GoPro Line of the World Contest - Win $20,000

 Pro athletes are people too, they have a shot to win a contest so why not do it. The pros win this because they have worked tirelessly to improve their skills and go bigger so they can do epic lines. Which this contest is about right? Ordinary people have just a shot to win as the pros, which makes this contest so great.

 Ordinary people don't have access to earth moving equipment to build lines as gnarly as they want. Nor do they have companies footing the bill to send them to exotic locations to film. Pros deserve there dues but don't think for a second that the average joe has anywhere near the same amount of resources. ( And the pro's deserve every bit of it)

 Keep in mind that the GoPro marketing strategy is "average joes pretending to be pros". So We (the joes) buy their cameras only because they (the pros) produce these ridiculously amazing clips. Sure, it would be amazing if they could find an unknown rider who rips like a famous pro, but if they can't find that diamond I'd vote for Kurt Sorge vs. me doing the dead-sailor on some 4-foot sketch dirt jump...

 The stuff that really got my heart racing last time was in the average joe submissions. Unique places, super technical lines that i wouldn't dream of attempting. If the average joe submissions were nothing but a bunch of log drops i don't think everyone would be so bent out of shape. People threw down.

 Pros win prices all the time, some of them even have prices to spare (didn't Jerome Clementz give away a 1st place cash to a community to maintain a trail???), average joes deserve a chance, also if an average joe wins (or jane), that person will get some internet recognition, if that person plays the cards right could even become a pro, and as someone above says, "average joes pretending to be pros" that's what Go - PRO is about.

 The issue is that the winners from last time around just entered in stock footage they already had from months before the contest was announced (some was already used for promotional purposes for the contests/races those clips occurred during) and some of those pros were sponsored by GoPro- both of which were grounds for disqualification. This was only two of the many other issues they had including completely ridding of any public vote, ignoring judging criteria and the rules about who actually qualified for the final prize (Sorge's clip for example, was not one of the main winners and rules stated only the 4 monthly winners were eligible for the 20k). The best line wins within the given guidelines ("pro" or not) but after last year's disappointment and disregard for their own contests' rules and completely ignoring everyone's rightful criticisms and concerns, I've lost all faith in their ability to hold a legitimate contest. To anyone out there considering entering this contest, its not worth risking your health just to be screwed over by the incompetent people running this sham. They should have brought in whoever ran the winter version of this.

 ^ And a ton of those "pros" don't make nearly enough to live without a second job. There are a lot of gripes about this contest but allowing a "pro" to enter is not one of those.

 thats an entirely different discussion. Pro's should be paid more, but that issue shouldn't be confused with the fact that the rules state pros are not eligible, and the rules were not adhered to. And i don't really care if a pro wants to enter as long as they aren't riding lines that are paid for by sponsors. Go out, carve a unique line, who cares. But im gonna take a wild guess and say fest isnt funded out of riders pockets, and there lies the advantage.

 The thing is.. the average joe do not need to win stuff on a bike to make a living. Personally, I've never envisioned mountain biking as way to get anything other than fun. Of course I would be happy to earn some money one day finishing first at a race/a contest but I'm not asking for it.

And sincerely, I know a couple of pros ( one has a white jersey, it's the fifth season he wears it) and it's definitely not possible to say they're well off. So I'm happy they can get some extras through ads, contests etc....

 In case anyone was wondering why they shouldn't risk their health to enter this scam for GoPro... blast from the past (including more bitching by me and many, many others )

www.pinkbike.com/news/gopro-winner-announced.html

 I'll send you my entry, and you wont even know it was filmed on my sony action cam....

 Yeah. But the rules last year said raw with no editing and no slomo. Then the pros used slomo and won.

 The pros that are winning are already getting paid to use GOPRO so why not just have a separate category for non pros.

 The pro with a basic chest mount, slow-mo footage, not even a full minute of footage, and overcast lighting, on massive custom built features will win.

"RAW" footage my a$$....

