[Footwork]

Can someone explain how you get ranked? I would have thought it would be number of tops first, then bonuses, then how many attempts it took. Looks like Jan must have had a terrible time on some problems, 43 attempts!

Is it like mini golf where you stop counting after 8 

[Adam Lincoln]

Terrible camera work. Clock down to 3.30 before it even focuses on climbing on some blocs. Showing people brushing when a climber on another bloc is climbing.

Frustrating!

[ferret]

Not impressed with the mens problems, bunch of 8C climbers and we get a slopey dyno, a slab, some convoluted upside down volume mantle, and a 123 sideways dyno.
Womens #2 was right on the money, why couldn't we see stuff like this for the men?

[mr__j5]

Terrible audio. Continual pops and cracks from the microphone and for quite a while could hardly hear Mina.

[Duma]

I thought it was excellent. thought the mens problems were great, and Rustam was awesome on M4. If you'd rather watch a campus comp, fine, but I'll continue enjoying watching folk having to display a variety of skills and work stuff out.  Womens were good too, shauna a total class apart though, which took some tension out of it. Commentary was a bit quiet.

[abarro81]

I thought it was good too. Highlights definitely Sean on p3 and Rustam on P4.

[Footwork]

Gutted for Michaela though, she was so close to coming second!

[ferret]

I thought it was excellent. thought the mens problems were great, and Rustam was awesome on M4. If you'd rather watch a campus comp, fine, but I'll continue enjoying watching folk having to display a variety of skills and work stuff out.  Womens were good too, shauna a total class apart though, which took some tension out of it. Commentary was a bit quiet.

I would take any 2 of the 4 but as a whole I thought it a little boring.

Problem 1 everyone looked comfortable to the bonus 1 tall guy topped it jumping from the start foothold to the penultimate hold, 2nd tall guy comes close with same method. Nobody else looked remotely close. Needed a foot jib somewhere by my reckoning. Not that exciting as it was fairly clear that only the tall guys were going to top it.

Problem 2 was good although it seemed over with once you got the right foot on the volume, harder for the tall guys? maybe as a balance to problem 1

Problem 3 seemed way too cryptic, topped by sean but nobody else made it past the 3rd move

Problem 4 was great when somebody topped it but most didn't make it past the 2nd move also seemed not too hard after the circus tricks.

All in all I thought the cruxes were too low and didn't build much anticipation, nobody was getting any closer than their previous attempt or competitor. Powerful climbing can be technical too, its hardly just campusing, and to have 1 or 2 problems to contrast the cryptic tech would have been great.
Setting will never please everybody I guess.

The womens set seemed excellent, competitors progressing further up the problem with each go, last move heart break, and Shauna making it look easy at times

[ghisino]

I found the problems great overall, except for mens 1 (too basic and badly morpho) and the womens slab (too easy?). But its minor points.

I don't get is the feet first start of w2 followed WC-like starting rules or if it was enforced with an ad-hoc exception.

Does somebody know? If it followed official rules (as in: 4 starting points, one or several of them being the small bue mat) then how did they make sure that it only worked feet first???

I'm very curious

[AlistairB]

Not impressed with the mens problems, bunch of 8C climbers and we get a slopey dyno, a slab, some convoluted upside down volume mantle, and a 123 sideways dyno.
Womens #2 was right on the money, why couldn't we see stuff like this for the men?

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with this too. We were watching it live and it was great. Sean showed the same great set of all round skills that got him 297 in the qualifiers and deserved to win. The lead kept changing hands and going into the last problem 3 climbers could still have won.  Plus two really important tops happening after the buzzer with the crowd going mental. What more do you want? They've tried basic setting in the WCs before and it's dull as hell.

The women's was less exciting but it's always going to be that way unless they manage to get someone who can really compete with Shauna to come like Markovic a few years back. Shame for Michaela though, so close to doing so well.

So for what it's worth, I think the setters nailed it more or less  (agree with ghsino, M1 and F3 were the least good) and the final was up there with the best WCs I've watched.

[DAVETHOMAS90]

I thought it was a great comp.

Plenty of tension close to the end. Sure Shauna stretched her legs towards the end, but for most of the comp, the results were far from confirmed.

In some ways, it's great to see great talent winning through - especially when tested over a variety of different disciplines (Shauna) - but also the tension held in the men's comp until McColl's space bending antics under pressure on M3. I think until that point there were 4 male competitors on one problem each; all to play for.

