A. Eligibility
1. Any player in the world can compete by submitting a video. Registration is free for ITSA members. If not a current full ITSA member, registration is $10 USD. In especial circumstances, registration fee might be waived to those who demonstrate economic hardship.
2. Players will be able to compete in more than one division with just one registration.
3. Players need to register as competitors at least 2 weeks before the video submission deadline.
B. Deadline
Players will upload online their videos before the deadline of Sunday, November 20th, 2022, local midnight.
C. Divisions
There will be the following divisions, provided that a minimum of 5 competitors enter each one:
1- Open freestyle (World Spintop Champion title)
2- Traditional top freestyle
3- Woman freestyle
4- Youth freestyle
D. Video Upload
1. The freestyle performances will be recorded from a single camera in one continuous take. The competitor should remain in the field of view the whole time. It is strongly recommended that it is recorded in landscape format. The quality should be good enough to see the tricks clearly.
2. Music can be live or added afterwards. However, it is strongly recommended that if music is added, live sound is also left and it is not completely covered by the music.
3. One performance per player per division entered will be uploaded to Youtube.com or Vimeo.com and published so it has a day stamp before the deadline. But it is recommended that it remains “unlisted” until the deadline. If entering more than one division, different routines should be submitted, except for Women and Youth titles.
4. Competitors should send a link to the video to the Judging Panel before the deadline.
SEND LINK TO worlds2022@spintops.org
5. The official logo should be printed and placed somewhere in view of the camera. If this is not possible it can be replaced by a sign saying 2022 World Spintop Online Contest. If this is not possible, it can be added as a title at the start of the video (it doesn’t count towards the 3 minute duration).
6. A review panel will first determine if the freestyles are of the minimum quality required for a World contest, and that they don’t break any rules, or for any reason cannot represent the contest (including inappropriate lyrics in the music). Routines found at fault will be disqualified.
7. The freestyles that are not disqualified will be posted by ITSA on its website no later than three days after the upload deadline.
8. The player grants ITSA the irrevocable and unlimited right, without compensation, to use the submitted video to promote the association goals.
E. Open Freestyle Rules
1. It consists of a freestyle to music with a duration of up to 3 minutes, but not less than 2 minutes. A routine longer than 3 minutes (plus a 5 second margin) will be automatically disqualified. The video itself might be a little longer, showing a few seconds before the start and after the end of the routine.
2. Any spinning top will be permitted, including fixed-tip, bearing-tip and one-way bearing tip, as well as over-sized tops. The number of spintops used or available for back-up is not limited, but the player cannot exit the view of the camera to retrieve them. All tops used must be wound by the player, no assistance will be permitted.
F. Traditional Style Freestyle Rules
1. It consists of a freestyle to music with a duration of up to 3 minutes, but not less than 2 minutes. A routine longer than 3 minutes (plus a 5 second margin) will be automatically disqualified. The video itself might be a little longer, showing a few seconds before the start and after the end of the routine.
2. A traditional top should be used, defined as one with the body made of solid wood (not hollowed) and that has a fixed tip made of metal. Some other variations that are traditional in a certain spinning top culture, such as a metal weight ring for komas, are acceptable. The competitors should send pictures of their traditional tops for approval by the Judging Panel. Modifications of the shape of the tip are allowed. The number of tops used or available for back-up is not limited, but the player cannot exit the view of the camera to retrieve them. All tops used must be wound by the player, no assistance will be permitted.
G. Woman Freestyle
1. Female players can have a freestyle considered for both the Open Freestyle Division and the Woman Freestyle Division or they can select to enter it to just one division.
2. Scoring will be identical to the Open Freestyle, except that for scoring the Woman Freestyle it will be normalized with respect to just the other women entering this division. So a freestyle entered in both the Open and Women divisions will have one raw score but two different normalized scores.
3. This will not be a World title.
H. Youth Freestyle
1. Players 13 years old and under can have a freestyle routine considered for both the Open Freestyle Division and the Youth Freestyle Division or they can select to enter it to just one division.
