Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Top post painting: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... -neck.html

I love these NYT breakdowns of art.  There's so much detail in them, and so much to learn.  Makes me miss going to museums.  These days the most risk I'm willing to assume is running into the grocery store at non-peak hours while wearing a mask and getting out in less than 5 minutes.  I miss a lot of stuff about pre-pandemic times.  Not being able to play in an air conditioned gym has made this Worlds filming period super brutal, since the heat and smoke just don't seem to go away.

Worlds filming...has been tough.  Really really tough.  I focused 90% of my energy on Shred Off, since that's the event where my body and camera are least likely to overheat.  I had some bad luck ending up in the pool with the top seed for the event, but my previous rounds weren't great due to my playing conditions so it wasn't a total surprise either.  Once I saw I was in the pool with Honza I decided to go all out, because I figured it'd lead to one of two outcomes:

1. I upset Honza and go back to Shred Off finals.  
2. I don't upset Honza, but I go out on a strong note with a 2 minute video I can be proud of.

I think this was the right decision, but man it almost killed me trying to get 2 good minutes of footage.  Several sessions where I finished with a headache or dry heaving, several clips that didn't film due to camera overheating, and several clips I had to refilm on other days due to poor video quality from the smoke.  I got the results this morning and Honza beat me, but I feel very proud of my submission.  Especially given the conditions I had to play/shoot in to get it.



I didn't touch Shred30 until after my Shred Off footage was submitted since I knew the deadline was later, making it a lower priority.  I worked on it a bit this weekend and feel like I just need one lucky run.  Ideally I'd plan it all out and make it through the 30 seconds with no improv, but now I'm thinking I should make it as far as I can following my plan, and once I start losing control just close out the remainder of time focusing on not dropping.  I have until Friday to get something shot, though I also have work (and a sick kid again) between now and then so we'll see if I can get a submission together.  We're all competing for silver, since Vasek apparently cracked 280.  I don't see myself getting there even on a good day.

On the topic of barely submitting something on time, I woke up last Friday still without any routine shot.  Work got pretty crazy in the morning so I thought it likely I'd have to scratch from routines entirely.  Then out of the blue Mathieu pings me on Discord.  He tells me Nathan is scratching and he encourages me to just film anything, as I could probably limp into finals even with a crappy intermediate routine.  I decide he's probably right so I went out and tried to film something.  My legs were heavy from all the ShredOff pushes of the past week, and it was hot as hell out.  I set a time limit for myself, and mercifully was able to hit an easy dropless routine on my 3rd try.   I got the results this morning and it looks like Mathieu was right; I was able to limp into Finals with it.  Now the million dollar question is what am I going to do for finals?  I don't have anything prepared, and my playing situation doesn't look like it's getting any better... the smoke has cleared a bit, but the heat is still brutal, and now it looks like I have a sick kid to deal with too. 

Oh yeah, Shred30 is due tomorrow at midnight and I don't even have a backup fimed.  Yipes.

[boyle]

I remember trying to play in the smoke when we had fires around and the start of last year, it wasn't pleasant. It's a challenging little time to get things done but as well continue with the day to day of work and kids and all that life stuff. I think we should all give us selves a pat on the back just for getting something in!

[Tjuggles]

Haha, it is almost comical how things have come crashing down on all of us. I agree with Daniel; great work us just getting something in. I am the same as you Ken; no shred 30 filmed yet. I think I am just gonna do different drills, try to get as many uniques as I can, and call it a day. If I were in your shoes, I would probably not spend too much energy on shred30, just get something filmed (or even scratch), and focus on finals.

I think my goal for next year is to plan for another online worlds, and be more methodic in practicing for the events. In other words, start planning months in advance. I like the focus that worlds brings to my practice schedule.

[cammel]

That shred off RO16 video turned out great! Super impressive with all the challenges you have this year. Sorry my state is dumping smoke on you! It has started coming to the Bay Area these last few days, maybe that will mean it lets up on you.

While smoke doesn't loop with itself, you could do smoke-haze drill. That'd be pretty neat actually.

I like this idea of linking fire-related footbag moves into drills, maybe a footbag offering to the fire gods will help Blaze > Smoke > Firewalk > rpt?
Appreciate you all putting in the effort to compete this year, I'm excited to see the finals!

[acxel22]

Yeah its rough here too, been trying my routine in 98 degrees yesterday, today if I don’t succeed I will start playing at 5am the remaining days, but that means cutting sleep

[C-Fan]

The big news is that the filming period for Worlds is now officially over. We're now in that weird Schrodinger's zone for the next week or so where results have not been announced, but we also can't do anything to change our fate either. So like for routines, I feel like I'm simultaneously in 10th place and on the podium at the same time.

This was a really weird Worlds for me. Thanks to the catharsis of my good results last year, I felt much less pressure to do well this year. At the same time, I also felt logistically way more handcuffed due to the heatwave and wildfire smoke. I was also hoping to have fewer equipment problems than last year, but ended up having about the same (3 GUnits completely failed on me in the past 10 days). So basically I didn't NEED to compete well this year, but I still wanted to...and that's why it was super frustrating to feel like I couldn't. As Dan and TJ and others have said though, I think we deserve some credit at least for trying. I know I personally considered scratching from every event at some point, but never did. That's worth something.

Sorry my state is dumping smoke on you! It has started coming to the Bay Area these last few days, maybe that will mean it lets up on you.