 I think I could have a chance as a No Pro. Check it out. This time I follow Andreu, sight him doing a massive back flip... and then I do a massive nose case. The camera breaks free and rolls down the hill landing face up just as Andreu is floating through the air whipping it so hard he's almost backwards. Boom. How many runs do you think it would it it take?

 So if the users can vote lets all vote for a random shot from an average rider on an average line so the pros don't win. Where is the want for us average riders to put up a video if we have no chance in hell of winning??!!

Should be two seperate categories: one for Pros and one for us average guys, split the $20,000 into $10,000 for each category winner, simples.

Why should the PB community give a sh1t about which pro wins the 20 grand for not following the rules?

 It should be a rule that no rider with 'pro status' is allowed to enter, otherwise its unfair and most of the goons on this will be like "oh he did a backflip over a 60ft jump ill vote for him"

 The most significant change from Round 1 is the inclusion of the Pinkbike community in the selection of the overall $20K winner. PB users can choose a monthly 'People's Choice' winner, and those winners will be automatically entered into the final bracket challenge for the grand prize. The grand prize will be awarded to the submission voted in by the PB audience.

 PB users were supposed to vote on the winner last time. Didn't happen. Clips were supposed to be 1-2 minutes. Didn't happen. Clips were supposed to be raw, unedited straight from the camera. Didn't happen. Aparently Go-Pro edited it themselves so they broke their own rules and the clip still wasn't a minute long, breaking the rules. So what Go-Pro did to everyone that entered their contest was bend them over, ask "can you feel that?" And say "look, no hands". Why would anyone think it will be different this time around? Go-Pro can go and f*ck themselves this time.

 Based on their "don't give a f*ck" attitude last time around, I doubt they will.

 That's what I figured. Then again, based on my past experience with GoPro, I have been biased against them for years, so I can't claim to have a objective opinion.

 Professional athletes sponsored by GoPro are not prohibited from winning based on these rules. The only part of the Official Rules that could apply, in theory, to prohibit professionally sponsored GoPro athletes is the language that prohibits "Employees of Sponsor and Administrator." However, the sponsored athletes are not employees of GoPro. The fact that these athletes have signed a contract for sponsorship with GoPro does not automatically make them an "Employee" of the company. Actually. it is very likely that such contracts actually specify that the sponsored athlete is never to be considered as an "employee" of GoPro. Rather, the sponsored athlete would legally be considered as an independent contractor of sorts. Therefore, not disqualified under this provision.

The language regarding: "Sponsor’s and Administrator’s parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion, fulfillment or other coordinating agencies" must be taken in whole. Such language is common in corporate/business legal contracts and typically does not apply to individual persons associated with the business, but rather applies in a corporate and industry sense to the partner, affiliate and subsidiary companies or businesses who are legally tied to GoPro. Contract law is always subject to debate but I would argue that this is the case here.

If the rules were the same for the last contest, GoPro did not violate their own rules by Sorge winning. And with these current contest rules, there is nothing that prohibits GoPro from again awarding the best line trophy to one of their own sponsored athletes (which I would think is somewhat likely).

 ^ The rules were written differently last time and did clearly state that people supported/sponsored by GoPro or providing services to GoPro in any way were not allowed to enter.

 If that is actually the case Scott, then GoPro violated their own rules and could potentially be sued for a breach of contract, misrepresentation, violation of federal contest laws, violation of state contest laws, etc., in a court competent jurisdiction by a plaintiff who has standing to sue on such matter. The whole matter could also be reported to state attorney general's for them to look into and possibly bring legal action. I haven't looked at last year's contest rules so I have no comments on whether or not your information is correct Scott. As for this year, sponsored athletes are fully able to take home the prize.

 Yeah we realize they did but I don't think anyone feels its worth all that effort, haha. Best to say "f*ck off" and then trash their company publicly. You can check the link above to see everyone's reactions to the results of last year's contest with zero info. or rebuttal by GoPro or PB. Its a f*cking scam. I did laugh when I read the rules this time around to see the minor changes they made.

