because slopestyle has been whack since i can remember. my biggest complaint is the abundance of boxes to rails, and especially last year, where competitors didn't seem to get points deducted if they hit a box versus if they hit the rail option. where's the incentive to up the difficulty then?
in snowboard slopestyle boxes are all well and good, and as a matter of fact i applaud the idea of only having boxes. that's because snowboarders can use boxes to their full potential in about a million different ways. skiers just do skier slides underfoot combined with tasmanian devil leftway spinning across each and every box and it's embarrassing.
although i suppose leaving out the rails entirely makes sense for the x games course for the exact reason i mentioned above, because nobody in their right mind chooses a down rail over a down box with a purse full of G's on the line and no other incentive, they could have at least put in a non-gimmicky set of boxes rather than a bullshit battleship box to start the run and a lame ride on up box to 810 out. 40 foot down box anyone? no? ok.
and finally, why even have a big air if that's essentially what the slopestyle boils down to? i suppose we'll see, but it seems preeetttty redundant to me given the jumps and the direction builders have gone with the slopestyle course.