WPUC13

Results of WPUC13

Champion:

CÉSS4

2nd place:

Rus-L

3rd place:

Valera

FINAL:

Decision of the judges on final:

Bengau:

Wassup everyone,
Congrats to the finalists for great final videos. You’ve kept the flag of upperz on the high level during this season. Each of you managed to deliver a good piece of hardcore uppers. I know how hard it is to keep fresh ideas coming during the final round so my respect goes to each of you upper heroes.

My opinion on the final videos is:
4. Valera
3. Angel
2. Rus-L
1. Cess

Most of the finalists paid special attention to “hardcoreness”. I felt like you’ve tried to push your limits as far as possible. That, to me, means that the main point of comparison should be a difficulty (as you’ve picked difficulty to be the main focus of your videos).

However, such an approach leads to tricky issues with “execution/style” – it’s natural when you overcome your current maximum level.
Another part suffering from “difficulty-focused” approach is variety. It’s also natural because it’s hard to do world-class stuff based on a wide variety of skills and a bit more comfortable to show variety within a narrow range of tricks.

These two criteria – “execution/style” and “variety” – were the key details for comparison in advance to “difficulty”. I haven’t seen too much originality so that criterion was out of my focus.

Valera’s video seemed to contain less difficulty to me compared to the rest. There were a few execution issues. Variety was pretty narrow – guess that’s the influence of the injury. That was an enjoyable video to me, but compared to the other videos i couldn’t rank this video higher.

Angel did slightly more difficult stuff than Valera. He had much more issues with execution – many 2revs were unclean, some of the shoulder bounces went way too high. The variety of tricks and ideas was as narrow as Valera’s – too many similar combos with “lip atm” and other Fuad-type movements. However, Angel takes a higher ranking due to a higher difficulty in general.

Rus-L was pretty close to Angel in terms of difficulty. Pretty close in terms of variety. But much more solid in terms of execution and style. Movements were much smoother, all the moves were performed correctly. To me, that displays that Rus-L was much more solid on that level of difficulty. So that’s undoubtedly the 2nd place to me.

Cess was just on the next level of difficulty. Also, variety was stronger than the others had. Wouldn’t say the same about execution as some moves weren’t performed as clean as smooth as they should. Anyway, Cess was simply the strongest in this clash of hardcore upperz.

Abdullah Emad:

Congratulations guys for making it to the final and for reaching these levels.. Firstly I used the new judging criteria ( Difficulty, Originality, execution, All round and Control) to give points.. then i added overall to make the final decision. I’m giving the competitors with rare and Original styles the priority in the evaluation to encourage the creativity and appreciation their hard works and creation time ..

Cess : Perfection ! You were improving in every stage showing a real hard work. Amazing ability in doing all moves and combos both sides, great all round uppers with nice flow, Top head stalls combos were crazy too , i will not talk about chest and shoulders moves because they were amazing as usual . For me the best Final video no doubt!

Rus-L : So calm and beautiful style, Master of true shoulder Stall, You are doing it clean both sides. Other guys did better all round uppers, better dynamics, they were showing hard stuff with speed, Adding tgis part to your style in some combos will make them super amazing, You can improve rollers both sides for more variety in your combos. Beautiful locations and edit, i really enjoyed the video.

Valera : Sorry to hear about your injury, get well soon! but still perfect. I like the style while you were rounding around your self in chest, shoulders spin. Long shoulders combos both sides were hard and beautiful, i just miss the rollers part in your combos. it wasn’t easy for me to choose between you and angel, but as i mentioned in the beginning I’m giving the priority to rare styles, i think your video deserves to be the 2nd after Cess video.

Angel : Beast! i can feel the difficulty of your combos, You improved many aspects like shoulder stalls combinations, Lips, eyes and jaw moves. also beautiful variety. Other guys were comfortable in their combos and showing hard things effortless. Many difficult moves you did need more style. Great to see you are improving your originality part but you needed more to beat your opponents.

Final decision is :
1. Cess
2. Valera
3. Angel
4. Rus-L

Daniel Atieh:

Congratulations to the competitors for reaching to the final and I would like to say well done to everyone. Generally speaking, I am not quite satisfied with the videos; did not feel the real final stage, but it is natural to have ups and downs in a developmental process like this.

4) Angel: Good job, you are doing better than before. The main reason I selected the others ahead of you is the execution. It have to be done properly as that is the basis on what you build up your combos and different ideas upon so you do not want to build up upon wrong execution. It is not only “all or none” here when it comes to execution but worse than that, because it does give a negative impression. As I told you, you are performing much better than before so keep going and developing your uppers.

3) Valera: Too sad for the injury and hoping you are better now. Actually, you are very close to the second place in my view, but probably you did not show your true potential here, but I have to say that, in general, the combos were good with average difficulty. I think you know how to use the upper tricks, but needed to show more ideas and even the execution on some tricks could be improved. Congratulations.

2) Cess4: You showed that you can do complex and hard, long combos, but that is really just part of the whole thing. To me, you are missing the more important aspects. Well, I cannot deny that there was some good ideas and that is an improvement compared with your previous videos, but still the use of random tricks was present and this hugely affects the overall quality of your uppers. You need to work on selecting the right tricks to deliver your idea and decrease the randomness in your combos. Respect for reaching this stage anyway and I personally noticed the improvement and enjoyed some of the combos.

