Congratulations to Martti Kuoppa just winning an intense final battle with Matthias Dandois to be crowned the Flatark 2015 World Champion in Kobe, Japan! 40K goes to the Boss, what an amazing contest to watch live.
Congratulations to Martti Kuoppa just winning an intense final battle with Matthias Dandois to be crowned the Flatark 2015 World Champion in Kobe, Japan! 40K goes to the Boss, what an amazing contest to watch live.
Absolutely amazing! Martti was another level in the final, well deserved!
The boss is back, he destroy the expected in the final round, what a og
Epic final battle, congrats to Martti and inspiring words in interview with Catfish.
$8k per stemlash, loving it
Martti our epic man, well deseerved win and congrats big time, friend!
Such an incredible event – so outrageously exciting. Everyone smashed it.
So happy to do not be in flatland anymore. Are u kidding me guys, MK didnt desserve the win, its the biggest stole ever.
He had to loose against Dez, and what about his battle against DUB…Be honest, DUB had to win for 100% sure…
Pure shit !
So first place paid out 5 million yen? That’s around $42k, that’s a HUGE win for any pro flatland comp, fantastic news. I was under the impression that most pro comps paid out about 500 bucks split between first and third….congrats to Martti..
It’s impossible，mk is good！but this is competition！dz&dub finished so many tricks and combos， MK canT win all competition with one trick！ faltland need fair ！not about，this is not competition it was show，you cant win competition because you are famous，for hardcore riders its not fair， they shit on your hardcore tricks andjudges are joking but for many ridders this competition WAS big thing，
The power of simplicity 🙂
I was only only able to see the semi finals until the final but amazing riding from everyone. Congratulations to Martti on taking the win! 5-stem lashes is insane especially in a contest run. Respect!
The interview after with MK was really inspiring, very humble guy! Well done again Martti!!
how MK can be in qualifications 8th and dub 2nd, then MK won with DUB with same tricks… MK did it crazy but you cant win all the competition with one single trick.
After announcing that uchie won against alex, matthias was in a hurry for a revenge. Ahahah epic!!!!
Robbed.
If you can do 2 stem lashes of course you can do 5, Dub, Dez, Viki and Matthias all smashed MK.
Stem 5, drops to peg manual… and then bails out of the peg manual. And still wins…my god. The xfoot hitch switch he does as one trick, that DOM turns up and drops mid combo.
I came to watch people kill it. Martti did not
And I’m sure lots of others would have those tricks if it wasn’t seen as a sign of disrespect to the boss. But they look gimmicky, un-stylish and not overly fun to do.
As far as I can think, this is the best come back I’ve ever seen in BMX?
Crazy contest! I take my hat off to Martti for the win and to all the other finalists! The Martti vs Dub battle was insane; poor judges, most of all the last one, it looked like he really hated the system for not being able to call it a draw.
And regarding the ‘if you can do 2, you can do 5’ comment … IMHO, as somebody who struggles since years with a lot easier whiplash combos, it actually does make a big difference if you pull 2 or 5, especially in an ultra high-pressure final like this one; but that’s just my 2 cents. Anyway, cheers and thanks to all the riders for those incredible runs.
Yeah nice contest but for me the judging system was not fair, especially the battle between Dub & Martti, Du deserves to win, obviously ! Cool to see Martti is back, but Dub was stolen…
Hard to take this contest seriously after seeing 3-2 in Marttis favor against Dub. The same thing happened last year with Dub v. Ucchie and yanmar being the anchor judge both years?
Chris K – cheers – To elaborate “can do 2 can do 5”. I should have said what I meant.
Other riders were doing a variety of switches front and back, rather that a one concept/trick repeated in a few ways.
I’m sure Dub could have turbined those pedal junk yards 20 times.
Or Matthias pumping any position over and over.
I think Dez had the win over martti too
If there was a variety criteria to the judging I’m sure things would have been different.