 According to a commenter, who posted the eligibility rule for the previous 2014 GoPro line of the world on the awards announcement page, nothing has changed in the eligibility rules from the last contest. Here is the 2014 rule that was posted by a pb commenter on April 15, 2015 at 4:26pm:

"1. ELIGIBILITY: the2014 GoPro of the World best line by Pinkbike (the “Contest”) is open to GoPro users worldwide that have an active email account and Internet access. Employees of GoPro, GoPro’s parent company, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion, fulfillment or other coordinating agencies, individuals providing services to GoPro through an outsourcer or temporary employment agency during the Contest Period, and their respective immediate family members and persons living in their same household, are not eligible to participate in the Contest. Participation in the Contest constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules (“Official Rules”). VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW."

The eligibility rule for the 2014 contest looks to be the same exact eligibility rule as this current contest. Which explains why GoPro athletes were not disqualified from entering. It looks like the previous contest's rule was incorrectly interpreted by many pb commenters as though it excluded such sponsored athletes from entering and winning the contest. (And it's highly likely that this current contest will suffer from the same incorrect interpretation by many pb commenters.)

 ^ Hmmm.... interdasting, I could have sworn it was revised this time around. Are you a lawyer?

I'll concede to that point but still feel it trashy to allow their own supported riders to compete, especially when they need someone as educated as yourself to point out how its technically allowed. Regardless, they did violate many other of their official rules such as the editing (Remi's entry was edited to end early while some people's entries were rejected for doing the same thing), and the clips being posted up before in any capacity (should have disqualified Sorge's, Remi's, and Jaw's entries). This goes without saying that the 1-2 minute clip length requirement was also ignored. We will see how many of these rules they ignore this time around and then completely disregard any issues brought up by the community.

 @socnick83, thank you for your comment, it got me to consider my views more closely.

You said that sponsored athletes are effectively contractors of the companies who sponsor them, and I agree.

But wouldn't a contractor be considered an affiliate? And isn't the point, for a company anyway, of sponsorship to create affiliation between the achievements of an athlete and the company in the mind of those outside the company?

 Taldfind - I understand what you are saying, and yes, I completely agree that the point of a sponsorship is to create an affiliation or association between the sponsored athlete and the sponsor. This is how I, and every other person would use the word "affiliate" to describe how the sponsored athlete and sponsor are connected. The problem here is that we have a legal document, the Contest Contract. And just like in everyday language, the meanings of words can be modified to be either broader or narrower depending the on the context they are used within. For example, I say - "I like cats" - and everyday usage of the word cat would assume all felines from cute domestic kittens to tigers. Now if I were to say - "I like cats, hippos, giraffes, elephants, monkeys, apes, bears, seals, penguins, and walruses" - it is safe to assume that I am no longer including kittens within the meaning of cats, but rather I am only including big cats that I would see at a zoo. Same type of thing happens all the time in contractual interpretation and statutory interpretation. Here is how I would argue the eligibility clause would be broken down and read by a judge:

Excluded from entry:
1. Employees of Sponsor and Administrator,
2. Employees of Sponsor’s and Administrator’s parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising, promotion, fulfillment or other coordinating agencies,
3. Individuals providing services to Sponsor or Administrator through an outsourcer or temporary employment agency during the Contest Period.
4. Apply this to all the above -> and their respective immediate family members and persons living in their same household whether related or not.

Here, the word "affiliates" is nestled into part two of the rules which only pertains to the employee's of GoPro's corporate/industry associations. In other words, "employees of affiliates" are excluded. Those individuals who are simply, in the broad use of the term, "affiliated" or associated with the company through sponsorship, unless they are employees, are not excluded.

 Thank you socnick83, that makes sense to me. Though it also reminds me of why I hate "legal language" (how can I fallow rules and laws if I need a lawer or a law degree to even understand the do's and don'ts of the rule or law?)