1) Rus-L: The neat execution of your tricks is the first step towards being selected as the first for me. The other contributors included using the right tricks in the combo, in an interesting order, and also utilising the right amount of each trick in a given combo. Those are the basic elements of a strong upper. I have to say that the difficulty and complexity of your tricks were not that high here, so you can take that into account. It is a great achievement that you have reached this level now, and this can be just the start of something stronger, so make use of this. The video lacked the feeling of “pushing your own limits”, and that does not mean only difficulty of the tricks, but it is one of them. Anyway, it is a pleasure to watch clean uppers with interesting ideas.

Results of WPUC13:
1. Cess – 11.
2. Rus-L – 8.
3. Valera – 6.
4. Angel – 5.

1/4 finals:

Decision of the judges on 1/4 finals:

Bengau:

Cess vs. Abood
Cess wins. Simply next level uppers – stronger difficulty, control, variety. Abood could win it with some original ideas, but it didn’t work to me.
However, such hectic use of upper tricks that Cess showed looks annoying to me. I couldn’t recognize any structure in any combo – that looked more like difficult connections of different tricks, but didn’t consist any structure of common ideas. In the final round I will not be able to vote for random set of upper moves because uppers are not about skills – to me it’s more about showing how you think. The harder tricks you learn – the more complicated way of thinking you should show. That’s the duty of top level upper freestylers.

Valera vs. Hermen
Valera wins.
That was so cool to watch a battle of the symmetries! Couldn’t be a better match in the whole upper community. Both videos delivered a joy and feeling of interest when it comes to structure and interpretation of skills. Great job both, but Valera was simply stronger. I guess the experience played a vital role: bigger variety of tricks and ideas and freedom of interpretation create a picture of mature upper man while Hermen is still on his path to his top upper shape. Possibly Valera’s style can be an inspiration to him as i know that both of you follow same principles in uppers.

Тарасов Руслан vs Тарасов Дима
Руслан с минимальным субъективным перевесом забирает этот баттл.
Какой же кайф был посмотреть такую пару видосов, когда плюс минус все комбо – осмысленные, хорошо сделанные и отличаются друг от друга. Отличное представительство нашей аппер школы на турнире. Молодцы, чуваки.
По всем критериям у вас плюс минус одинаковая ситуация. Сложность сопоставимая. В исполнении оба молодцы. В плане оригинальности – оба чуть отошли от классики на пару шагов, но радикально новых идей не было. Контроль на месте. Главное отличие для меня – подходы к съемке. У Димы больше кадров. С одной стороны, это позволило показать больше разнообразия скиллов, с другой стороны – меньше “убийственных” кадров, где сильные стороны раскрываются в лучшем виде. У Руслана ситуация обратная: меньше кадров – чуть меньше разнообразия в целом – больше глубина.
И для финала я выбираю чувака, который лучше показывает, как он работает “на глубине”. Не секрет, что сильная сторона Руслана – тру плечи и любые заходы на них с орбитов и подбивов. Вот в этом видео сильная сторона Руслана была показана хорошо, разнообразно и интересно. Дима был чуть богаче в общем, но я не увидел того навыка “задумывания”, который позволит победить в финале. Достойно себя показать и занять какое-то место – да. Но судя по этим видео в этой зарубе больше шансов у Руслана. Ему и даю свой голос.

Angel vs. Alex Rivera
Angel wins. To me these two were pretty good. But Angel looked more experienced at this stage and, thus, managed to pack his skill into these 2.5 mins better. He had clean intetiontions in most of clips – shoulder stuff was the main focus along with true shoulders to me. Alex was good in general, but his video was less “dense” – his ideas of “kill-offs” appeared rarely in the video. I can see the potential, but i cannot see what will help him compete in the final. In the meantime Angel shows his strength fully that, to me, makes him a 4th finalist of WPUC13

Abdullah Emad:

Cess vs Abood > Cess
Valera vs Hermen > Valera
Rus-L vs Tarasov > Rus-L
Angel vs Alex Rivera > Angel

Cess4 : You are showing great all round uppers with both sides, crazy Chest and shoulders combos as usual also good stamina , Currently on of the top 3 uppers Freestylers in the world in my opinion..
Abood : For me the Fastest improvement after WPUC12 , good execution, very smart in choosing moves that’s suits your style.. Your opponent is very strong and that made it more difficult for you.. I see Cess did better in most of criteria..

Valera vs Hermen : 2 masters of chest moves.. Insane flexibility from hermen! i can feel the difficulty of those moves , they were difficult and clean ..
Valera has more variety and his combinations looks more difficult because of the this , Shoulders combos specially shoulders spin with both sides were beautiful ..
I chose Valera

Rus-L vs Tarasov : Great! this is the hardest choise between all battles of this stage.. Both of You were amazing and i enjoyed your videos guys..
Rus-L : For me it’s your best upper video i enjoyed every single clip, great execution and better variety this time, True shoulder stalls was perfect as usual..
Tarasov : nice control in long combos, Strong basics and clalm Style, Work on dynamics, increase Your speed in some combos.. it was the hardest decision but after watching them many times
i choose Rus-L because i prefer to see Rare styles and Rus-L looks more difficult, good control in difficult tricks and nice variety one more thing is recording the clips in Outdoor it’s not like doing tricks in your room..
Rus-L video looks better in Overall..

