplies, placing a large cast iron pot next to me on the counter. Suddenly, a 3 inch long scorpion emerged from his abode, poised and ready to attack. His stinger glistened in the sunlight, carrying venom laced with toxic chemicals. My dad heard the shrieks of my mother and sprinted into the room ready to defend his family with his chosen weapon, a wiffle ball bat. Leaping across the room, as a snow leopard attacks an ibex high in the Patagonian Andes, he swung the gleaming sword at the vile beast.

he missed and knocked me off the counter in my chair and i dented my skull

thanks dad
 
13640934:bnsoares1 said:
yep funny story actually.

As a young child i was born and raised in the magnificent city of San Antonio, Texas. Many know of the dangers and menaces of the southern United Sates wilderness, a region many lethal creatures call their home. One sweltering day, very early in my life, i found myself locked into a baby chair placed on the counter. Next to me my mother was preparing an early dinner of chicken and beans. She carefully layed out the ingredients and cooking supplies, placing a large cast iron pot next to me on the counter. Suddenly, a 3 inch long scorpion emerged from his abode, poised and ready to attack. His stinger glistened in the sunlight, carrying venom laced with toxic chemicals. My dad heard the shrieks of my mother and sprinted into the room ready to defend his family with his chosen weapon, a wiffle ball bat. Leaping across the room, as a snow leopard attacks an ibex high in the Patagonian Andes, he swung the gleaming sword at the vile beast.

he missed and knocked me off the counter in my chair and i dented my skull

thanks dad
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The way you tell this story is incredible.
 
13640927:THEDIRTYBUBBLE said:
Never got around to watching Wesson, Houle, or Wallisch. How were they in comparison to Cam, Clayton, and Ahmet?
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I recommend you spend the 450 seconds watching those three vids. So damn good.
 
13640934:bnsoares1 said:
yep funny story actually.

As a young child i was born and raised in the magnificent city of San Antonio, Texas. Many know of the dangers and menaces of the southern United Sates wilderness, a region many lethal creatures call their home. One sweltering day, very early in my life, i found myself locked into a baby chair placed on the counter. Next to me my mother was preparing an early dinner of chicken and beans. She carefully layed out the ingredients and cooking supplies, placing a large cast iron pot next to me on the counter. Suddenly, a 3 inch long scorpion emerged from his abode, poised and ready to attack. His stinger glistened in the sunlight, carrying venom laced with toxic chemicals. My dad heard the shrieks of my mother and sprinted into the room ready to defend his family with his chosen weapon, a wiffle ball bat. Leaping across the room, as a snow leopard attacks an ibex high in the Patagonian Andes, he swung the gleaming sword at the vile beast.

he missed and knocked me off the counter in my chair and i dented my skull

thanks dad
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Bravo
 
was thinking the same, seems shady... How is it possibly they were allowed to judge an event that they were also competing in?! And then wallisch getting fucked after he left level 1 and started his own thing with Decker.. Lolz too obvious
 
13641008:sleepyhollow said:
was thinking the same, seems shady... How is it possibly they were allowed to judge an event that they were also competing in?! And then wallisch getting fucked after he left level 1 and started his own thing with Decker.. Lolz too obvious
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Nah, despite Wesson being their team rider whose win would benefit them financially on the back end, I'm sure they overcame any bias and judged fairly...................
 
this is definitely a conflict of interest and would be quite the scandal if it was in an Olympic event. But who cares. any of them could have won.

Still waiting on Bishop to follow through with his promise to explain the judging criteria.
 
Will did some crazy shit and while every edit was technically advanced and pretty creative, Will definitely took the cake with his creativity
 
I am stoked that Will won, but I do agree that there appears to be a major conflict of interest with the judging. You have Will who is pushing the commercial success of Level 1's current projects; you also have guys who compete with Level 1 (Cam & Clayton via Stept & now with "For Lack of Better", as well as Wallisch with Good Company), and then you have Wallisch and Ahmet who both used to do a ton of work with Level 1 but both chose to leave and do their own thing (not saying there is bad blood, but I doubt Level 1 is going to pick someone who in a way snubbed them). I believe that they also dropped JF Houle, so it's not like they are going to give him the win because that would make them look bad for cutting him.

