Curator88

Confirmed all we already knew about the insecure world that clique are living in. Shame Godzi or Gee didn't make it down to drop a few more truth bombs on the cowboy hat brigade.

If anyone from Monster is reading.. Set up a real, inclusive big mountain event at an alternative venue. Capitalize on the farcical Rampage judging and disaffected riders and viewers. Let's see real big mountain, original lines. Gnar. Progression rewarded. No insider favoritism. Blow our minds. Make it reality.

Difficult to see how anyone can root for the guy who comes out with that take.. madness.

Industry insiders trying to erase the achievements of those they are not associated with. The usual.

Dan's quote is ominous for the riders..

Knew him and Bryce during juniors. Unreal what they've achieved in the sport.

Ah yes, time for some industry gaslighting. Was exactly the same play after Joyride, but this is far more egregious. Zink and Strait literally taunted the other competitors with their 'we showed them' comments. It may have been overtly directed at 'the internet' but they'd not have been saying it had they been scored appropriately and had to accept that they'd been overshadowed on merit. The judges, meanwhile, with their shameful 'we nailed it' post, congratulating Zink only. Grim. The community are rightly angry with it all because it lessens the chance of seeing deserving and progressive 'outsider' riders at future events: it fails to reward creativity and originality; and it ultimately hurts the sport.

@brianpark: People are quick to point out that Couderc did two double flips, and Isted did two flip tucks, but NINE of Emil's eleven hits were variants of a 360.. and one of the ones that wasn't was a 540. Even on a pure technicality basis, that needs to be penalised. You shouldn't be able to just double stack tricks like that the whole run and not be penalised. Now take away the 360 element from 7 of Emil's nine repetitions of it, score it, and do you still think the run should have won? If there's no issue with double-dipping on scoring, then if I were Isted or Couderc I'd just focus hard on learning 10 variations of double flips or fronties, and throw it and double-dip the score on every hit.

Pinkbike have been quick to jump to the defence of the judging and to explain why Emil's run scored higher (that most of us who care enough to be here do understand). However, given the precarious state of the discipline (far from a mainstream sport), the live crowd reactions to the runs, and the reaction in various forums thereafter, it'd be folly to continue to deny that there is an issue with there being such a disconnect between the judging criteria and spectacle. BMX has to some extent cracked this by adding in additional judging criteria and considering the diversity of runs, and originality of course usage, as major factors. Oppo scoring should be a very minor criterion - some people are naturally more ambidextrous and it is currently used as an excuse for repetition of tricks without penalty. You can jump on the Emil hype train all you want, but it is the sport - upon which the industry depends - that will suffer.

Isted or Couderc should have won. Emil's body language said it all - he knows that run wasn't a 92+. Equally as bizarre as Emil's score was Fedko's - a 59!!! - is a bit odd - yes he missed a trick or two but Dawid scored higher with a massive crash haha.