Angel vs Alex Rivera Angel : Hardcore! last minute of the video was amazing, You worked on your style and the improvement was very clear, The moves became more cleaner and hand positions in your combos became better this time ..
Alex Rivera : I was expecting more but still beautiful video 2 revolutions moves are getting better , i see angel was better in All aspects..
i choose Angel

Daniel Atieh:

CÉSS4 – Abood

Decision: CÉSS4 wins

Comments: The difference in the difficulty and complexity that Céss4 showed puts him in the win here.

You are doing a good standard and clean uppers, Abood. Most of your combos contained an element of chest stall or orbiting, which I don’t think is a necessarily good idea. Another thing is the combo at 1:00 and the one following it did not differ much in the idea forming. The ability to be able to use as many upper tricks in different combinations with different, smart ideas, executed well, to me, comprises a strong upper video, so try to show ability on different areas as well. You have a big potential so keep practising.

Strong and difficult combinations, Céss4. Good use of both sides showing good abilities with different combos. The combos you did are interesting, but some contained unnecessary additions in my opinions, where you could have just finished them up to a certain point. Further is that you move a lot while executing your moves. Anyhow, your dynamics are fantastic and the whole video was exciting to watch. Well done and good luck.

Valera – Hermen

Decision: Valera wins

Comments: Variety of uppers done by Valera as opposed to Hermen was the main reason behind my decision here.

That was nice, Hermen. Ability to control both ways will give you a great basis to build upon strong combinations and is one of the correct ways of developing your uppers. Problem is that I did not see you using different areas of uppers including for example different stalls, rolls etc. You mainly focus on orbits with different combinations but based upon the same main idea (which is using both sides), so I could expect what will happen next in your combos. Impressing uppers anyway.

Good job, Valera. I am glad to see that you tried to actually battle your opponent by showing both sides control to some extent and the combos are interesting. I believe that you could increase the complexity of the combos.

RuS-L – Tarasov

Decision: RuS-L wins

Comments: Not an easy decision here. Every combo RuS-L did communicated exactly what he wanted, while a few combos from Tarasov built some confusion to me. However, this was a great battle that I enjoyed watching and great job to both of you.

Tarasov, you showed a great video in this stage. I like your flow with the combos, and even the ideas were sweet.

That’s a professional build up of your combos in the video, RuS-L. Face combos in the middle did not just show that you could do face stalls and add variety, but showed HOW to add variety. A small note about the combo at time1:50 is that I would prefer not to end the combo with your back facing the camera, so you could account for that if you want.

ÁNGEL – Alex Rivera

Decision: ÁNGEL wins

Comments: Basically Ángel performed better on almost all the aspects I am looking for.

That was fine, Alex. You can do basic, long combos with few alterations to every combo. I want to see more variety. To understand this better, you could start practising shorter combos first and with time you will realise that even smaller combos could deliver a lot. After that, you could balance between the longer and the shorter combos. The 2 revs are quite unclean. One is that the ball is so high, and two is that your amplitude around the ball is low. Keep up the good work.

Improvements can be seen, Ángel. That is a good video all in all. The latm is unclean (amplitude) and the control of the true shoulder stall could be improved. In addition, the planning of some of the combos could be made better, for example you could cut down the unnecessary parts in your combos (just few ones in this video). I would leave it to you to find out what are those parts. Pay attention to the time limit regardless if the first clips were just introductory. Great work.

1/8 finals:

Decision of the judges on 1/8 finals:

Bengau:

Cess vs Ahmadreza
Cess takes the win.
It’s hard to compete with Cess in this edition of WPUC as the difficulty and control level goes beyond the sky. In this battle Cess was stronger in difficulty, control, variety of tricks and their connections. Won’t comment too much on Cess’ video – it’s always about hardcore variations. However i feel like the best ones are kept for the next stages.
Nevertheless i admire Ahmadreza’s improvement compared to the qualification video. The majority of clips had a clear focus. I wouldn’t say i love such variations (to me most of them looked more like uppers for battles which are usually simplified version of uppers in a broad sense), but you paid attention to structure and showed your best skills and ideas. That’s the way to continue with – your set of basics is just a dictionary for your upper novel (structured story with a glimpse of your personality). Good job.

Valera vs Luis
Close one, but Valera takes it.
As for Luis it was a great piece of passionate uppers. I felt the joy of pursuing the desired combinations. Strong backheadstall control is present. However i felt like the video was a bit repetitive. The whole potential of backhead stall was shown in 2 clips (especially the one during night session) – the other clips consisted of the same variations in different sequence. Same with chest variations. I feel like there’s pretty strong basics, but lack of understanding of how it could be fully used.
Valera didn’t show his best difficulty. I felt like some of the clips were recorded last day (longer combos) just to pack the video. However the video in general shows significantly better variety of skills (shoulders, chest moves both sides, face tricks, rollers etc), variety of ideas which to me shapes a better level of difficulty. Also control that Valera shown was more pleasing to me. That’s the clear example of how one can beat another with better understanding of how his upper skill can be used.

