Pen Spinning World Tournament 2007

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The Pen Spinning World Tournament 2007 started on the 19th of February, 2007. It was organized by CrAsH from UCPSB and won by KTH.[1]

History

On January 4th 2007, CrAsH posted a UCPSB thread titled 'World Pen Spinning Tournement?' where he explained that he wanted to organize a 'world spinning tournament', having spoken with members from FPSB and PDS about the concept.[2] He had also consulted Bonkura from JEB about judging and prizes, with the suggestion being for the prize pool to contain a pen mod from each participating community. Bonkura had also suggested merging the tournament with a potential 'universal' Collaboration Video, but this did not go forward.

After the first round's videos were submitted, the criteria needed to be adjusted due to controversy over the 'Speed' criterion. It was replaced with 'Style'.

Eriror's performance was considered notably impressive for the time, with victories against spinners such as Cloud Traveler, who was once considered the strongest spinner in the world, and Bonkura, another favorite. KTH on the other hand had a surprising run. Originally not even competing before being brought in as a substitute for the spinner Fingerpass who had suffered an injury, he was considered one of the weaker korean spinners in the tournament. Surprisingly, he managed pull ahead of the rest of his community in the earlier rounds. Another surprise was from FPSB's Banz, who at 11 months of experience only defeated Taeryong, a famous early korean spinner, in the first round and later JEB's Key3.[3]

By the end of the tournament only 6 of the original 8 judges remained, and the final round was an upset win by KTH. Eriror had been favored to win for the round due to his 2p2h combo, but an anomalously low result from one of the judges led to KTH winning by 5 points.

One of the most valuable prizes being prepared was a custom insert signed by numerous famous spinners, including Bonkura, Kam, nhk_9, Mr.LSC and KiT-CaT. It is unknown if it ever made it to KTH, as the last mention of it shows it on the way to KiT-CaT[4].

Scoring System

The initial scoring system consisted of four criteria, each scored from 0-10:

  • Smoothness
  • Speed
  • Difficulty
  • Creativity

The scores from the 8 total judges were added to give a final score out of 320.

The Speed criterion was criticized early on and was removed by the 23rd of February, 2007. However, this was after results for the first round had started coming back, so the first round combos were judged on speed. This resulted in spinners such as Bonkura getting unexpectedly low scores. Speed was replaced with Style for the remainder of the competition.

Tournament structure

The competition consisted of four rounds of single elimination to reduce the 80 participants down to 5. Then a group phase was held with the remaining spinners to split them into the top 2 and remaining 3.

The final round consisted of a battle for third place among the lower three spinners and a battle for World Champion among the top two.

Participants

Eight communities took part. From the archived original website:[5]

FPSB GPC JEB KitCat PDS Penzone SweSpin UCPSB
  • Schwede
  • DaZogga
  • Nomed
  • Emenai
  • Maniok
  • Samuirai
  • Spin
  • Sidious
  • Moerkedal
  • Movie Raid
  • Nicky
  • Nervous
  • Cw14
  • Vincent Leest
  • ChuBao
  • CYL
  • Stephen
  • MokYin
  • Deity
  • KitCat
  • Sing~
  • LAM
  • Edwin
  • Eric.C
  • Harvey
  • Vick
  • X1213
  • Pang
  • AJ
  • Leo
  • DeFlare
  • Swe_Empa
  • Yiep
  • Pe/Pdr
  • Zaazu
  • Eirie/Erkan
  • Sfsr
  • Alan
  • Ceedgee
  • Wlid
  • Eriror
  • Donk3y
  • Eso
  • Ivan the terrible
  • Toasty
  • Blackhero
  • Sathon
  • Flip
  • MAA
  • Zblader

Results

Winners of rounds are in bold.

Round 1

  • Harvey vs Aki-maru
  • Spin vs Ivan the terrible
  • Banz vs Taeryong
  • Nomed vs Nervous
  • Vincent Leest vs Skatox
  • Blackhero vs Pe/Pdr
  • Val vs Nicky
  • Vision vs ShaHell
  • Eric.C vs Key3
  • Coochun vs Pang
  • Erie/Erkan vs AJ
  • DaZogga vs Hanataro_7
  • Movie Raid vs KTH
  • Nagi vs Samuirai
  • Flip vs Schwede
  • DeFlare vs Emenai
  • LAM vs cw14
  • Winter vs Uriel
  • ChuBao vs MoerKedal
  • Cloud Traveler vs Edwin
  • CYL vs Sorez
  • Fratleym vs Maniok
  • Ayatori vs MokYin
  • Toast vs DaftSystem
  • Swe_Empa vs Leo
  • A_Qui vs Sfsr
  • zblader vs Scelus
  • Sing~ vs Yiep
  • Bonkura vs Nanna
  • Sidous vs Stephen
  • Donk3y vs Mouquette
  • Cheukii vs KitCat
  • MAA vs Mizm
  • Zaazu vs X1213
  • Alan vs Dopamine
  • Sathon vs ps-728
  • Ceedgee vs RYO
  • gollumsk8 vs Eso
  • Vick vs Wlid
  • Eriror vs Deity

Round 2

  • Vision vs Ayatori
  • Yiep vs Hanataro_7
  • Scelus vs Cloud Traveler
  • Stephen vs Key3
  • Banz vs Aki-maru
  • Dopamine vs KTH
  • Ivan the Terrible vs Skatox
  • Schwede vs X1213
  • DaftSystem vs Bonkura
  • Emenai vs Leo
  • Uriel vs Mouquette
  • LAM vs Val
  • Coochun vs A_Qui
  • Blackhero vs Mizm
  • Cheukii vs Sorez
  • Nagi vs Nomed
  • ChuBao vs Fratleym
  • AJ vs Eriror
  • ps-728 vs RYO
  • gollumsk8 vs Vick

Round 3

  • Gollumsk8 vs Coochun
  • Leo vs Nagi
  • X1213 vs Ayatori
  • Hanataro_7 vs KTH
  • ps-72 vs Sorez
  • Frayleym vs Val
  • Key3 vs Banz
  • Mizm vs Bonkura
  • Eriror vs Cloud Traveler
  • Skatox vs Uriel

Round 4

  • Ayatori vs KTH
  • Uriel vs ps-728
  • Eriror vs Bonkura
  • gollumsk8 vs Banz
  • Fratleym vs Leo

Round 5

5 man group phase to split into finalists and runner-ups.

Finalists:

  • KTH
  • Eriror

Runner-ups:

  • Fratleym
  • Banz
  • ps-728

Round 6

Results from finalist battle and third place match:

  1. KTH
  2. Eriror
  3. Fratleym
  4. Banz
  5. ps-728

In the media

CrAsH had starred in an article for the Metro, a UK free newspaper with a readership of about 4 million. The article can still be found here. He had also appeared on the ITV television channel to talk about the World Tournament. The entire news segment can no longer be found, but clips of it still exist. Clip 1 Clip 2 Clip 3

References