THE BIGGEST FREESTYLE FOOTBALL EVENT EVER IS OVER

The results of all competitions are at the end of the article

Over 400 players, over 50 countries, over 1,000,000 ATWs – just some stats from this year’s Super Ball edition. Even though this Super Ball was scheduled differently compared to the previous ones, the atmosphere was as incredible as always. Some players arrived to the beautiful Czech Republic capital, the city of Prague, a few days prior to the actual event to enjoy the vibes of the freestyle world’s upcoming epicentrum.

The official program started on Monday, when players pick up their players welcome pack and sign themselves in to the biggest freestyle competition ever held. Later on Monday was the traditional players meeting, where the big, big boss Lucaso himself delivered a touching speech, inspiring others to do their part in growing freestyle.

Tuesday was dedicated totally for preparing the competitions, for the players and judges. Players had a day off to get some last-minute training in and master their tricks, and the judges took part in the judges meeting. In the meeting the new judging system was discussed as well as some other hot topics related to judging.

All of the qualifiers and extra competitions were held on Wednesday and Thursday. Show Flow, Sick 3, Challenge, Battle Qualification round (all 54 circles!), Female Battle Qualifications and the Superpannaball tournament were held on the first competition day. For the first time ever, the qualifications and extra competitions were held on two stages. This was new for the organisers as well as for the players, but everything worked out greatly. Because there was action on two stages, the judging panel had also increased in size. The main judges this year were Ricardinho (BRA), Conor “Mac” McCarthy (UK), Toshinori Pixy Goto (JPN), Gleb “Bengau” Karpov (RUS) and Federico “Fed” Massignani (ITA) as the head judge. The extra judging panel was Conor Reynolds (IRE), Pekko “PeGe” Piirto (FIN), Tom Folan (UK), Tom “Budz” Budding (UK), Daniel “Kjelkku” Kjellman (FIN), Mael Kevin Fortin (POL), and Daniel Rooseboom (NED). There was also a dedicated judging panel for the Routines, which was formed by Miran Pirner (CRO), Bartlomiej “Kala” Rak (POL) and Tommaso Daigoro de Bernardi (ITA).

On Thursday, the players who qualified through from the Battles Qualification to Elimination had their battles. The players who didn’t qualify were inserted into Rookie/Intermediate battles. After the Rookie and Intermediate battles, the Iron Man competition was held. A Dutch freestyler, Laura Dekker made Super Ball history as she was the first female to ever compete in the Iron Man. After all of the Elimination, Rookie, Intermediate, Extra and Top 32 battles were over, it was time to enjoy the Routine and Double-Routine Qualifiers. And when that was over, it was time to hand out the trophies for the winners of extra competitions in the awards ceremony.

Friday was once again a day-off for the Super Ball participants. On Friday the World Freestyle Football Committee meeting was held. Key leaders from many countries from every continent discussed topics such as female freestyles equality, event organising, the future plans of the WFFA, including the upcoming Red Bull Street Style. On Friday evening Urbanball held another side event in the legendary night gym; Kill the beat-competition. The competition was very entertaining and the S3-crew legend, Soufiane Bencok (BEL) judged it alongside Zaid Issawi (UAE) and Adalberto Borgetti Lopez (USA).

The event culminated to the grand final which was held in a spectacular place, at the Prague Metronome. Several hundreds of people witnessed the grand final live, and hundreds of thousands people watched the show unfold live on facebook. The four hours of the final included both male and female Final battles, and the Routine and Double-Routine finals. There was no challenge for the amazing Fagerli brothers from Norway in the Double-Routines. They won their third Double-Routine gold medal in a row. In Routines, a historical era came to an end – after winning every Routine competition held in Super Ball, the legendary french routine master, Gautier Fayolle, didn’t make it to podium this year. After his Routine, Gautier announced his retirement from competing. The audience gave him a standing ovation for the last time. The Routine victory went to KVP, who was seen performing in the football world cup final ceremony earlier this summer.

This year the strongest players in battles were from Poland, Japan and Norway. This year the female final was all white and red as both finalists, Aguska and Kalina, were from Poland. In the tight battle Kalina was better and won her second Super Ball World Champion title. In the mens battles, the Japanese players Yo & Kazane showed everyone their improvement, as both won extremely difficult battles. They ended up facing each other in the battle for Third Place, where Yo edged it and won the Bronze medal. In the very last battle of the whole tournament, Boyka (COL) was challenging the 2016 world champion of Super Ball, Erlend. The final battle was extremely high level, and both players really offered a good 3 minute show for the people of Prague. The excitement was outstanding when the head judge Fed walked up on stage to raise the hand of the winner. On top of the city lights, it was Erlend’s hand that was raised and he won his second Super Ball World Champion title. He and Kalina also received very special golden V2 Control balls from 4Freestyle for their victory.

The Super Ball 2018 was so far the biggest and the best open freestyle football world championship event so far. But as it every time happens, we can expect it to be once again bigger and better next year.

THE RESULTS OF THE COMPETITIONS

Show Flow

1. Erlend (NOR)

2. Boyka (COL)

3. VLO (SWE)

Iron Man

1. Pavlov (RUS)

2. Krog (NOR)

3. Zegan (POL)

Challenge

1. Kondzio (POL)

2. ARS (RUS)

3. Alekseev (RUS)

Sick 3

1. Krog (NOR)

2. Kvartam (HUN)

3. Aksel Mutlu (RUS)

The winner of SUPERPANNABALL by Urbanball

Soufiane Bencok (BEL)

Rookie Battle

1. Tobias Wolff (NOR)

2. Michael Horvat (CZE)

3. Filip Dudzik (POL)

Intermediate Battle

1. Egor (BLR)

2. Dylan (AUS)

3. Lukojko (POL)

Double-Routine

1. Erlend & Brynjar (NOR)

2. Yosshi & YU-J (JPN)

3. Kosuke & Ama (JPN)

Routine

1. KVP (BLR)

2. Luki (POL)

3. Yosshi (JPN)

Female Battle

1. Kalina (POL)

2. Aguska (POL)

3. Alexane (FRA)

Male Battle

1. Erlend (NOR)

2. Boyka (COL)

3. Yo (JPN)