I don't want to take anything away from Will's part, because it was incredible and I am really stoked that he won. However, you can't look past the above conflict of interest with the judging. I am really interested to seeing the judging criteria...
 
13641144:skierman said:
Nah, despite Wesson being their team rider whose win would benefit them financially on the back end, I'm sure they overcame any bias and judged fairly...................
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stop-it.gif
 
topic:skierman said:
With all that heavy competition and having two Level 1 team members as judges for the X Games Real Street comp (Josh Berman, Freedle Coty), I'm so happy to see that Will Wesson beat the odds and pulled out the big "W"!!

I bet Berman didn't make a cent off his and Freedle's vote for Will to win. Amazing turn of events.
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13640987:Queen_Selassie said:
I agree the judging was wack. I applaud the call out.
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13641008:sleepyhollow said:
was thinking the same, seems shady... How is it possibly they were allowed to judge an event that they were also competing in?! And then wallisch getting fucked after he left level 1 and started his own thing with Decker.. Lolz too obvious
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13641164:VinnieF said:
this is definitely a conflict of interest and would be quite the scandal if it was in an Olympic event. But who cares. any of them could have won.

Still waiting on Bishop to follow through with his promise to explain the judging criteria.
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13641233:Park_Ranger said:
I am stoked that Will won, but I do agree that there appears to be a major conflict of interest with the judging. You have Will who is pushing the commercial success of Level 1's current projects; you also have guys who compete with Level 1 (Cam & Clayton via Stept & now with "For Lack of Better", as well as Wallisch with Good Company), and then you have Wallisch and Ahmet who both used to do a ton of work with Level 1 but both chose to leave and do their own thing (not saying there is bad blood, but I doubt Level 1 is going to pick someone who in a way snubbed them). I believe that they also dropped JF Houle, so it's not like they are going to give him the win because that would make them look bad for cutting him.

I don't want to take anything away from Will's part, because it was incredible and I am really stoked that he won. However, you can't look past the above conflict of interest with the judging. I am really interested to seeing the judging criteria...
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To all of you, and anyone in this thread who is wondering I can definitely offer some insight. I can't give you everything because that is how judging works... but I can assist.

First and foremost, until you have been in the judges seat you have no idea what you're talking about. Its very different when you're actually sitting there, having to assign winners and losers. You pay attention with an extremely fine level of detail, and because judges love the sport they are very able to remain unbiased. You could argue anyone on that panel is biased... level 1 guys for Level 1... Vinnie for being french.... Schmuck because he knows someone is going to be in forecast... Me because Someone is more favorable to NS.... anything. When you look for a conspiracy you can see it.

There was absolutely no financial incentive whatsoever between any rider/filmer and a judge. Completely separate. Judges are compensated on their own for doing the work, and you really do remain objective as much as objectivity is possible.

Second - you have to realize that this competition was fucking brutal to judge. EVERYONE killed it, and depending on the factors you're looking at, you could assign any one of these guys as the winner. They all performed extremely well, and we had an extremely difficult time figuring out who it was.

Third - I can assure you from sitting right there, looking at the scores, being in the center of it, scoring this thing myself and talking to everyone for hours before making our decision... there was absolutely no favoritism being given anywhere. Everyone was hyped on what Will did because it was very well rounded and extremely unique.

He didn't rely on just having a big winch and doing big hucks, he used terrain creatively and smartly, his technicality was extremely high and he had some very big stuff mixed in with the tech... all the while with smooth style and a real overall sense of awesomeness.

We looked at Overall impression/style, Trick technicality, Creativiity/use of environment and quality of filming/editing.

Fourth - you have to remember the reason there is a judging panel is that no one person simply makes the decision, it is a group consensus in the end which is partly from us agreeing and partly from the scores we laid on our judging spreadsheets. You had Freedle and Berman who represent the film side, Schmuck and me from Media and Vinnie Cash from the athlete side. Pretty good panel of people in the street skiing space if you ask me.

There was significant debate about who won this contest, as again every rider absolutely killed it in their own rights. I would say if you guys don't like the judging, then there is absolutely incredible debate that can come out of this if we're looking at what should street skiing be judged on if you agree it should be judged. However, going down this silly rabbit hole where you're thinking some of the judging panel was on the take is just plain ridiculous. Its false, and I can give you my 150% assurances that it isn't the case.