I think most of what crushed us in Colorado actually came from the Oregon fires? Either way it was brutal. In good news, the smoke drastically improved over the past week. The bad news of course is most of my Worlds prospects were hurt by the smoke in the time before that. The only event where I'm helped by the smoke reduction is routines. I had a good 5 days before the deadline where I could play smoke-free and only had to worry about the heat. I'm proud to report I actually took 1.5 days off of work during this window JUST so I could focus on getting a better finals routine shot. It was still hard work, but I think if the smoke had continued there's no way I could get through 2 minutes of choreo.

I like this idea of linking fire-related footbag moves into drills, maybe a footbag offering to the fire gods will help

Oof I am so so so done with smoke and fire. If I'm gonna do any drills now it should be with phoenix, to symbolize rebirth from a fire.

Now that Worlds is done I like the idea of just playing footbag lightly for fun. Unfortunately, I don't have a single pair of G-Units in playable shape now. I guess I could take them back to the shoe repair guy I used last year so he can restitch the soles back on and replace some of the insteps. But it feels like a temporary fix at best. Maybe I can look into those Reebok shoes Kemmer was talking about on Discord. The Reebok Vector? Need to look into them. I'm also tempted to do some skateboarding, but maybe it'd be smarter to wait until the heat breaks in the fall before I do that.

[boyle]

It's really amazing how far the smoke can travel and how strong it can remain. When we had the fires here last year, the smoke was actually at that worst in the world level when the fires were not in this area. Later in the fire season we had fires reasonably close by, but barely any smoke around.

Good luck for the finals!

[C-Fan]

Worlds 2021 is over but in a weird way it doesn't feel to me like much has changed.  I guess that's because it never really felt like Worlds 2021 started for me.  Between the smoke and heat of the wildfires and my shoes constantly falling apart, I never felt like I was actively competing in a tournament the way I did last year.  This weird feeling of Worlds never really starting or ending makes it hard for me to process the event with any sense of closure.  Which is weird, since this Worlds in many ways is a bit of a bookend on my footbag career.

I don't think I'll have time to go into deep analysis of the tournament as a whole, so here are a few flashpoint impressions I had from the tournament:

Vasek hitting 300 in Shred30 was awesome.  Another historic feather in his cap as the GOAT.
Loved seeing Tina A do a routine again. Such a pleasure to watch her perform.
I really liked the idea of having artistic count for 70% of routines score.  In practice it doesn't appear it was implemented at all, but I hope they do eventually do it.
I loved seeing so many competitors from outside of North America and Europe.  When I started playing 24 years ago, the sport was 98% white dudes from America or Europe.  I'm glad we've made a little progress with diversity.
Shredwise Josh Gayhart was the standout of this tournament for me.  I felt that way about Jakub Worek last year.
I liked some of the things they did to condense the length of the final show, like only showing the podium entries for some of the smaller events.

On a more personal level, I didn't have my best results in competition this year but I'm also not disappointed either.  Given the conditions I had to work with it's a minor miracle I didn't scratch from any of the events.  There were a lot of times I thought I would have to, so I'm proud that I pushed through and submitted entries in every event even if it didn't represent what I'm capable of at my best.  

The other way I'm processing my 2021 results is by being conscious of what I compare them to.  Sure, if I compare this year's results to last year (literally my best tournament ever) I'm going to be disappointed.  But if I compare my 2021 results against my 2017 results, or against the possibility that 2021 Worlds never happens due to the pandemic, then I'm pretty happy.  Were my playing conditions ideal this year?  No.  Would I take competing in them over not competing at all?  Hell yes.

I normally love the period of time right after Worlds ends, as I can enjoy the rest of summer just shredding with no competition pressure.  This year is a bit different though, since I barely made it through Worlds with working shoes, and now I have nothing I can play in.  I literally had 4 pairs of G-Units fail on me during the month of competition, and my backup new pair ended up not fitting me because the size was mislabeled.  Heck, in the middle of my finals routine you can literally see me stop to tuck in the outstep of my right g-unit back into the sole.  The previous session my left outstep popped out, and the session before that my other left g-unit had the same problem.  Even if I get them repaired, I know they're just going to fall apart again since they're so damn old.  I think my best chance to keep playing is to get a new shoe (i.e. manufactured in the past few years) and learn to play in them.

Here's my finals routine, which is also my last time competing in routines:

On one hand I'm disappointed it finished so low in the standings (7th is my worst finals finish in 5 appearances), but on the other hand I'm proud to go out with a dropless routine with strong choreo and control.  

[acxel22]

Even if 7th you left routines in the stylest way, hard to beat that!

I was debating calling it quits as well for routines but I would love to make an in person finals one day, even if many curse me now for shred30

Looking forward to see you in other events tough, and curiously gonna check that gamer youtube channel occasionally

[boyle]

I think we will see you again, despite you current comments. It's like when a band breaks up and they play shows again soon enough.

"This is our last ever show, ever since our last ever show last week"

I think it's a big deal to get competing in all the events and do well. I competed in all the events and did not do well.

What's interesting though - if you look say at Berlin 2009, where you didn't reach the finals, but were close - your routine was pretty good there - how would you compare this routine to that one (let's say in heats, dropless).

It's a huge deal the amount of new-ish players that are coming in through this online format. It would be interesting to consider what an online format would have done for someone like Lynton Stephens back in the day - though if you go that far back it would come to access issues.

I think the online format is pretty good, but I have a feeling there was a "second year syndrome" - you know how when a rookie comes out and they are amazing, but then the next season everyone has figured them out and they can't quite recapture that form.

Just want to say great job - you've certainly had some obstacles to overcome.

[Tjuggles]

Happy Holidays, Ken. I hope you are well.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Hit this link the other day that you inspired

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m48GqaOz90

[CIC flurry]

Hit this link the other day that you inspired

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m48GqaOz90

LMAO!