A. Eligibility
1. The competition is open to any player in the world.
2. Registration
Pre-registration online is highly recommended. Deadline to pre-register is October 11. Fill form here: link
Registration at the venue before 4PM the day of contest is possible if there are time slots left for freestyling. If slots are full, no more competitors will be accepted.
3. Cost. Registration is free for ITSA members. If not a current full ITSA member, pre-registration is €10 (to be paid at the venue.) Registration at the venue is €25 (if slots are still available).
4. Qualification. The organizers reserve the option of requiring a short demo backstage to verify that the player has the minimum skills to be on stage.
B. Divisions
1- Open freestyle
2- Traditional top freestyle
Players will be able two register to both freestyles (just one registration fee), in which case they will have to perform to distinct routines to different music.
C. Music
1. The players will provide a 3-minute music track for each performance. Please, email an mp3 file to worlds2024@spintops.org. Also bring music in person in a flash drive to the contest. The music should be appropriate for all audiences.
D. Copyright and liability
1. The player grants ITSA the irrevocable and unlimited right, without compensation, to broadcast and use the video of the performance, as well as photos taken during the contest, to promote the association goals.
2. The player acknowledges that this is a physical activity and as such involves the risk of injury and exonerates the organizers of liability for accidents that might occur during the contest.
E. Open Freestyle Rules
1. It consists of a freestyle to music with a duration of up to 3 minutes.
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 stage to retrieve them nor can the tops be returned by other people. All tops used must be wound by the player, no assistance will be permitted.
3. The winner will be the 2024 ITSA World Spintop Champion.
F. Traditional Style Freestyle Rules
1. It consists of a freestyle to music with a duration of up to 3 minutes.
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 present their tops for approval before going on the stage. 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 stage to retrieve them nor can the tops be returned by other people. All tops used must be wound by the player, no assistance will be permitted.
G. Open Freestyle Judging
1. Routines will be given a technical score of up to 85 points and a performance score of up to 15 points.
2. 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. 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.
3. 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. 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.
4. The final score will be the sum of the normalized technical and normalized performance scores, averaged over all the judges.
7. The winner will be the player who gets the maximum final score.
A tie is possible.
H. Traditional Style Freestyle Judging
1. Routines will be given a technical score of up to 70 points and a traditional performance score of up to 30 points.
2. 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. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. The performance score will be normalized for each judge so the highest score is 30.
6. The final score will be the sum of the normalized technical and normalized performance scores, averaged over all the judges.
7. The 2024 ITSA Online Traditional Freestyle Champion will be the player who gets the maximum final score. A tie is possible.
I. Situations not covered by the rules
The Judging Panel will make decisions on situations not covered by these rules.