So lets move on from this to a productive discussion. If you thought someone was better than Will, who and why? I would bet you anything there is no consensus among those calling foul as to who you guys think *should* have won. I would love to hear further discussion, and I think this is a great topic to dig into. I can offer whatever I can to the discussion, and I'll be totally honest with you guys.
 
13641378:Mr.Bishop said:
Everyone was hyped on what Will did because it was very well rounded and extremely unique.

He didn't rely on just having a big winch and doing big hucks, he used terrain creatively and smartly, his technicality was extremely high and he had some very big stuff mixed in with the tech... all the while with smooth style and a real overall sense of awesomeness.
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After hearing that Will was the winner, this was what I was thinking pretty much.....if urban has a future, it seems to me that Will's edit was the best example of what that future will be like. It wasn't my favourite to watch, but I'm not out there in the streets tryna ski like these guys :/
 
13641409:jakeordie said:
After hearing that Will was the winner, this was what I was thinking pretty much.....if urban has a future, it seems to me that Will's edit was the best example of what that future will be like. It wasn't my favourite to watch, but I'm not out there in the streets tryna ski like these guys :/
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Who did you think deserved to win?

Which was your favorite edit?

Note: Those are two different questions for a reason.
 
Will's edit was ridiculous, no denying it. Deserved to win. But Wallisch's last hit was Godly. Almost felt like that hit alone could have gotten the win.

Real Skifi would have ran this shit though.
 
13641448:Mr.Bishop said:
Who did you think deserved to win?

Which was your favorite edit?

Note: Those are two different questions for a reason.
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Really liked Tom's, JF's and Ahmet's but don't feel qualified to speculate as to who "deserved to win". Having said that, I'm not gonna go out and ski like they do.....purely entertainment value for me :)
 
13641468:SonOfAnder said:
Will's edit was ridiculous, no denying it. Deserved to win. But Wallisch's last hit was Godly. Almost felt like that hit alone could have gotten the win.

Real Skifi would have ran this shit though.
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13641469:jakeordie said:
Really liked Tom's, JF's and Ahmet's but don't feel qualified to speculate as to who "deserved to win". Having said that, I'm not gonna go out and ski like they do.....purely entertainment value for me :)
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Both of you, rank your top 3.

Overall Impression counts for the most. How much you liked it, style, wow factor.

Technicality next.

Creative use of terrain/features after that - balance equally with tech.

Finally a small portion of it should be about how quality the filming/editing is.

Rank top 3 - GO!
 
13641504:Mr.Bishop said:
Both of you, rank your top 3.

Overall Impression counts for the most. How much you liked it, style, wow factor.

Technicality next.

Creative use of terrain/features after that - balance equally with tech.

Finally a small portion of it should be about how quality the filming/editing is.

Rank top 3 - GO!
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Nah man, I don't judge.

Sorry if I hijacked your point, was just saying that if I were a teenage skier getting into urban I could see myself being most juiced on Will's edit. But since I'm old and not gonna get off the couch and try ski like any of these dudes, there's others I enjoyed watching more.
 
13641008:sleepyhollow said:
was thinking the same, seems shady... How is it possibly they were allowed to judge an event that they were also competing in?! And then wallisch getting fucked after he left level 1 and started his own thing with Decker.. Lolz too obvious
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For the people "calling it out", Really?? If you think this was some kind of Level 1 conspiracy and a rigged event, you are dead wrong.

First off, there was no incentive for Berman or Level 1 from Will winning. That was even brought to the table beforehand with producers from ESPN.

Second- I came onto this judging panel with the least amount of personal bias I could hope for, (and I think I can speak for Josh by saying he did as well) and was completely fucking blown away by the videos. Yes, I have previously worked with everyone rider involved except for Cam and Clayton, but not in years. Everyone absolutely fucking slayed. It damaged my soul judging this contest and I definitely lost sleep over it. The podium could have gone many ways, sure. Wallisch had a video that could have won, but so did everybody else. I personally thought Ahmet had a heater as well, but it ultimately didn't make it in top 3. Wesson did some future shit, plain and simple... that was something all five of us generally agreed on. No vendettas, no politics involved.

-Freedle
 
13641663:skierman said:
Knew it. Straight from the judge's mouth.
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You want the real inside scoop? AJ Dakoulas had a high stakes side bet going in Vegas for Wallisch to lose, be the fall guy. Everyone, and I mean everyone was in on it, total inside job.
 