Rus-L vs Charly
Rus-L is the winner.
Another example of how a complete understanding of uppers helps create a video that (for me) easily beats strong opponents.
Charly did a great effort. I really like how you mix different types of control (true shoulder, tophead, backhead stalls). Would be cool to see longer combos based only on these stalls combined together in different ways. However in general the video looked repetitive – same skills were combined in similar ways. Sitting uppers added some freshness, but looked unstructured to me. Also control wasn’t perfect (compated to Rus-L) as sometimes some bounces were needed to control true shoulder (while the best control means that you catch the ball with the first touch). Great video though.
Rus-L is the best example of what i wanna see. Smart combos with interesting structure showing variety of skills and transitions and performed just perfectrly. Nothing was excessive – every combo was on point showing new sides of Rus-L’s potential. Short and sweet.

Angel vs Hrabi
Tough battle, but i choose Angel.
Hrabi impressed me a lot! That video would definetely beat Angel’s qualification video. I love the smoothness you show while keeping uppers combos technically difficult. Combos were smart, variety was on points. Cannot say anything in advance – i just enjoyed the video. This video was closer to my vision of freestyle video aesthetics.

However Angel took the lessons of qualification and came up with strong video showing a stronger level of difficulty. He did similar variations to Hrabi but with advanced skill. Now Angel’s combos were structured much better showing his power in combining hardcore moves together. With such approach Angel has more chance to compete with the winners of other battles so my vote goes to him.

Tarasov vs Tris
Крутой баттл, отдаю голос Тарасову.
Виталик сделал сильно лучше, чем в квале. Почти во всех кадрах не было вопросов к задумке комбо – это хороший симптом. Сложность и вариативность на месте. Особенно удивил комбос с нэйпом – очень жаркое дерьмо. Тем не менее, в видосе есть избыточная напряжность и трясучка – почти во всех комбо есть элементы, где теряется контроль. Для меня это показатель, что нынешний видос снят близко к нынешнему максимальному уровню, когда о переделывании и улучшении стиля речь идет редко. Уверен, что задумки смотрелись бы чище и ярче, если бы выполнялись с более уверенным твердым стилем. Вот кстати комбос с нэйпом тому пример – нет трясучки, есть эффект.

Диме респект за уровень, вариативность, стиль. В сложности оба видоса сопоставимы. Но комбосы Димы для меня были почище в плане структуры и восприятия (опять же, мб здесь играет роль контроль и стиль, которые помогают сфокусироваться на структуре комбо, а не на том, в какой момент был потерян контроль над комбо). В целом в этом видео Дима показал более уверенные, цельные апперы, чем Виталик. В плане цельности я заценил последний комбарь с фейсами. Несмотря на то ,что само комбо не было супер крутым, я оценил, что Дима держался до конца идеи – сложный “переход” в фейсы и чистое фейс комбо без ненужных переходов в бади и прочую грязь. Умение держать фокус на главном – для меня это показатель понимания своего скилла и своего пути среди всего апперского многообразия Поэтому отдаю победу Диме.

Abdullah Emad:

Cess4 vs Ahmed Reza :
Cess..
Amazing! Great all-round uppers combos with Speed, Chest and shoulders combos were perfect as usual ! Tricks at 01:33 and the last one were my favourites.. In my Opinion it’s the best video for this stage too, Congratulations for your current level!
Ahmed Reza : Crazy Control with the back head, Also i liked your ideas, frog style was beautiful, I liked the trick at 01:10 You improved alot, but cess did better video in my opinion. Valera vs Luis : Valera.. It’s very beautiful to see you doing most of your tricks and combos with both sides, this is kind of difficulty too, nice shoulders combos. I observed you are showing your ability in an exact trick ( mixing combos with it) like you are choosing it to be the main topic for your video . Luis : Good back head control, i think you could do good all round combps with better variety. try to add less cartoon clips in your edit so people can focus more on your uppers.. You have a good uppers but Valera has more variety in his combos and better in many other aspects.

Rus-L vs Charly :
Rus-L : Amazing Shoulder Control, One of the best in the world in shoulder Stall, I liked your combos but the video was short.
Charly : Top head Spin and combos were nice, also good combinations, Work more on your Style. It was the hardest decision but i choose Charly, Rus-L has more difficulty than charly but his short video give Charly the chance to show more all-round uppers move.

Angel vs Hrabi
Angel : Great to see you Working on variety in your uppers, I expected difficult moves in your video as usual, but i still think you need to work more in your style and hands positions.
Hrabi : Beautiful Chest moves, Your Style was cleaner than your opponent’s style but he was better in many other aspects. I chose Angel

Tarasov vs Tris :
Tarasov : Nice combos, great control , beautiful details with calm Style. I think more speed in some combos can make your uppers better and stronger.
Tris : Last 30 seconds in your video were beautiful, nice combos and 00:42 combo control wss very nice too. Tarasov has more difficulty in his combos. I chose Tarasov

Decisions :
Cess vs Ahmed Reza > Cess
Valera vs Luis > Valera
Rus-L vs Charly > Charly
Angel vs Hrabi > Angel
Tarasov vs Tris > Tarasov

Daniel Atieh:

Congratulations to everyone for reaching here. Now I think it is important to answer two questions:

Why do we need to compete anyway? One of the main goals is to improve and push our limits. This is a chance to learn from your mistakes and discover new things in your uppers career. So not passing through is completely fine.

What makes a good upper? This is a very subjective question and you will not find one correct answer. According to me, I am looking for certain criteria and on the top of the list comes the intellectual uppers and clean uppers. After that comes the level of complexity of the combos, and finally the control and the variety.

