[jwi]

Also, looks like all ten of the French team made semis!

like I said 

It's easier to write than read.

[jwi]

Great setting otherwise. Two well deserved winners.

Puccio looked like she needs to allow matching hands when training. And someone needs to tell Le Neve to rest between attempts

[Danny]

Problems generally very good apart from the aforementioned F1 tapegate.

I felt like F3 was a bit of a shame for Jule as it seemed reach dependent at the end.

Other points. I liked Sean as a commentator: frank, insightful and on the ball. Shouty man was pretty subdued (although maybe that was on account of mic sharing).

In general I wish they'd ditch the music at these events, I reckon it'd be much better to just hear the crowd and/or Ondra screaming. Bit like a tennis match. The whole loud music / MC thing feels like an awkward attempt to shoehorn climbing into the umbra of 'extreme sport events' I don't think it sits well here.

[abarro81]

Conversely, I like having music, and wanted the music/crowd louder on the feed.

[GraemeA]

I felt like F3 was a bit of a shame for Jule as it seemed reach dependent at the end.

 

Maybe if someone had thought "Now I wonder why they have put that massive sloper over the bonus" I mean it is not as if it meant it was harder to use the bonus. Maybe it could have been useful for the last move. Just a thought.

[a dense loner]

Danny where were you watching from? This morning a few of us were discussing how there was absolutely no soul to the finals, no music or anything. Just shoutyman repeating ad infinitum "you will be banned from YouTube for ever, this is our house". Wtf? The climbing looked great but like I said no noise at all. Don't get me wrong thank god you couldn't hear the mc's but a bit of the eagles in the background would have been nice.
In a moment of weakness I also congratulated the french guy at the wall since the team looked so impressive. He told me he was Spanish and I said whatever just do me a latte.

[GraemeA]

Problems generally very good apart from the aforementioned F1 tapegate.

talking to Shauna and Leah at breakfast in the hotel this morning they were both of the opinion that the experienced climbers should have been able to cope with the tape (as Jule proved).

[Danny]

Conversely, I like having music, and wanted the music/crowd louder on the feed.

I suspect I'm probably in the minority on this. Good problems trump bad music though. I agree re: lack of nice vibes with respect to the atmosphere though, but I mostly had this down to inane shouty man soundbytes, and the feedback buzz.

As for Jule, well, it wasn't obvious to me what the alternative method was. Clearly missed something - but then so did three world class comp climbers, so what was the official method?

[fried]

I was also quite impressed by the other young frenchman, manu cornu, who works as routesetter in one of paris' gyms.

Pretty surprised to see my wall's receptionist/ setter turn up in the final. I didn't even know he was in the French team!

[Danny]

Problems generally very good apart from the aforementioned F1 tapegate.

talking to Shauna and Leah at breakfast in the hotel this morning they were both of the opinion that the experienced climbers should have been able to cope with the tape (as Jule proved).

Perhaps - but having to keep stable via some odd knee scum instead of a nice natural flag is pretty whack, IMO. Not to be unduly critical though, setting is hard enough at the best of times, let alone I imagine, for WC finals. Rest of the probs were excellent from my armchair, so 7 out of 8 ain't bad.

[abarro81]

I'm sure experienced climbers should have been able to cope, like experienced climbers cope with problems where the crux is not dabbing the floor or starting in some absurd and contrived position. In either case, however, it makes for a worse problem and worse viewing. Other problems looked good though.

[Stu Littlefair]

I'm not sure it did make for worse viewing. I thought it was pretty nail biting waiting to see where everyone would put their foot...

[joel182]

Thought shouty-man's commentary was pretty rubbish. The amount of factual errors he made, like getting who had topped which problem wrong, seemed atrocious.

[abarro81]

Whatever happened to the last guy who did it for a while, Daniel Finn was it? He was quite good.

[gme]

I must admit I thought the atmosphere was poor as well. I have not watched many but this was the least exciting. There didn't seem to be many people watching in a big venue which is never a good thing.

Ondra looks a bit uninterested. I was hoping that he made the men's competition more interesting but not so far.

Once again the women's comp exceeds the men's in terms of excitement.

[erm, sam]

just do me a latte.

A latte?

[Muenchener]

I enjoyed the music watching live in Munich last year - very good DJing I thought, and great atmosphere - but I don't miss it when I'm watching on youtube.

What does piss me off is the IFSC's comic inability to maintain and display up to date scores

[Durbs]

Hmmmm.

