[Durbs]

No thread?

Haven't watched the semis, but watched the finals live.
Entertaining as always, excellent podiums too. Shauna destroyed everything, Dave B giving Megos a run for his money - and nice to see him obviously thrilled with the win.

General thoughts:
Seemed a more international pack this year, though some "obvious" Europeans missing. Lots of wads are in Font at the moment I think (Kilian, Anna & Nalle to name a few), not sure where Jule & Jan are, but some competition for Shauna would've been nice, and I was surprised Michael Tracey wasn't there - Isn't the event a pre-world cup warm-up?
Isn't it called the "Quiff"/"Queef"? C-W-I-F seemed quite a mouthful...

Pros:
Good commentary, not sure who they were but good balance of entertaining and informative
Feed was fine for me - no lag
Women's problems did a good job of splitting the field, men's too, though not quite as well

Minor Cons:
Either use split screen, or stay with a climber for an entire attempt - switching between two climbers mid-attempt is frustrating and you often miss both key parts. Possibly harsh for the climbers, but once multiple people have flashed a route, perhaps switch to the other one if it's putting up more of a struggle.
Mens #1 & #4 seemed a little easy
Bit more lighting - seemed a bit dark at home (especially start of W4)

[Durbs]

Semis:


Finals:

[AlistairB]

I was surprised Michael Tracey wasn't there

Retired due to a shoulder injury in qualifiers, fingers crossed she recovers fast.

Would've been nice to see Shauna pushed a bit harder, yeah, very impressive performance though. Barrans vs. Megos was an excellent battle, Megos flashing the slab was a real masterclass. Very good looking problems all round I thought, nice mix of styles.

First year I've watched it in person, really enjoyed it. Only way that side of things could improve would be for the works to magically have more spectator space! The big screen helped a lot with that though.

[T_B]

My spies tell me Killian and Anna won't come because Killian "hates Percy's setting"!?

I think the standard in the qualifications was a notch up on last year judging by some of the results. I'm not sure if that was Euros though, it's just that there's loads of good climbers entering! And there were definitely more harder qualification problems, presumably to make it easier splitting the field at the top end and so that Megos didn't flash everything I guess that's an issue with the women's in that Shauna is so far in front, unless they have some more world-class women entering.

I missed the semis but watched the finals live stream. Well impressed with Dianne's performance. Megos just flows - it's as if he uses the least amount of effort required to do the problem i.e. climbing like a route climber on boulder problems. His foot slipped on one and it actually looked like he was applying some power for a second. Just amazing.

Great event, still buzzing from doing the quals.

[Neil F]

Pros:
Good commentary, not sure who they were but good balance of entertaining and informative...

You are joking aren't you Durbs?

I thought the main commentator was a complete tool, though that was mainly because he clearly wasn't a climber/boulderer, and had no concept of what it was he was actually watching. "What is a flash?".  "How do you improve 'grip strength'...?"  Quite why streamed competitions persist in hiring non-climbers to do the commentary is completely beyond me.

But the way he continually patronised the poor lass who had been roped in to be his co-commentator, when she (as someone who had done the qualifiers) clearly knew vastly more than him, was simply excruciating.   "There there dear, when you have my experience and become a proper commentator, you'll know better what to say..."

Just awful....

Neil

[tc]

Just how hard were those finals problems, grade-wise? A punterish question perhaps, but I'd love to know what the top guys and girls are capable of in the big comps these days.

[Durbs]

Pros:
Good commentary, not sure who they were but good balance of entertaining and informative...

You are joking aren't you Durbs?

Maybe I missed that bit - if it was the previous guy from other comps (Jonny?) - agree he was an idiot, but didn't seem to be bother me this time

[Wood FT]

I find him a bit Alan Partridge-esque so for me it was entertaining rather than annoying. Was the woman speaking Emma Twyford? If so he kept calling her Emily, ha. 

[tomtom]

Pros:
Good commentary, not sure who they were but good balance of entertaining and informative...

You are joking aren't you Durbs?

Maybe I missed that bit - if it was the previous guy from other comps (Jonny?) - agree he was an idiot, but didn't seem to be bother me this time

I only tuned in for the second half of the finals, but thought the commentary team was good - better than in the past..

[mr__j5]

I find him a bit Alan Partridge-esque so for me it was entertaining rather than annoying. Was the woman speaking Emma Twyford? If so he kept calling her Emily, ha.

Definitely not. Emma Twyford was sat in front of me in the crowd.

[mr__j5]

... and it goes without saying how excited I was to see the missus show the youngsters how it's done and grab 3rd place.

[Stubbs]

Great quality feed, very little lag and crisp picture.  Everything seemed really well run on the night too, which I guess you'd expect from such an experienced crew.

Great to see Shauna cruising, would have been nice if she had some competition, really looking forward to seeing how she does in the World Cups this year.

Men's Finals were a bit easy with everyone (?) flashing 2, if Barrans hadn't had a few goes on the slab I assume it would have gone to semis results.  Hard to tell whether Megos actually had to try that much at all, he has a unique climbing style!

[Wood FT]

I find him a bit Alan Partridge-esque so for me it was entertaining rather than annoying. Was the woman speaking Emma Twyford? If so he kept calling her Emily, ha.

Definitely not. Emma Twyford was sat in front of me in the crowd.

okay, well im gunna stick my neck out then - I reckon she's called emily

[AlistairB]

... and it goes without saying how excited I was to see the missus show the youngsters how it's done and grab 3rd place.

Yeah, great performance from Diane  . There was a lot of crowd support for her in our bit, particularly when she was battling the end of F2 after the buzzer, serious determination there.

[Stubbs]

Some great shots from Alex Messenger https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152743253296586.1073741833.354832376585&type=1

[a dense loner]

The feed was only good for the final, the semis lasted 12 seconds then froze then took 45 secs to catch up. So excruciating that I had to leave the settee and watch it in person. This was sorted towards end of semis and final ran perfect. Like you'd expect in 2015. The commentators were excruciating.
One problem at a time is a much much better format. Finals were really good.

[gme]

Being a fellow suffering low bandwidth neighbour of the works and having the full knowledge of the internet connection available via the fuckwits at BT, despite 2 years of promises, I am amazed they got any live feed going at all.

I thought it was brilliant and the presentation at the end deserved of some kind of award.

The problems looked disgusting though, typical percy.

[Moo]

Amazing effort by Euan McFadden to get through to semi's with the same score as megos 

[rodma]

Amazing Unbelievable effort by Euan McFadden to get through to semi's with the same score as megos 

Fixed that for you

[Muenchener]

My spies tell me Killian and Anna won't come because Killian "hates Percy's setting"!?

Good riddance, wildlife murdering jerk. What is it with over-caffeinated sugary drink company and their sponsored athletes? At least the David Lama Cerro Torre fiasco didn't involve actually killing anything.

[Stubbs]

At least the David Lama Cerro Torre fiasco didn't involve actually killing anything.

Except perhaps the impossible http://web.mit.edu/lin/Public/climbing/Messner.txt

[frasermcilwraith]

Amazing Unbelievable effort by Euan McFadden to get through to semi's with the same score as megos 

Fixed that for you

I know eh! Literally unreal!! 

[Moo]

Can't wait to see some footage of him crushing some properly hard stuff

[rodma]

Can't wait to see some footage of him crushing some properly hard stuff

I assume you mean megos, otherwise you're in for one hell of a wait

[Doylo]

I detect an undertone.