Steel City Showdown

TWallisch

TWallisch

Active member
Had an absolute blast hosting this one. The skiing all week was so fun to watch and be a part of.

That said. I'm always down for feedback... Hit me with the thoughts and suggestions NS fam.

Live stream is incredibly hard to make happen and one of our biggest expenses. Do you love having it? or could you live without it?

I love the Live-scoring finals, but do you? Or wanna see more classic rail jam sessions where judging is done at the end?

Big features? or more long technical ones?

High paying rail jam or work to host more smaller ones all over? etc etc??

Lemme hear it! This event is for fun and for the sake of skiing. Lets make it dope
 
As a springs local who pretty much lives there and rides 5 days a week, and someone who did the opens for shits, this was the most fun weekend I’ve ever had at springs. An atmosphere like no other. Im a bit younger but I can’t name a bigger, better railjam that’s ever happened, anywhere. Stoked to be apart of it, that battleship rail was a bitch to try to get in practice / opens. Features were very fitting for the skillset of skiers there.

also, I believe I told you this when I saw you Saturday night, but the springs community appreciates stuff like this on so many levels. Vail has our eyes on us, and for you to have an event like this to showcase the potential of the parks here and bring forth the community on the stage for vail is HUGE. I think them seeing the sheer volume of this event, whether that be heads there, or worldwide viewers on the livestream, shows em that they’d be dumb to do anything but invest more in the parks (something we all know they’re notorious for not doing). Right place right time kinda thing. You knocked it outta the park, thanks for doing this and thanks for the great weekend.

You’ll have my full support of it becomes an annual thing !! :)
 
Live stream was one of the best parts for me! I am close enough to springs that I could have made it out to watch, but I would imagine it was the only option to watch for many people. The livestream chat was a shitshow (and I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way), it was more fun than watching highlights. I think a lot of us could live with a simplified live stream if that's a big cost. Like sure it was nice to see the rider's scores in real time after each run, but I could have lived without all that being overlayed onto the screen. I would have been happy just to be able to see the skiing.

As somebody who almost exclusively skis rails this was such a cool event to see. Hoping it will come back in some form in the future
 
This was such an amazing event. Especially being there in person. It was like a football game with everyone tailgating in the parking lots. Honestly there’s not much I’d change. Although the features seemed massive for the event but it seemed like everyone was loving the course anyways.
 
Man of the people! Thank you for this event and all you do for skiing.

I love the live stream. Marked my calendar to watch finals Saturday. Caught the same buzz I get from watching X Games live.

I'm all about the live-scoring and the potential drama that it sets up. Wouldn't change that personally.

The features this time around were so beefy, respect! Loved seeing big, high-consequence jibs outside of a slope course.

I'd vote for several low-payout jams over just one high-paying jam. The more of these events take place, the better!

Grateful to have the Godfather guiding us into the future and keeping rail jams alive and well.

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The live stream was sick, I live in MT so there was no way for me to make it out there— the live stream made it hype rather than looking for a YouTube recap.
 
Yea kinda in the same vane as everyone else the livestream was fire and I appreciate what you and this event do for skiing. I’m a fan of the live scoring and while this setup was gnarly. I’m a bit more partial to the smaller more tech setups. But keep up the good work this event is fire and something I always have to catch either the stream of or the rerun of.
 
Thought the event overall was awesome. Judging felt fair and the livestream was plenty good. I would say I liked last years setup a bit more, smaller features with more possibility for tech rail skills (which it seems like the competition is supposed to be about). This year the setup felt like it catered more to jump skiers.
 
Being from the east coast post-glory days of park riding, there have not been nearly enough events like this recently. The mid-atlantic region is flooded with snowboard comps throughout the season yet the skiers are left with few if none. Crazy to think this region was the main producers of such jams yet lack in quantity now. We definitely need more events like this for the community even if they lack in award. Most people who show up for jams don't even seem to be there for the prize, yet the experience, so I don't think people would mind much
 
The live stream was so lit. I don’t think it necessarily needs to have a bunch of different angles and the overlay if its expensive tho (although it was super sick). It was just nice to watch the event and interact with the viewers in the comments. X Games commenter dude deserves a raise for sure lol
 
It kinda sounds funny because it is a rail jam but as far as features go I don’t think it matters too much as long as they aren’t so hard that no tricks get done or so easy that its just a swap/spin fest for the dub.

The reason I say this is because if you plan on doing it every season there will be lots of opportunity to switch things up. The features the past 2 years have been sick af imo
 
14417415:Whackson said:
Being from the east coast post-glory days of park riding, there have not been nearly enough events like this recently. The mid-atlantic region is flooded with snowboard comps throughout the season yet the skiers are left with few if none. Crazy to think this region was the main producers of such jams yet lack in quantity now. We definitely need more events like this for the community even if they lack in award. Most people who show up for jams don't even seem to be there for the prize, yet the experience, so I don't think people would mind much
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Skiers kinda aways got the short end of the stick when it came to rail jams, even 10-15 years ago. Ski companies seem to lack the motivation to get involved compared to snowboard brands.

