Brage Vestavik won the fan favorite part of the X Games Real MTB by a landslide after taking home 2nd place in the
judged portion of the competition. Brage, who put together a raw, rowdy edit full of wild wood features and big air, took 57% of the popular vote, followed by Danny MacAskill with 13% and Brandon Semenuk, the judges' top pick, with 10%.
400 [Failed to load instagram embed] https://www.instagram.com/p/COIq5_hBL42/?maxwidth=1000In case you have missed the entire last week of internet happenings, here's Brage's video:
Huge congratulations to Brage and Blur Media from Pinkbike, and well done to all the competitors.
All the videos are stellar and are absolutely worth watching.
Full results are available at
xgames.com.
92 Comments
I'm not saying he wouldn't have been a deserving winner overall but it's not as clear cut as people making it out to be. That being said I fully understand my comment will not be received well, I just had to say it
Brandon's edit was more technical, he is so good that it is hard to tell how good he is sometimes.
Brage's edit had way more stoke and creativity.
I imagine the judges were looking at the tech and stoke was secondary.
It's interesting that the judges didn't see it the same as the masses. I happen to align with the judge's choice, and I'm still trying to figure out why I don't align with the vast majority. I guess for me I've just always preferred clean, technical, precise riding and edits over raw, heavy, aggressive edits. I've always felt the same about snowboard, skate, and BMX videos too.
Anyway, this is a rad competition despite the frustration that almost always come with judged events. Love seeing these artists showcase their work.
Brage's video had some big sends (that last one was nuts), but Semenuks features were also as big. Just two very different ways of building (and filming). I do admit, I voted for Brages. It just got me more fired up and was unexpected and out of nowhere, but I fully understand why Brandon won the judge's portion. It honestly could have gone to either of them, and I would be happy. I'm really happy Brage won the people's choice, and second to Semenuk is something few people in the world can claim. Both killed it, and I'm stoked they both "won"
One thing's for sure: we need more of this shit.
Interesting side note: Danny M’s video has WAY more views than the others on YouTube (as of today 1.7m vs. 380k).
All that said, I would rather watch Remy and Yoann ride trail than watch any slopestyle riding.
The voting isn't surprising at all X Games caters to a specific look and style and Brendan has that all day long. Bikers have more respect for something more raw and different.
same here. the videos are the prize. but generally they get it close to right and the fan favorite helps balance it out if necessary.
What happened at that Munich slope comp?
BS is an incredible rider but I felt he was within his comfort zone riding perfectly manicured jumps with every pebble moved to the correct place (lets call it fantasy slopestyle).
But thats not real MTB, the extreme side of the sport came from big gnarly features. Which is what Brage delivered. In the middle of winter on man made jumps, moving dirty in buckets down the hill, then doing high risk tricks (what was he thinking on that log!!!)
In terms of progressing the sport, I think that Vero Sandler did more in her video to showcase womens freeride and some incredible cornering than the other videos did. More and more women take up the sport, its great to have roll models. Lets be honest, she killed it, best suicide no hander in the videos was by Vero, beating BS in my book.
Lucky for me I can do 0% of he riding in any of the videos, but my keyboard works