Should be judge on what you do on the floor not your past, or Status
Amazing performance from the greatest of all time. 5 stemlashes at maximum pressure is legendary. No low risk options at all. Refreshing and inspiring
The event was entertaining and thanks to all the guys for the amazing talent they all shared! The results and judging are questionable. It’s time for flatland to grow up a bit and standardize on a set judging criteria. MK’s stuff is insanely hard, but difficulty should only be one factor. Flatland is so much more. The number of tricks in a run should count. The overall style of the run should count. It’s way more than difficulty, originality, and execution. The qualifying results looked more realistic than the finals and should have carried over with any one of the top 4 or 5 potentially taking it. Dez & Dub were really snubbed in my opinion. If MK has mixed that stuff into a more complete run with a lot more links and other tricks mixed in…then maybe. I have been judging flat events for well over 25 years and there is work to be done folks! If we ever want the outside world to take flatland seriously, then we have to start doing many things differently!
Lots of top notch riding! Congrats Martti: All his own tricks I think,maybe except perv. Rolaid !?
This is what everyone complaining sounds like to me: “Wan! Why didn’t Martti do all the turbine and spin tricks that everyone else is doing? I’ve been riding for two whole years and that’s what’s cool! You can’t win if you don’t do what other people have been doing to win for the past few years! It’s outrageous! Sniffle, sniffle”
Seriously, I don’t mean to disrespect any of the riders. There was a ton of great riding that went down and folks should be proud of what they did. But who can really talk? Go ahead and try and learn the tricks of the top four finishers even and then tell us what is the hardest thing to do under that kind of pressure. I bet if you ever come close to doing a part of one of the tricks Martti did you will change your tune. The same people who are the first to scream: “It’s called ‘freestyle’ for a reason” when it comes to the freedom to bite tricks are also the first to try and tell others what counts for winning at a contest (with the main criteria typically being: whatever they happen to like or is trendy at the moment). Martti has done more original tricks in a month than most of us will ever do. The level of whining and disrespect for his skill and what he has done and continues to do for flatland reveals a deep ignorance in these critics.
Clearly, even the judges were split on a couple of the battles. This means that no one was “robbed” of anything…they were close battles and riders with more experience, understanding, and credibility then many of us thought differently about who won a battle when faced with some very different styles. No matter how much effort is put into making flatland competition ‘objective’ it will never fully be that. I saw Moto winning his semi but I wouldn’t say he got robbed–it was a close battle and they both rode very well. Competition is a risk. You go out there, try to hit your stuff and you submit yourself to your peers to judge you against someone else. And pretty much every time, egos get bruised (and fanboys get heartbroken) when people believe themselves to be ‘better’ than their peers and yet they don’t end up winning. It’s so predictably reliable that you could set your watch to it. I’m not saying big upsets never happen but be honest with yourself, by what criteria are you really being critical? And are you applying that criticism fairly across the board? Or are you really just upset because a rider that rides a way that you happen to like didn’t get the placing that you thought they should simply because you like what they do better? That’s not objective in the slightest.
Piss OFF Brandon F
They should be judge on what they do at the moment.
Not on what they have done. Or done for the sport.
Hes a legend give him a few extra points.
Same dudes complaining about these contest results probably also thought the Heresy edit was boring as hell.
Flatland critics: in 3, 2, 1 go! Ahaha JK
I just hope that everyone knows the hardness, originality, uniqueness and the pressure of tricks that the boss is putting in the table. I admit he is not my favorite rider to date, but what he showed in that contest is pure natural feel, spreading all his new bangers and the enjoyment of riding flatland again in big contest is priceless.
With all our respect, Hands down to martti for showing flatland is all about creativity and uniqueness.
the boss is back!
i wish flatland had never turned into a competitive sport. how can you judge martti vs Dub, that’s impossible….and furthermore it makes no sense, apparently riders are each battling against themselves rather against one another. Competitions are for sponsors may be ?? i’m sure most riders don’t enjoy comps…
As someone that was standing on the stage watching this all unfold live. I have to say the thing with contests is there is always going to be someone who wins and those who lose. Dub is my favorite rider and I’m glad I was not a judge but I can assure you if there was a score for these guys the numbers would be a .00000001 difference, all the guys are champions. Like it or not, understand it or not Mk brought a very difficult new concept of riding to a contest that’s focus is strongly based on originality. He also brought something that most people will never get, a level of execution, precision, and composure that is truly that of a champion. Lots of people deserve the title of champion but on this day Marrti deservingly so earned that title.