My thought are:

Have a bunch of small qualifying rail jams throughout the season all over, no live broadcast.

Have one major jam with the top 2 or 3 from all the qualifying jams with a live broadcast. Maybe even a last minute qualifying round the day before.

Keep live scoring for the final because it eliminates some of the confusion about why someone won. Often times at rail jams people remember the big hucked sketch tricks that are barely landed and then get mad when that person doesn't win.
 
Make small tour with winner from each stop getting a ticket to finals at 7 springs.

All small tour stops with judging at end and live-scoring for finals

-Woodward Tahoe, CA stop

-Woodward Cooper, CO stop

-Woodward - Park City, UT stop

-Spirit Mountain - Duluth, MN Stop

-Killington, VT stop

Congrats on the event Tom! Dopest thing I have seen for a rail/jib event! keep killing it!
 
That event was insanely cool (once again)! I thought the set up, with huge features, was pretty sweet, especially watching pros influence the ams to try things they might not have otherwise. One thing that I noticed was the lack of a long challenge rail! Last year's Y DFD rail was pretty sick and I think it'd be so awesome if there was an even more kinky rail used next year ??
 
Honestly I hated it. We got Tommy walrus butting his head and just announcing for the announcers? And his stupid teethy grin really fucking pissed me off, you look like a NFT Timmy walnuts. On top of this every ad was practically an ad for Timothy. And he just walked around like be owned the place just gave me really egotistical bad vibes. Like idk about yall but this Tom guy really rubs me the wrong way. Share your thoughts with me about this please.

As far as the skiers go. Terrible selection of skiers like idek why the fuck half these dudes were doing there, they were clearly out of their league. I mean we had some decent skiers in there like Ahall and Colby but the rest just seemed to be a bunch of rookies, so don't really understand why they were there. I also saw a really really fat dude just standing in the middle of the hill with a camera, I mean come on if were gonna have a filter can he at least be a little athletic? Like how will he dodge a skier if they come flying of the lip wrong. I couldn't even enjoy the live chat because Gilson was talking in it so I had to turn it off.

WORST RAIL JAM EVER
 
I think what you are doing is dope and skiing needs more of this!

The live stream is a must IMO, but if I had to choose between no livestream and no event I would choose no livestream.

Having a rider judged category would also be nice and really emphasize the "we're all homies" vibe the Showdown has.

If judging was done at the end would that allow for people to get more hits in so they didn't have to wait for scores? If it'd let them get more runs in I'd prefer to see it done that way.
 
Amazing event all round. All hail Todd Walnuts!

Live stream is cool but I never catch it live cause of life. I could live without it. If that is your biggest expense, I'd save there and spend more on the event itself. We'll watch it anyway right after it's posted. Would be happy with a static camera on each feature and a few good talkers announcing on Twitch. Quick turn around on the replays is amazing

Live judging is cool since it's neat to see athletes step it up if they need to.
 
4 stops, 3 qualifiers and one final. Partner up with Woodward and have the qualifiers at their mountain parks...

Killington

Park City

Oregon

Finals at 7 Springs

Qualifiers don't need big purses or insane setups and will allow randos a chance to be invited to the finals. For finals, bigger features because kids are such fucking pussies nowadays.

More AJ and more Eheath. Live scoring, the scoring format and limited number of runs was perfect.
 
Circuit qualifiers from all over the US (preferably Woodward locations) with no prizes or small prizes. Qualifier circuit then leads to a final event with huge prizes is the best way IMO. You should be able to qualify for finals from one event so people who can’t travel that often have a shot, and you can only enter one of the qualifiers. The live stream rocked and everything else about it was super cool.

That is my personal opinion to keep the playing field fair and tap into a deeper variety of athletes from all over. Could make call it Steel City Cup or something that part is up to you. But I do think that extending the event to last throughout a whole season will help bring hype and exposure to the main event.

Just my thoughts, but honestly I thought you killed it and I appreciate you Tom!
 
Like others said, small tour of rail jams with the final being at Springs would be so dope. I think a mix of big features + technical features would be cool to see as well!

All in all love everything about Steel City and what it's bringing back into the sport, not too much I would change just grateful to have ya putting something like this together in the first place!
 
Not enough B-roll bumps in the Livestream of eheath shotgunning beers.

Besides that, the live stream was great
 
Qualifiers at Roundtop Bunker hill park like it’s 2002! Competitors must name a roundtop rider other than yourself to enter
 
topic:TWallisch said:
Had an absolute blast hosting this one. The skiing all week was so fun to watch and be a part of.

That said. I'm always down for feedback... Hit me with the thoughts and suggestions NS fam.

Live stream is incredibly hard to make happen and one of our biggest expenses. Do you love having it? or could you live without it?