Anyway, while I can now see how Sponsored Athletes can participate, without breaking the eligibility rules, I still would not enter this contest, simply because I know that my most creative and gnarly line will pale in comparison to what the pros will do in their videos.

 You have to also consider GoPro's motivation behind this contest. I think it is probably so they can acquire a stash of high quality footage which can be used in promo materials. $20,000 is nothing compared to what it would cost an actual GoPro team to fly to a location and shoot the rad footage. With this in mind, it is understandable that GoPro would allow pro athletes to enter. It ensures that they will collect top notch footage to use in their commercials.

I'm not saying it's right for GoPro to do it this way. But it explains why they would word the rules carefully to keep pros eligible.

 Replayxd is better. Easier to mount and line ip, flusher, and better picture

 Don't hate the Player, hate the Game. We all know how awesome the Pro Riders are and what they can do, and all the hate expressed by PB users is not to the Pro Riders, but to GoPro and this SCAM of a contest, there is not much to say anymore, since we all now know how the Contest and its RULES work. There shouldn't be any rules at all. Kudos to all the PROs always and also to all the average JOEs who put all the time and effort on building and riding their own lines for this so called Contest.

 Look at last year's winner. Should answer your second question.

 It says no editing though? surely the making the middle section 50%speed is classified as 'editing'?

 Good pickup, maybe there were different rules for last years though

 How is a total of $25.000,- in cash price free?

If they wanted to they could get footage much cheaper from their sponsored athletes.

I just can't understand how people are complaining about such an awesome cycling related online contest where you can win such big money.

 The contest was supposed to not apply to sponsored athletes so it was more a contest for average people. Then they gave the prize money to Sorge. Don't get me wrong Kurt Sorge is one of my favourite riders but I don't think it pleased many of the people who had entered. It's only an awesome contest if you actually have a chance in winning which is why they should exclude the pros. No-one is going to bother if they know they're up against Andreu or sh*t like that- they would only embarrass themselves.

 With 25 k on the line, they sure did a shitty job of running this contest last time around. The issue isn't pro riders winning, its that their clips clearly violated multiple rules (cutting footage/editing, length of clip, being used/posted previously, which clips actually qualified for the grand prize, etc). GoPro ignored their own rules on multiple occasions for their sponsored riders to win. That's the issue along with incredibly shitting judging that didn't make sense. Its not worth your time, you actually don't have a chance at winning that money. You may win something from the public vote but don't give your hopes up because they will probably skip doing that again this time around because f*ck it, they felt like it.

 Wasn't Sorge also one of the judges?

 hahaha

 I see your confusion, it's called GehenSieProfessionell in Germany

 Don't get your hopes up, the "best" you can expect is to be included in some gopro advertising without any credit nor recognition. And the only thing they support is themselves, gathering tons of free advertising footage.

 And $20.000,-


Who needs recognition when you get that much money?

 The problem Mattin is that last year it was staged. To put a little bit history, the contest basically came out when people started to complain about PODs contest being won by Pros only and sometimes even by PB employees, subscribers wanted something that the average joe could win. GoPro decided to take the opportunity so they made the first contest last year, it was slow, fishy and something was not right, and then a Pro Athlete sponsored by GoPro won, people got pissed!!!, it was supposed to be the people contest. Anyway Past is the Past and everyone deserves a second chance, I have really high hopes they do it right this year. I like your approach on the creativity man, I was actually thinking to just ride down the mountain at the best of my performance and speed with some good music, I think I ma going to wait an see what comes to mind to do things differently.

 Ouch, giving away first price to your own team rider is indeed not a decision that will get you new friends. Especially not when it was supposed to be an amateur contest and your team rider is a pro. I do hope they have learned from last years mistake and follow their own rules correctly this year. Because it really is an awesome online contest if everything goes down well.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v1RR8vCbnI

 Thanks! Too bad he didn't have a decent camera angle, that line was ridiculous.