Japanese Footbag Champs 2020

[C-Fan]

Looks like JFC is going to be held online this year, similar to how Worlds was done. It appears a lot more detail will be coming out on September 6, but for now it looks like the key dates are:

September 6: rules announced
September 6-October 31: period for submitting video entries
November 3: results announced

Also appears they are still figuring out what events they are doing. But as of right now, there are 3 official events:

Shred30
Sick 3
Drill contest

And unofficially Sick One, as well as a video contest?

Also not clear if this is only open to Japanese players, or if anybody can participate.

Drawing my info from here: https://www.facebook.com/events/347383383090422

and here: http://www.footbag.jp/jfc/2020/

[Tjuggles]

This is great! Glad to see them adapting to the current situation.

[C-Fan]

More details released today:http://footbag.jp/jfc/2020/

Also not clear if this is only open to Japanese players, or if anybody can participate.

Looks like it's open to anybody who currently lives in Japan. That's pretty cool. That means TJ or me could have competed when we lived there. I'm not sure if I'm aware of any foreign footbaggers living in Japan at the moment, but I'm still pleased they phrased it the way they did. More inclusive than saying "Japanese nationals only."

[C-Fan]

[Tjuggles]

Wow there are a handful of people I have never seen. Great! Plus, one of them hit rubberman! Also great to see Zen-san continue to shred. Plus he hit spender! Oh man I can't wait to kick with them sometime. Thanks for this Ken, made my night.

[boyle]

Do you guys think an Asia- Pacific online tournament would have legs? I was impressed with the Chinese performance in the worlds online stuff, Japan has had a consistently good scene in along time - I think we could also use "family" rules to allow others - someone like Ken could compete in the event.

I'm thinking of running one regardless of if it's a good idea or not.

This is my top 10 Asia Pacific players, if the comp was to happen tomorrow

I think you could get a good cut of Japanese players, Chinese players, a couple from Aus and NZ, then there'd be a couple of heritage players - of the top of my head I can't think of any aside from Ken - could someone like Sunil compete on heritage basis? - Mr Vu (x2). There's also opportunity for guys who are more into freestyle football - aside from the obvious Japanese "La Classic" guys, you have Khoa in Vietnam, Ariff Karim in Malaysia. I've got it in my mind I'd like to run this, but I would hope for it to be a serious competition with some sponsorship, prize money etc. I think there's actually more potential in that Asian market than anywhere else to run something like this.

*This is more like something I would write in my own blog, but still relevant thoughts to the idea.

[C-Fan]

Do you guys think an Asia- Pacific online tournament would have legs?

I think the main challenge you'd have is communication. The Chinese players didn't have great English communication ability at Worlds 2017, so you'd probably need somebody bilingual to ensure word gets out and that rules are understood. Same kinda goes for the Japanese players... TJ or I could likely help you out. On a related note, you might want to keep the rules super simple to increase the chances people understand and follow them.

then there'd be a couple of heritage players - of the top of my head I can't think of any aside from Ken - could someone like Sunil compete on heritage basis? - Mr Vu (x2)

Sunil is basically retired, as is Tu Vu. Tuan probably still plays net, but I'd be surprised if he'd come out for freestyle. The heritage concept becomes a bit of a slippery slope too, regarding where you'd draw the line. There are Americans whose parents immigrated from Scandinavia, or who themselves may have come to the US as children, who are essentially immediately treated as Americans despite their recent immigrant past. On the flipside, there are Japanese-American and Chinese-American families that have been on America's west coast dating back to the 1800s who are STILL not treated as Americans (e.g. "where are you from?") purely because they look asian, which is a bit racist and must drive them crazy.

In the abstract, I am always in favor of more online tournaments, even if I can't participate in them. At a minimum they generate more recent footage for me to watch, which I always welcome.