13641659:freelowda said:
For the people "calling it out", Really?? If you think this was some kind of Level 1 conspiracy and a rigged event, you are dead

-Freedle
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Dude just because your conspiracy is now out in the open is no reason to go threatening people.
 
13640934:bnsoares1 said:
yep funny story actually.

As a young child i was born and raised in the magnificent city of San Antonio, Texas. Many know of the dangers and menaces of the southern United Sates wilderness, a region many lethal creatures call their home. One sweltering day, very early in my life, i found myself locked into a baby chair placed on the counter. Next to me my mother was preparing an early dinner of chicken and beans. She carefully layed out the ingredients and cooking supplies, placing a large cast iron pot next to me on the counter. Suddenly, a 3 inch long scorpion emerged from his abode, poised and ready to attack. His stinger glistened in the sunlight, carrying venom laced with toxic chemicals. My dad heard the shrieks of my mother and sprinted into the room ready to defend his family with his chosen weapon, a wiffle ball bat. Leaping across the room, as a snow leopard attacks an ibex high in the Patagonian Andes, he swung the gleaming sword at the vile beast.

he missed and knocked me off the counter in my chair and i dented my skull

thanks dad
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I like this

13641207:ParryWithAnA said:
I cant believe Will won with crazy shit no one else is doing.
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I like this

And bishop.

I got snubbed. I should have one but the coaches has some beef with me because I suck at skiing and wasn't invited to, nor did I submit an entry for the competition. IMO that's a bullshit reason not to win.

Judges came into my house, disrespected my whole family because somebody called me out And you know what? It was you!
 
13641659:freelowda said:
Really this was a rigged event.

there was incentive for Berman or Level 1 from Will winning. That was even brought to the table beforehand with producers from ESPN.

I came onto Wesson, plain and simple... that was something all five of us generally agreed on. No vendettas, no politics involved.

-Freedle
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I think the coding on the quote feature needs some work.
 
13641378:Mr.Bishop said:
To wil. I can give you everything. I can assist.

First and foremost, I actually assign winners and losers. You pay judges and You could bias Me because mone is more favorable to NS.... you see The Judges are compensated as much as possible. andYOu assign the winner.

I can assure you, l am making our decision... the favoritism given. Cash from the athlete won this contest. I am on the take. I can give you my 150% assurances.
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A secret message sent to Will from Doug. So there WAS a conspiracy, but it wasn't Level 1 behind it!
 
13641504:Mr.Bishop said:
Both of you, rank your top 3.

Overall Impression counts for the most. How much you liked it, style, wow factor.

Technicality next.

Creative use of terrain/features after that - balance equally with tech.

Finally a small portion of it should be about how quality the filming/editing is.

Rank top 3 - GO!
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1. Will

2. Tom

3. Clayton

For the reasons you listed, Will takes the win for me. He hugely innovated, executed very technically challenging tricks, went fairly large, and played in to the varied, "urban" nature of his surroundings/features very well.

Overall impression wise, Tom Wallisch's really didn't do it for me in terms of visceral impact. I blame the extreme smoothness and cleanliness with which he skied and with which the edit was put together, as well as the somewhat uninspiring music. However, in terms of urban skiing ability and demonstrating the sport at its topmost levels, Wally takes second for me.

Third for me is Clayton, rounding out the roster of one creative, tech, and high-impact urban skier each. Clayton went big. I mean, big. He also had some solid tech and took the wow card far and away.

The bottom three go Ahmet, JF, and finally Cam.

First impression/impact of edit/initial "like": Clayton, Ahmet, Will, Tom, JF, Cam

Style: Ahmet, Tom, Clayton, Will, Cam, JF

Wow: Clayton, JF, Tom, Will, Cam, Ahmet

Innovation/Creativity: Will, Ahmet, Clayton, JF, Cam, Tom

Going big: Clayton, Tom, JF, Cam, Ahmet, Will

"Embodying the practice of urban skiing," if you will: Tom, Will, Cam, Ahmet, Clayton, JF
 
13641659:freelowda said:
It damaged my soul judging this contest and I definitely lost sleep over it. The podium could have gone many ways, sure.
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Right?

Hardest shit to judge that I've ever come across in my life.
 
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