-> CÉSS4 Vs Ahmadreza

Ahmadreza: You do show good ideas in general. The use of KHB stall is nice with different body movements. However, I think it got overused and the shoulder bounces were high. Another point is that I would like to see more of the basic upper tricks combined together, because I can notice that you are focusing on different body movements using few upper tricks. It is not something negative, but the focus here is to at least improve the basic upper skills by showing different combinations of them.

CESS4: High level of control using variety of tricks, executed well which gives you a complex overall impression for the combos. Brilliant job. In your videos, you use more of the dynamic, long combos approach. The combos could be made more interesting. In fact, shorter combos can help you, because if you do an exciting idea and then continue the combo with somewhat usual tricks, then this will impact on the combo you did negatively which could have been better without the additional parts and also it decreases the possibility of repetitions. I would prefer a balance between the longer and shorter combos.

Decision: A clear win for CESS4 as he performed better in all the aspects I am looking for.

-> Valera Vs Luis

Luis: You have good uppers in general but the KHB stall has been used enormously in the video. This means that you won’t be able to show variety of tricks and combos and the interest in watching the combos will be less. If you show me one interesting combo focusing on this stall is much better than showing me multiple combos about the same thing with little variation. Moreover, you need to pay attention to the allowed time in this stage. Keep going, you have the ability to do something good.

Valera: It is good that you make use of the available time to show as much variety as you could and some of the combos were planned well and were exhilarating to watch. The ball goes a bit high on some clips so that could be worked on. I know sometimes it was meant to be kicked high but I don’t mean those ones. Well done.

Decision: Valera wins. Again, he showed better level in all the aspects and this is mainly due to a better understanding of the uppers.

-> RuS-L Vs Charly

Charly: Good job. I can see that you are trying to express different stalls and combos and the combinations you do are based on somewhat good structuring. You can work more on the control, because the movements and shakiness in the true shoulder stalls come from lack of good control. At time 0:10 the first trick is unclean, it is too high. But you are doing well and keep developing your uppers

RuS-L: You impressed me the most in the qualification particularly because you do the tricks in the way they should be done and also with nice structuring. You showed that in this stage also.

You can work a little bit more on the variety of the combos to develop a completely different message on each combo.

Decision: RuS-L takes it mainly due to cleaner moves and use of more interesting combos.

-> Ángel Vs Hrabi

Hrabi : There is improvement compared with the qualification video and now the combos have less randomness. You are using the side-orbit (along with its variations) quite a lot and this will only negatively impact on your video. The true nose stall-lip stall was nice so those small things do affect. The combo at 00:40 started well, but then I felt there is some interruption in the planning.

Ángel: You have showed a good video concentrating on complexity and harder tricks. The short combos were well structured, but the longer combos were not unfortunately and the random element was seen in them. The pauses were used in a good way and that is nice. Combo at time 1:25 showed that the rolls are not done properly because you take help from the back, but it should be from the head only. Furthermore, the 2rev tricks are not executed well so you can train on that separately until you get the good amplitude in the first and the second revolutions. Lastly in the things to be improved, I am not happy with the true shoulder stall because the head is too close to the ball.

Decision: The difference in the level and variety were the decisive factors here so I give my vote to Ángel.

-> Bauda (-) Vs Alex Rivera

Alex Rivera: There are things to work on here. The combos are not exciting to me, it is just normal combinations. You have to know that adding 2revs can really lower your points when they are improperly done as the case here. But I can see that you are improving on some aspects.

-> Tarasov Vs Tris

Tris : Great job, I can clearly see improvements compared with the previous video. Keep it up. Watching the combos I feel like it takes you effort in some tricks so that could be improved with repetition and higher level of control. Moving on, there was some interruption in your combo at 0:25 so try to avoid them. I liked the combo at 0:57 and your opponent did a similar one, but you went further with it. However, Tarasov showed a better control as it was done calmer, less movements, and shorter height.

Tarasov: This is a good upper video. You know what you are doing and this reflects the good planning and structuring of your video. The tricks are done well and with minimal movements. Though I expected a more complex and harder combos, but it was all good. A small note about the true shoulder stall is that I think it could be done better with a bit more distance from the head to give the sense of greater confidence.

Decision: I choose Tarasov because his combos were executed better and his ability to structure his uppers are better than Tris

-> Bulgara (-) Vs Hermen

Hermen: Excellent approach and way of thinking which also shows great control. You have showed us that you can do the tricks in both sides the direct way. Maybe you can add the indirect way now.

-> Abood Vs Gera (-)

Abood: You are showing quality uppers I could say. Keep it up. It’s time to push the level even more and more.

Decision of the judges on qualification round:

Bengau:

1. Cess
2. Valera
3. RUS-L
4. Hermen
5. Tarasov
6. Abood
7. Angel
8. Gera
9. Bauda
10. Alex Rivera
11. Trisman
12. Bulgara
13. Hrabi
14. Jachuj69
15. Charly
16. Daniels
17. Diego Granados
18. CAS
19. Luis
20. Azart
21. Kalina
22. Ahmadreza
23. Иван Суриков
24. Animesh
25. dk_fs91
26. Maxy
27. majeritos
28. Ala Balti
29. danoboss_fs

Tried to comment on each video to show appreciation for your entry. Most of you are skillful players. But also many people showed a lack of understanding of the structure of upper combos. So I gave higher ranking to those who delivered some structured combos or obvious ideas combined with some skill. From the rest of competitors, the higher ranking was given to those who recorded nicely structured upper combos thus showing an understanding of how they see uppers and which aspects they are their credentials. Lower-ranking was given to those who did difficult combos without any structure or idea. So the determining criterion for me was understanding of uppers while difficulty played the second role. Smart uppers are what we’re looking for in 2021.