The personal battle between Gelmanov and M4 was also engrossing. On both of the above, the effort to pull it out the bag when things had looked so unlikely, to keep that focus, that was worth waiting for. F'ing fantastic really.

Also, the display from Shauna on W4 was just a privilege. Similarly for me, Leah's almost mathematical breakdown of W1 was a real treat. As for Michaela, gutting, but heartbreak is part of the drama.

For me, the evening was a real treat,  great hospitality, event supporting a great cause. Mega craic.

Come on, big up the crew at the Works for a great event.

  +1 to you all.

Thanks.

[LLAlhadeff]

I thought it was a great comp.

Agreed - the atmosphere was inspiring, the problems seemed really good at splitting them, the social side of it was spot on.

Nice one Works :D

Leah's almost mathematical breakdown of W1 was a real treat.

I too thought that was ace!

I had a great time watching it. Perhaps it was harder to follow on the Live feed, but I think anyone at the event or who entered would agree that it was palm-sweating stuff watching both the men and women and the route setters set over 46 high quality problems.

They can't be expected to transmit the correct sequence to people's brains though.

[ferret]

Yeah I think it was different watching over the feed with no atmosphere. I'm guessing there was around 75 total attempts of these problems, half of which involved somebody falling off the 1st 3 moves. Jimmy Webb probably the best boulderer in the world right now, walked off before his time was up on most problems looking somewhat bemused.
Just seemed like people either topped it or got shut down early on, never any of those nail biting "so nearly" moments.
Tough job being a route setter...

[T_B]

What DT said.

The whole weekend was absolutely brilliant.

[ghisino]

. Jimmy Webb probably the best boulderer in the world right now, walked off before his time was up on most problems looking somewhat bemused.

Apples an oranges.
Even if comps could focus on the exact same subset of movement/strength skills as rock, they will never be the same thing.

Being strong in a comp format requires a subset of mental skills that is not necessarily needed outdoors, and vice versa. This alone is enough to explain that the best in either discipline may not excel at the other.

On one particular occasion I've witnessed some 20 non competitors in a comp-like situation, on routes that looked easy for most of them. 80% fell way before being "at their limit", maybe 10% had the absolute best climbing performance of their lives, only 10% performed "predictably"

[nik at work]

I only watched the last half of the final, I enjoyed it.
The problems seemed to involve a bit of thought and managed to seperate the climbers, not sure what else you can ask for

[Nibile]

We all know that CWIF is great.
But BIFF is greater.

[36chambers]

Very good finals. It's a shame all the male finalist were the international wads, but I suppose that's why they're international wads.

I was impressed with Shauna making problems 2 and 4 look like complete paths compared to the other competitors. Although thinking about it, isn't Shauna an 8b+ boulderer competing against 8a boulderers? It must be quite tricky trying to set something that's challenging enough for her but still gives the others a chance.

[Muenchener]

Same problem the US Nationals setters used to have with Pooch until the rise of Megan Mascarenas

[dave]

HEEEEEEEEYY Mascarenas

[remus]

Just seemed like people either topped it or got shut down early on, never any of those nail biting "so nearly" moments.

Except michaela dropping two tops? Or McColl doing M3 after the buzzer? Or Gelmanov sticking the M4 dyno after the buzzer?

[ghisino]

It must be quite tricky trying to set something that's challenging enough for her but still gives the others a chance.

one way of viewing it is that it is ok if routes/boulders are a path for an overly dominant competitor.

i heard it expressed as follows:
"routes (boulders) should be set so that those likely to get second place have a small, but relevant chance of topping them, if they are in their best physical and mental shape".

anyways it is not impossible to set "against" one specific climber, if needed. It just wouldn't be fair if by accident he/she doesn't win!!!

[ferret]

Just seemed like people either topped it or got shut down early on, never any of those nail biting "so nearly" moments.

Except michaela dropping two tops? Or McColl doing M3 after the buzzer? Or Gelmanov sticking the M4 dyno after the buzzer?

I wasn't talking about the women's comp I thought that was good.  Yes Sean and Gelmanov topped the other competitorss didnt get past the 3rd move on these problems,  which is what I said.

[Baldy]

I've put together a couple of albums from the CWIF

http://www.acefilmandphotography.com/cwif-2016-semi-finals

http://www.acefilmandphotography.com/cwif-2016-finals

Let me know what you think.

[a dense loner]

Thank god, i thought you meant that shit relentless techno!