articles : "Match My Trick" contest 01
A street comp. Everyone else in the world is having one, so why not we? Well, that was how it started, from a few random messages on the kjrollers message board to the event that was the MMT (Match My Trick) Ballz Street Competition (trust me, if we ever do have another street competition, that name is the first thing to go, on that note, you guys out there should give us suggestions for an appropriate name for the next one.)
Anyway, the date was set for the 10th of February, the venue - the infamous KJ Park. On a side note, the event was planned last minute, one week before the actual date, talk about a rush job. We relied on word of mouth and the prizes (USD, K2, Roces, Universal Music swag) to bring the crowd in.
Expectations were low, with only an expected 15 or so skaters to compete, but we were overwhelmed with over 25 rollers hoping to join. In the end we settled for 24, as it would make splitting into groups a whole lot easier. The final roster was the who's who of rollers in the Klang Valley with skaters from Kelana Jaya, Ampang, Subang Jaya, Shah Alam, Kajang, Bangsar, the park rats from Midvalley and tons more I didn't quite recognize. In typical Malaysian fashion, the 3pm event ended up starting at 4:30, but it was cool because skaters made use of the delay to warm up and get used to the ledges where the first heat was to be held.
A little bit about the rules; skaters are broken up into 4 groups of 6 skaters, each given 10 minutes to show what they got in a jam session style, meaning a free for all. Judges are made up of other competitors and are given ballot sheets to vote. Top two in each group makes it into the finals, which is a best trick competition, with skaters taking turn and winners are judged by their individual tricks rather than overall impression.
The heats went off with a bang with skaters more familiar with the KJ ledges shining, which was a little unsettling, almost half of the finalists are KJ Park regulars. As one of the organizers and being from KJ myself, I was rather uncomfortable with that outcome, fearing accusation of favoritism. But hey, what can you do, you set out to find the best, so what if the locals perform better, it IS a best man wins comp. Anyway, to appease my conscience I vowed that I'd try my darnest to make sure that the next comp is held in a different venue giving everyone equal opportunities. Back to the comp, I don't really like telling people play by play of comps, so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. Highlights from the first round are Ezra's selamba misty flips on the seven stair, Bala's confident switch-ups on his home turf ledges and Boy's making sure that he covers all his bases by touching almost everything on the course.