Abood

Tidy uppers. I appreciate that you pay more attention to key elements of combo and its structure than to “hardcoreness” itself. Love to see various chest control.

Ahmadreza

Hectic uppers. I missed the structure of combos. Some moves weren’t that clean. Some of the promising parts of combos were interrupted with some chaotic moves (mostly rollers variations). I guess it was due to a lack of control when it comes outside of your “regular upper routine”. Backhead tricks were strong and structured, but i miss such confidence in other upper areas.

Ala Balti

Chaos itself. I admire your speed and solid control on basics like sideheads and atms. But i coulnd’t recognize any structure behind your skills. Shoulder bounces combined with hands revolutions looked promising – that’s some idea. But this idea needed some further development. In my opinion, you’d better do few short clips with a smart connection between moves than just trying to put everything you can in a chaotic and fast upper sequence. Tricks are good, but structural thinking is a must to make a step forward.

Alex Rivera

Controversial video. Your first combo was so nicely packed and accurately executed that i realized how much you’ve improved throughout all these years in skills and understanding of uppers. The execution was just good, the structure of the combo was logical and interesting. Same related to the 2nd combo. But then 2 rev combo came – and i was just disappointed. The execution was poor, and the structure of the combo was missing here. Sometimes that happens when we focus on “hardcore part” of the combo (which was 2rev in this case). The last combo was also controversial – some parts were good, but the style was shaky and the whole combo looked more like just a random sequence of upper moves than like a “predetermined” idea. I’d recommend you keeping it closer to 1st combo – it was difficult, stylish and smart enough to beat any 2rev thing you can do.

Angel

Hardcoreness of your uppers predominates everything else. It’s not good or bad in general. But to win such competition you need a balance between hardcore tricks, smart ideas, accurate execution, and unexpected decision in your combos. In this video, there’s hardcore stuff that destructs the balance. The structures of your combos were way too simple – you focused mostly on 2 revs while combos between them were very repetitive. That’s a common thing – I did so. But to step up your upper game you should learn how to make the whole combo look interesting and fresh. If you fix this, you might finish on the podium in the competition. Just don’t hurry up and build your upper picture properly

ANIMESH

Good upper control and hectic combos. You have strong roller control which helps you keeping your combos flow in any situation when the ball is close to sideheadstall. But apart from this, there’s a lack of ideas in your combos that can help us detect your signature way of building an upper combo. When i say “signature” i don’t mean you need original moves – you can start searching for unusual connections between existing tricks which will make your uppers look less repetitive and predictable.

Azart

Есть стильные куски. Но в целом мало плотности в апперах. Большая часть видео построена на длинных комбо, в которых у тебя не так много разнообразия. Было достаточно снять одно хорошее комбо, показывающее весь твой арсенал. Стоит сфокусироваться на коротких комбо типа тех, что были в конце видоса. Так ты быстрее прокачаешь скилл, контроль и наберешь разнообразие сочетаний между трюками.

Bauda

Hardcore itself. I like how smooth your upper flow is while keeping difficulty on such a high level. I miss the variety of ideas – at such a high level of tricks, this becomes necessary if you wanna reach the next level.

Bulgara

Solid and promising in some parts, in some part looks a bit repetitive. I found myself thinking that I miss pauses in your combos. You tried to keep dynamics, speed, and flow, but you couldn’t keep the same speed of thinking. That led to repetitive decisions in combos which, in turn, doesn’t allow you to show the full potential of the upper skill you have. Don’t hurry up when you feel you repeat too much. Do some slower parts of a combo to refresh your mind and prepare yourself for the next dynamical part of the flow (if you intend to do dynamical uppers ofc)

CAS

Raw skill, but a promising way of thinking. Some of the tricks you performed were bendy or poorly controlled sometimes. But unexpectedly you showed some interesting thinking. E.g. I liked how you improvised with a true shoulder-shoulder-shoulder-true shoulder sequence in the first combo. You tried to show your true shoulder ability and chose a simple, but stylish way to do it. Also liked the throat stall combo. Some more skillful guys got fewer points because they missed even simple structure. So keep making your uppers more clean and smooth, but also remember about smart and simple connections that you’ve shown here. Good job.

Сharly

Good upper skill performed with intention. I must admit there were some unclean or shaky moves which sometimes make it less pleasant to watch. But what i like the most is that you tried to pack your upper skill based on orbit, shoulder moves and stalls into short combos where each move helps us understand your intention and variety of your skill. You tried to avoid unnecessary moves and focused on your power – that’s what i wanna see in qualification. I loved first half of the video more than the second one though.