I agree
with that
It’s all about the bangers for me, & MK stole it on that alone.
Both Brandon and James made some good valid points. I see it from both sides. I still have some strong feelings about improving / standardizing on some core judging criteria though. I think it would help improve the sport in the long run. I simply want to see the sport progress to a point where there is better money in it for the pros who so well deserve to be able to make a really good living at it. For too many years I’ve seen guys barely getting by at the top of the sport. It should not be that way. All of the top riders are just amazing athletes and outstanding performers and if we take ourselves a bit more seriously, I think the world around us may very well do the same. I’m not talking about commercialization to the point that it takes away from it. But, to some degree that it leads to a better life and income for all of the top riders around the world. Some level of evolution at the core is going to be needed. For competitions, I think that starts with standardizing on judging criteria. But that is just one small part of it. There is room for improvement across the board in many other areas as well.
Only watched a few bits and pieces of the semi and finals clips since I’m at work, but in a close contest, I can see the deciding factor for Martti winning being just sheer difficulty (along with any originality considerations he earned for his stem based tricks). If you think that’s unfair, consider this: we’re now seeing clips of kids 10 years old or less busting out long turbine steam combos and time machines, etc. What we aren’t seeing (at least not yet… lol) are kids that age kickflipping steamrollers into crackpackers or standing on stems brakeless. This isn’t a shot at pro riders that have turbine oriented tricks and links on lockdown, but this should at least shed some light on 1) the difference in conceptual difficulty between Martti and the other riders, and 2) just how far ahead Martti was when he invented some of his tricks that they can either hold up (or even surpass) what’s popular now in terms of contest runs. If you don’t count the years when he had to revert back to a more basic pinkie/mccircle style of riding due to injuries, the stuff Martti was doing back in the Intrikat videos from the late 90’s – early 2000’s easily stands up to today’s contest level. Now that he’s able to do those tricks again apparently and put them into a contest run with a new concept in tricks that he is currently leading the way in, I expect to see even more top finishes for him if he sticks to competing. God forbid he start unleashing things like Hang 10’s jump switched straight into crackpackers on all the turbine kids… lol. Personally, I love every style of flat riding out there, but I’m glad folks got rattled by tricks like these winning a comp… innovators like Martti, Alex J., the Heresy crew, the Melo Bros, Mateus Beckmann, etc. are bringing it hard to flat, and it’s good to see judges acknowledging that originality.
the composure.the stem.the boss
MK not only did pritty much only tricks he invented but also switches between them, and pulled them all off consitantly under imence pressure!
If you have never invented a trick before you won’t know how much harder it is than just copying or adding slightly to something already done.
The judges had a hard job but acknowledged this, it couldn’t of gone to anyone more deserving!
Tanto rispetto per MK ovviamente, ma il risultato è ridicolo. Come è stato notato ha fatto sempre gli stessi trick dall’inizio della gara. Trick difficili quanto si vuole, ma piuttosto noiosi. L’ho sempre ammirato da decenni ma qui dopo la seconda battle in cui lo vedevo girare volevo chiudere, era quasi umiliante.
Praticamente quasi tutti gli altri rider meritavano più di lui. Ovviamente doveva perdere contro DUB, che ha fatto una gara incredibile (e si badi che io questo DUB non l’avevo mai visto girare prima).
Davvero buffo, i giudici hanno scelto solo in base alla difficoltà, come se non ci fossero altri criteri da seguire. Davvero buffo e disdicevole.
Dandois incredibile, divertente e fortissimo. Combo indicibili nella loro grandezza, new school legata alle origini, flat con street. Assurdo.