2. Scoring will be identical to the Open Freestyle, except that for scoring the Youth Freestyle it will be normalized with respect to just the other youth players entering this division. So a freestyle entered in both the Open and Youth divisions will have one raw score but two different normalized scores.
3. This will not be a World title.
I. Open Freestyle Judging
1. If there is a large number of participants, the judges may divide the routines between them, with at least 2 judges scoring each freestyle. In this case the highest 10 scores will then be scored by all the rest of the judges.
2. Routines will be given a technical score of up to 85 points and a performance score of up to 15 points.
3. The raw technical score will be calculated by adding the difficulty, originality and risk of each trick completed in the routine. It’s the judge decision if a combo trick qualifies as two tricks or one more difficult trick. In order to promote exceptional tricks compared to quantity of tricks, the judges may give double points to tricks that are spectacular and make the routine memorable. A typical score range is 1 to 6 points per trick, but because the scores of each individual judge will be normalized, it’s not important what scale the judges use, as long as they are consistent from player to player.
4. The raw technical scores of each judge will be normalized so the player that has the highest normalized score for that judge has 85 points. Therefore, the scores of the other players will be divided by the highest raw score and multiplied by 85.
5. The performance score will be assigned for showmanship and overall quality and interest of the performance. It will be normalized for each judge so the highest score is 15.
6. The final score will be the sum of the normalized technical and normalized performance scores, averaged over all the judges.
7. The ITSA World Freestyle Spintop Champion will be the player who gets the maximum final score. A tie is possible.
J. Traditional Style Freestyle Judging
1. If there is a large number of participants, the judges may divide the routines between them, with at least 2 judges scoring each freestyle. In this case the highest 10 scores will then be scored by all the rest of the judges.
2. If there are more than seven routines that use a Chonkakegoma for at least 2/3 of the routine they might be first judged by a panel of specialized judges. In this case, the first five routines will be pass to the final judging. The scores of those who do not pass the prelims will be normalized by the average final scores of those who go to the finals.
3. If there are more than seven routines that use a Colombian Trompo for at least 2/3 of the routine might be judged first by a panel of specialized judges. In this case, the first five routines will be pass to the final judging. The scores of those who do not pass the prelims will be normalized by the average final scores of those who go to the finals.
4. Routines will be given a technical score of up to 70 points and a traditional performance score of up to 30 points.
5. The raw technical score will be calculated by adding the difficulty, originality and risk of each trick completed in the routine. It’s the judge decision if a combo trick qualifies as two tricks or one more difficult trick. In order to promote exceptional tricks compared to quantity of tricks, the judges may give double points to tricks that are spectacular and make the routine memorable. A typical score range is 1 to 6 points per trick, but because the scores of each individual judge will be normalized, it’s not important what scale the judges use, as long as they are consistent from player to player.
6. The traditional style score will be given for showmanship and overall quality and interest of the performance. As part of the evaluation it will be taken into account how the selected cultural tradition of top play is represented. However, it is expected that the player will expand on traditional performances by creating new tricks and novel variations.
7 The raw technical scores of each judge will be normalized so the player that has the highest normalized score for that judge has 70 points. Therefore, the scores of the other players will be divided by the highest raw score and multiplied by 70.
8. The performance score will be normalized for each judge so the highest score is 30.
9. The final score will be the sum of the normalized technical and normalized performance scores, averaged over all the judges.
10. The ITSA Traditional Top Freestyle Champion will be the player who gets the maximum final score. A tie is possible.
K. Award Ceremony
The award ceremony will take place live on Sunday December 4th at 14:00 UTC (6:00 Los Angeles, 8:00 Mexico City, 9:00 Bogota, 15:00 Paris, 23:00 Tokyo).
At a minimum, trophies and medals will be sent to the first 3 placements in each division. The organizers may announce other prizes.
L. Situations not covered by the rules
The Review Panel, selected by ITSA, will make decisions on situations not covered by these rules.