Bring back No Time Limit battles in all (WFFA) Competitions?
basically a petition to make freestyle battles free again? - “yeah but people will start doing 2 minute rounds!!” —> Sure, let them. If the WFFA judges are as good as they say, they will take that into consideration. - Before the competition, participants will be informed that their rounds should be around 30-45 seconds maximum. The MC will also give you a reminder to slowly wrap up if your round is closing in on 40 seconds. How many times have we seen pro freestylers drop their final tricks, or were forced to do a basic trick as their 30 seconds ran out?
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- Age 12+
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I would say increase the time into 40-45 seconds so the players has more time for stalls, more freedom in their freestyle and do a proper finishing instead of finishing with basic trick bec the time is ending so fast
interesting thought. don’t you think this only moves the problem of having to do your freestyle in an exact timeframe? since freestyle competitions are already mentally demanding, having to do your tricks in a specific timefrime takes away the ‘freedom’, right? With this NTL concept, with the MC notifying you, rounds will most likely be 25-40 seconds.
I agree with NTL entirely. I had a conversation a while back about how the MC(s) are sometimes too distracted by the freestyle (which I understand) to give the ten second warning, then count down from five. I have had a battle or two (with 30 second time limit) where my opponent received lots of warning to end their set. When my turn came around, the MC was distracted, then realized my time was up, and without warning me yelled “SWITCH SWITCH SWITCH” while I was upside down and backwards… haha. I then had a discussion about it with one of the WFFA representatives, and was told something that didn’t sit right with me, “Well Ollie, freestylers should know how long 30 seconds is… you shouldn’t need a warning to know when the time is almost up.” Although I agree with that in some cases, I’m an improviser when I battle, and I don’t plan sets that are 30 seconds exactly, so to some degree I have a disadvantage… especially when I’m getting less warnings than my opponent. NTL (also for many other reasons than what I suggested) should 100% be in place to ensure fairness and the freedom we are promised within the phrase “free-style”. 🫶🏼
I really like how you’re explaining your idea in the comment. The key argument against ntl battles is that freestylers do 2 minutes round which makes boring to watch and difficult to judge. However if freestylers get penalized for doing 2 minutes rounds a fitting time frame is suggested. And yet freestylers still get the opportunity to do long rounds if they are behind or whatever and not get cut off if their set is too long. How should a penalty for too long rounds look like - how can it be objectified in the criteria?
From an organizer's perspective, time limits provide some predictability and help keep the event on schedule. That's why I'd definitely recommend keeping time limits for the qualification rounds, although I wouldn't want to commit to a specific duration. For the finals, however, I think it's much more enjoyable to watch competitors perform freely without the pressure of a ticking clock.
Eso del NTL es de cagon.
For me, 30 seconds battle is better because NTL is so boring to watch. Even the freestylers get bored, imagine a crowd of usual people. Maybe 40 seconds would be good too, we still need to test a lot.
I'm very much against no time limit. A lot of people talk about penalising the too long rounds. But I really want to see this scenario: There's a no time limit battle. Player A does 49 second rounds on average. Player B does 28 second rounds on average, and performs seemingly worse. But Player B wins, because Player A has been penalised for too long rounds. As you can imagine, that wouldn't sit right with anyone. Then there's the boringness factor, which for me is the most important one. To put it shortly, the time limit gives you the climax at the end of the round, when all that has been done in the given time is packaged nicely. With NTL, this effect is often almost entirely gone. And from neutral viewers perspective, with the level of current freestyle they dont understand wth is going on. And when there's NTL, they understand even less because a certain frame has been removed. Finally, I want to ephasize the meaning of a COMPETITION. Competitions are somewhat metric events, because they are made to figure out who's the best. Depending on how badly you want to know who is actually the best, imo time limit is a necessary frame to support finding out the best among a group of people. But, I do hear of course the arguments for the NTL. I think it suits perfectly for the vibe based competitions, where the "who's actually the best" is not as important as "how much fun can we have". Peace - PG
Hi Pege, I get your points, especially about the climax and accessibility for neutral viewers. However, I think NTL offers something that 30-second rounds simply can't. For me, freestyle is about more than squeezing as many tricks as possible into 30 seconds. It's also about creativity, originality, flow, transitions and building a round that expresses your own style. With a strict time limit, rounds can feel cramped, and freestylers often have to sacrifice the development of their ideas just to fit everything in. NTL gives them the freedom to show their real level. I also think the comparison with breakdance is relevant. Breakdance battles allow dancers to express themselves through rounds of varying lengths, with the focus on the quality of their performance rather than fitting everything into a fixed timeframe. Although the disciplines are different, the principle is similar: giving athletes room to express themselves doesn't make a competition less competitive. Regarding your example of Player A and Player B, I agree that it wouldn't make sense to penalise someone simply for taking a bit longer. But in a properly judged NTL battle, taking more time shouldn't automatically be an advantage either. The better round should win, regardless of its length. And about the climax, I'd argue that a time limit forces a round to end, whereas NTL gives the freestyler the freedom to build their own climax. Creating that progression and delivering a satisfying ending is a skill in itself. Ultimately, I think we should ask ourselves what we want to reward. A 30-second format rewards the ability to perform under a specific time constraint, which is a valid skill. But if the goal is to determine who is the better freestyler overall, shouldn't we give them enough room to demonstrate their full abilities? Both formats have their place, but personally, I find NTL battles far more entertaining. They allow for more expression, more creativity and a more complete picture of what a freestyler can actually do.
Hey Tim. I surely get that. But I think the time limit doesn't restrict the freedom of expression as much as people claim. If we compare the sets of freestylers with time limit and NTL, their styles look excatly the same. I admit they have had to leave out some moves and filler tricks. But I think if one really want to express themselves so much that 30 s. isn't enough, shouldn't one then do routines instead? And the comparison the break dance is relevant, but then we also need to keep in mind that they do it with the ball and risk of a drop. With NTL we've seen how people drop the ball in the middle of their set, and then restart the whole thing probably because they want to showcase their ready trained set as they imagined. And use NTL to minimize the weight of the drop. And this then affects the dynamics of the battle. But I think you concluded it well, what is it that we want to reward. I think the best thing to bring back is the response to the other freestylers moves and entertang the crowd.
Ntl hace extensa la batalla y es una ventaja que están buscando los que hacen stalls solo por conveniencia personal, porque saben que en lower no les da para competir