Daniels

Proper upper video and some material to work with. I appreciate that you paid attention to the atmosphere of your video and used various instruments other than just a black and white filter with some dark-vibe song. Regarding an upper skill, there’re controversial clips. In most of the clips, there were moves with imperfect execution of shaky control. I’d recommend trying to record again with better control and style because it benefits not only from an “aesthetical” point of view but also from purely technical. It shows that you can properly control the ball at this level of difficulty. Also, i liked the combos with the exact structure. Combos without any predetermined structure looked a bit messy for me – such skill needs more practice and experience. Keep it up!

danoboss_fs

It’s great to see upper beginners in the competition! The competition had a reputation of “elite” upper competition while it’s still a great opportunity for every freestyler to test their upper skill and get some basis for analysis. I appreciate your effort. I gotta say it was pleasing to see quality uppers from the very beginning. Most beginners try to land harder move while having problems with even basic tricks. This is not your case and that’s the right way for development. Keep paying attention to execution – that will help you a lot. I also like the variety of your basics. The only thing I’d recommend you to work on is your hands’ position. When you put your arms on your hip it just vanishes any trace of style. Hands can define your upper style. In the beginning, we don’t know where to put them. But later when you’ll be working on style and silhouette stylish hands position will help you feel much more comfortable and free while doing uppers. It can help you increase the amplitude of uppers or smoothen your style. So don’t cut this opportunity.

Diego Granados

Nice skill and ragged style. I respect your level – you have a roller control, also some chest and shoulder move on point. I was impressed with 2 lip atms – i like this kind of decision in qualification videos when you spend the shortest possible time to show a maximum of your skill. But some moves looked way too untidy. It’s annoying when the shoulder’s help is needed to balance the ball on sideheadstall – that happened way too many times in your combos. Also some of the shoulder bounces went waaaaay to high. And even though you managed to catch the ball, that killed off the whole upper flow. I prefer careful execution of each move. If something goes the unstylish way I’d recommend record again. If you avoid these “unstylish moments” your uppers will shine brighter.

dk_fs91

Hidden power and potential. I must say i’d focus on control tricks – looks like tophead and nape stall are relatively easy for you so you can build your flow on this kind of tricks. When it comes to dynamical combos there are 2 issues: unclean execution (especially when it comes to shoulder bounces) and aesthetically unpleasant hands position. If i just ignore hands your uppers look pretty good. Just pay attention to how your hands move and try to figure out how to keep hands helping you to balance the ball and look good at the same time. In your case it might be complex task as your body and hands look massive, but if you solve it that will look so special and unique. Please don’t put hands on hip as many people do, just keep working on their position. That will also help you feel more freedom in body movement which sometimes complicates upper control.

Gera

Experienced upper warrior here.It’s always about difficult moves, especially with backhead stall, fuad-type of moves and 4em-bounces. I like that you always try to work with structured combos (before hardcore warrior gets the ride haha). So as always i have two things to suggest: 1) do pauses sometimes. That will help recognise your initial ideas and logics. When you do non-stop hardcore stuff that all becomes a mess sometimes. 2) be careful with fuad(or atm to cheek/lip)-4em np connections. When you do one atm to cheek-4em connection (last combo) it looks great. When you try to do 4-5 in a row it looks illegible cuz your execution of these two parts look similar.

Cess / Guatemala

Hardcore itself. Insane control and skill. The only thing i wish is to see more “predetermined” combos. Now it looks like you don’t have any structure in mind while recording clips. Looks more like you start to record and try to show everything you’ve got. We know you’ve got sick skill and variety too. Not it’s time to pack these skills into recognizable combos and patterns.

Hermen

You’ve become one of my favorite new generation upper skillers. I like how clean your moves and also how clean your ideas behind the clips are. Also, it’s impressive that you can do almost everything in both sides – that gives you a huge potential. The next step is to less “repetitive” combos while keeping the structure obvious and recognizable. Looking forward to seeing more of your smart upperz.

Hrabi –

More order! I liked the ideas behind your clip with cheeks (0:36) – this is right way. And also next clip. For the rest – i cannot doubt your upper skill, but sometimes it looks more like chaotic upper flow than like mindful uppers haha. For live competition that might work, but if you’ll keep losing focus in your combos that will make further improvement harder. My deep belief is that structure, clean ideas and understanding of your individuality helps you choose shorter way to reach higher level. Not your uppers are like piece of marble. Time to cut off unnecessary stuff and creare a sculpture.

Jachuj69

The funniest thing to watch. First of all, i loved the irony behind the video. The content of the video was also good. I gotta say there were guys with stronger skills who didn’t show their full potential. You made a smart move – prepared structured combos is always a good decision. Execution was pretty good except for some shoulder bounces and rollers. I believe you have a chance to impress us next time.

Kalina

Solid control, but chaotic and repetitive combos. I believe you showed your potential in such long dynamic combos in the first clip. So i expected shorter, but harder clips coming, but then a pretty similar upper sequence was performed. Based on rollers + shoulder bounces+chest rolls, you can deliver interesting and powerful ideas if you pack them in dense and smart combos. For inspiration check “Turlakov Alexander…” video from 2012 – i guess you can work with some of his variations to add some sauce to your upper skill.