I love the Live-scoring finals, but do you? Or wanna see more classic rail jam sessions where judging is done at the end?

Big features? or more long technical ones?

High paying rail jam or work to host more smaller ones all over? etc etc??

Lemme hear it! This event is for fun and for the sake of skiing. Lets make it dope
Click to expand...

Super sick event and definitely love the live streams. I wish there was a way to convince more mountains to hold rail jams but I believe the livestream is a good outreach way
 
I liked the course from last year more. It is important to have technical rails, but the contrast between big and small features this year discouraged anybody from hitting the smaller features. If we want to see a new comer come and shake things up, they won't be used to hitting West Coast pro sized features. I know two of the best skiers from my old local hill in Ohio came and were really struggling because they weren't expecting to hit XXL features. Features like the diving board to dfd were really good because there were a lot of different options. A lot of people went for the disaster transfer, but the sw2 transfer to b4 by Ahall in practice was ridiculous.

On the flip side, watching Owen do the 5 swap to forward and outdoing xgames medalists was pretty entertaining as well
 
14417513:The.Fish said:
I liked the course from last year more. It is important to have technical rails, but the contrast between big and small features this year discouraged anybody from hitting the smaller features. If we want to see a new comer come and shake things up, they won't be used to hitting West Coast pro sized features. I know two of the best skiers from my old local hill in Ohio came and were really struggling because they weren't expecting to hit XXL features. Features like the diving board to dfd were really good because there were a lot of different options. A lot of people went for the disaster transfer, but the sw2 transfer to b4 by Ahall in practice was ridiculous.

On the flip side, watching Owen do the 5 swap to forward and outdoing xgames medalists was pretty entertaining as well
Click to expand...

George brown and who else
 
Bring back the Orage Masters. I know you had nothing to do with it. You just seem like someone who can make it happen.
 
Thanks for putting on such a fun event to watch! I liked the scoring format in the finals as it adds to the drama as each run goes on. The big features were fun to watch, but I’m guessing from an athlete standpoint, smaller, more tech features would be easier to hike in the qualifying and semi final rounds. I think having the regional qualifying events would also add a cool aspect. Maybe there could be an event video from each regional round, or some sort of highlight video to see some of the best tricks that went down, which then could be played leading up to the final event.

Overall it was a great event from a viewer perspective and excited to see where it goes in the future.

**This post was edited on Mar 24th 2022 at 4:21:23pm
 
Shit was a fun weekend Tom, just keep doing what you’re doing. Events like this will be the revival of park skiing.

Like others mentioned, a tour could be cool, but I think doing it at some smaller mountains would be good. There’s plenty of small mountains in the midwest and northeast with good park scenes with dudes that could benefit from the exposure.
 
I loved the livestream. It was so rad to see names, standings, scores all real time. Solid infrastructure that really raised the bar.

I think there was a mix of features and you saw them all unutilized differently. but in the end its the big burly features that are the most fun to watch.

Im biased, but I love the idea of a more circuit type thing leading to seven springs as a final.
 
Thanks for this entire event Tom! It was amazing and you really killed it. Seeing an open format rail jam with top level skiers and everyday friends all together was a breathe of fresh air. As for features I think that balancing a mixture of technical/ heavy features with more simple and less intimidating ones is the route to go. Obviously rewarding the difficulty of more intense features, but I know you already do. So all in all I have no gripes and just wanted to give you the praise you deserve for making it all happen. Can’t wait for more in whatever form they come.
 
Also maybe pitch the idea to other mountains - less that you host your event there but they get the plans and can host it under your name. Basically more rail jams would be cool
 
Love everything you did this year! I live 4 hours away and as a 31 year old park skier we filled 2 vehicles and made the drive to watch with plans of all of us competing next year. Keep it up man! That was the best rail event I’ve ever seen
 
Watching the live was super sick, but I think the fact this event exists is the best. I could imagine the live stream was super expensive, so I might not be a bad idea to downsize on the, cut a few of the angles and graphics. This'll save some money and make it easier to do stuff like this more. Someone said smaller qualifying jams and that was a fire idea.
 
14417508:J-Webs88 said:
Qualifiers at Roundtop Bunker hill park like it’s 2002! Competitors must name a roundtop rider other than yourself to enter
Click to expand...

I refuse to set a rail in bunker.
 
Such a fun event to watch! Cool setup, format, knowledgabe commentary, and riders killed it. From a washed up east coast rail skiier now more in the pow farming scene. Must be so sick for all the local shredders to get the chance to go up against the pros
 
really sick event but like others i would vote for quali rounds at other woodward locations and also mixing the large features in with some super techy rails so we can see some of those street riders like cal really shine with their technicality
 
I watched a bunch of the live stream and it was great seeing the qualies all the way up to finals.

Best part of the comp is watching up and coming ams and seeing how they stack up against the big dogs.

Would love to see more qualifying events.
 
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