Overall I thought it was a good comp, interesting routes, last problem deciders for men and women. Tapegate is a non-issue, they all saw it in observation, and again before setting off, the comp isn't just about physical skill.
Anna looks back on form, and France representing!

Are bonuses officially called zones now?

But as a viewing experience, left a lot to be desired imho:
- Not enough ambient noise, so the whole thing felt a bit dead, especially when the commentators stopped talking whilst fiddling with tech stuff. Think they mentioned an in house crowd of 1000+? Sounded like 20...
- On that note, I'd have preferred inane chatter with buzz, rather than no chatter when combined with no ambient noise. "The show must go on" to coin a phrase.
- The search continues for a commentator who knows their stuff but doesn't annoy everyone by resorting to cliches and constant inane filler. This chap was better than the last, but still not as good as Dan. (I've said it before, Pete Ward who did the ABS finals was great)
- Not IFSC's fault but even details like dull, flat lighting made it all a bit bland.

Lots of positives to take away though! No streaming issues and good camera work (except one instance of missing the crux on m3).

Technical question for Graeme; last year it was 6 comps and you discounted your worst score. As this year there are only 5 comps, do you still drop your worst, or is it just best of five? Or is there still hope for a last minute grindlewald replacement?

[finbarrr]

just want to give an honourable mention to Shaun McColl, for his commentary and scorekeeping.
the usual host is runs at it, and makes it impossible for people to know what's going on.
surely some techie can build an app for the ifsc that calculates , and shows on screen, who needs what to win?

[abarro81]

Do they not have the results displayed in real time on a screen at the comp, like at the CWIF? If so, they could just point a camera at that and put the image in the corner of the screen.

[Fiend]

just do me a latte.

A latte?

That's what I thought. FFS that's not going to keep dense grumpy enough.

What Barrows said about the tape, everyone pissed it 2nd time after they'd been told off, it's obviously a non-issue as far as climbing ability goes but it does make for an artificially shit problem.

The camera perspectives and split screen view worked very well for this one.

I don't mind shouty man (eh wot he's not that shouty) as a commentator, it's good to have some actual enthusiasm going on, BUT he really needs to get his accuracy sorted. Also both Shaun Coxsey and Shauna McColl made great co-commentators and should have got a bit more air-time if possible.

[Durbs]

Also both Shaun Coxsey and Shauna McColl made great co-commentators and should have got a bit more air-time if possible.

Shauna C had said she couldn't co-commentate as she had no voice due to a bad cold.

Shirley there must be some retired climbers who would be able to do some co-commentary - Kililan?

[Pako]

I did notice that shouty man was a a bit less shouty this time, but he did occasionally revert to his old ways. When the commentary went silent it was a bit weird though, especially with the very lackluster crowd.

[Doug]

Technical question for Graeme; last year it was 6 comps and you discounted your worst score. As this year there are only 5 comps, do you still drop your worst, or is it just best of five?

As Graeme hasn't answered yet, the official rules state:
"11.7.4   The maximum number of results counting toward the World Cup Ranking shall be:
a)   When five (5) or less competitions are organised, all results shall count;
b)   When six (6) or more competitions are organised, the number of counting results will be the number of competitions less one (1). If a competitor has competed in more competitions that the number of counting results, the competitors’ ‘worst’ result shall be discarded in calculating their World Cup Ranking."

So unless there's a last minute sixth WC added (any prospects Graeme?), Shauna has to make up 63 points to get level with Anna (for context a 3rd place earns 65 points).

At this early stage it looks like the gap between the 'Fantastic Five' and the rest has reduced this year and the likelihood of athletes such as Saurwein, Le Neve, Nonaka, Gibert, Kruder, Crane etc making up more than just sixth place is even higher; which could shake up the overall points score.

I like that the Women's field is so consistently tight fought over and the Men's is more open. The Men's feels like one off comps and the Women's is a complete series. Nothing more boring that a sport where one person has total domination, unless they're a Brit.

As for the last WC, I agree that it lacked feeling without any crowd noise. The technical hitches from IFSC website and app not updating properly and the buzzing during commentary were annoying, but I'd take all that if it it means being able to watch it live with decent camera work.

I also prefer Dan Finn over shouty man, who said Jule was the current "world and Olympic champion". Shauna and Sean have been brilliant co-commentators, but Dan and Jon Partridge at Innsbruck last year gave the best commentary I've heard so far.

[Three Nine]

I thought the whole thing seemed pretty amateurish.