Luis

Difficult combos, but lack of structure. You obviously have solid backhead stall and  chest control. But you represent it mostly by repetitive flow. The video lacks variety and imagination.  I really loved your chest moves with hands revolution – that looked fresh and promising, it shows your chest control from the new side. Always remember – you shouldn’t do same trick in same variation twice. If you wanna show orbits – there’re more than 15 variations of how you can do that. You have everything to step up your game. Time to expand your upper mind.

majeritos

Solid, but repetitive basics. Same sequences repeat again and again. I noticed you have good roller control and also can mix with other upper basics like shoulder bounced or even true shoulder stall… Much work to do! You have good fundament of your uppers, but the rest is yet to be built.

Maxy

Good basic skill. Most of stuff you did was clean and dynamic. Though pay attention to orbits – sometimes you touch the ball with your hand. Also these cheek stalls that you incorporate should have bigger amplitude – instead it looks weird to me. Just keep on exploring the variations you love and look up to those who mastered them – you can get some inspiration in how they mix these tricks together.

Rus-L

Были, наверное, ребята ,которые сделали пожестче, но получили более низкий бал. Твое преимущество в том, чтобы уметь плотно упаковать свой скилл. Здесь всё по делу – разнообразие столлов, подбивы, орбитность показана, стиль и динамика. В турнире будет соблазн пытаться “пережестить” соперников – не стоит поддаваться. Просто делай красивые и умные комбосы и всё будет хорошо. И не болей, старый))

Tarasov

Все на месте. Разнообразие, умные связки и всё такое. Понравилась коротулька с топом – больше таких штук в разных подстилях апперов дают ощутимую прибавку к прогрессу. Если поднять скилл и не отступать от своего понимания апперов в пользу хардкора – есть шанс пошуметь на этом турнире.

Trisman

Суетишься. Скилл есть. В голове тоже где-то есть правильные решения – в комбо они проскакивают. Но часто скорость апперов обгоняет скорость мысли и начинается хаотичная раздача. Это круто ,когда у тебя есть разнообразие заготовок и скиллов. Но ты к нему пока что идешь. Ориентируйся на Тарасовых – либо старайся упаковывать свой скилл в короткие комбо, где очевидна задумка, очевидно начало и очевиден конец, либо старайся делать “продуманные длинные”, как у Димы. По сути это один и тот же подход, только один работает в коротких и понятных комбо, а второй – чуть менее осязаемая штука, в которой можно запутаться, а можно найти свой стиль. Не надо пытаться раздать по максимуму – здесь таких ребят полно. Делай осмысленно, чисто и разнообразно – это сегодня на вес золота.

Valera

Очень круто ,что раздача у тебя сочетается с логичными задумками, где проявляется твое апперское мышление. Баланс между заготовочками и раздачей – ключ к успеху в этом турнире. Много жесткого и много интересного. Странные окончания комбарей немного смутили.

Иван Суриков

Хорошая база, но мало понимания того, как ее использовать. Хорошие роллы, хорошие затылки, грудак-контроль есть, хороший контроль в целом. Есть огрехи в подбивах – в 4ем подбивах все-таки мяч должен проходить за головой, а не над ней сзади. Пока что это выглядит как неплохой материал, из которого предстоит сделать оформленные апперы. Нет определяющей идеи в апперах , кроме выполнения на количество. Думаю, что уже можно совмещать то, что ты умеешь. Посмотри видосы сильных апперщиков разных лет для вдохновения, залетай в ЛАВ – надо как-то двигаться дальше с этим материалом. С этим точно надо работать дальше.

Abdullah Emad:

1. Cess
2. Valera
3. Bulgara
4. Angel
5. Gera
6. Rus-L
7. Bauda
8. Ahmed Reza
9. Alex Rivera
10. Charly Pena
11. Tris
12. Tarasov
13. Abood
14. Luis
15. Hrabi
16. Kalina
17. Hermen
18. Animesh
19. Ivan Surikov
20. Alaa Balti
21. Diego granados
22. Azart
23. Jachuj69
24. Maxy
25. Daniels
26. CAS
27. dk_fs91
28. Majeritos
29. Danboss

Daniel Atieh:

1. CÉSS4
2. Valera
3. Rus-L
4. Bauda
5. Abood
6. Tarasov
7. ÁNGEL
8. Bulgara
9. Hrabi
10. Hermen
11. Luis
12. Tris
13. Azart
14. Charly
15. Gera
16. Ahmadreza
17. Alex Rivera
18. Daniels
19. Jachuj69
20. Maxy
21. Иван Суриков
22. Diego Granados
23. Kalina
24. ANIMESH
25. CAS
26. Ala Balti
27. majeritos
28. dk_fs91
29. danoboss_fs

RESULTS:

1. CÉSS4 – 87
2. Valera – 84
3. RUS-L – 78
4. ÁNGEL – 72
5. Bauda – 70
6. Tarasov – 67
7. Bulgara – 67
8. Abood – 66
9. Gera – 62
10. Hermen – 59
11. Tris – 56
12. Alex Rivera – 54
13. Hrabi – 53
14. Charly – 51
15. Luis – 46
16. Ahmadreza – 44
17. Azart – 35
18. Jachuj69 – 34
19. Daniels – 31
20. Diego Granados – 30
21. Kalina – 30
22. Иван Суриков – 27
23. Animesh – 24
24. CAS – 21
25. Maxy – 20
26. Ala Balti – 16
27. dk_fs91 – 10
28. majeritos – 8
29. danoboss_fs – 3

Judges:

Prizes:

1st place – Cup for 1st place
2nd place – Cup for 2nd place
3rd place – Cup for 3rd place