by Chase Stallo
X Games Discontinues Moto X Best Trick
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 | 6:30 PM
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ESPN has announced that Moto X Best Trick and Snowmobile Best Trick events at X Games are being discontinued. X Games will continue to host freestyle motorsports competition. ESPN released the following statement, "This change reflects our decision to focus on motor sports disciplines which feature athletes who also compete in multiple, world-class competitions [e.g., professional events and tours] reflecting the highest degree of athlete participation, competitive development and the global nature of our X Games franchise. Over the past 18 years we have made more than 60 changes to our competition lineups at X Games events to capture the evolution of the sport and these continue that growth."
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Good! Too many people getting hurt and dying trying some crazy/stupid new combination with a flip.
When Paul Taublieb and the X Games brass say "This change reflects our decision to focus on motor sports disciplines which feature athletes who also compete in multiple, world-class competitions [e.g., professional events and tours]," here's what it means: they want to bring in big sponsorship money from non-typical X-Games sponsors (i.e. motocross manufacturers, factories like Honda etc.), even if that means they'll take away all REAL and even entertaining extreme sports that are fan favorites and only conduct weak "non-extreme sports" like the watered down motocross races at the X Games, which have NO PLACE in the X Games.
Just outlaw the backflip for them both.. The best trick has resulted in some of the greatest X-Games moments ever.. No best trick, and no super moto.. I just might quit watching period..
Buncha Pansy's !!
Are they keeping the Jump Straight Up Until Your Bike Stalls and Then Fall Straight Down 5 Stories Onto Flat Ground event (aka the Step-Up)?
@therealmofo - I totally agree. Backflips are killing this sport (financially and unfortunately in a literal sense). Make no mistake - XGames doesn't want the liability of a contest with a high chance of death. Backflips are largely responsible for that. Hopefully they will keep some type of moto events on the schedule in coming years; a return to "normal" racing sure would be nice (of course they could really mix it up, run the track through the stands, have one-on-one "playoff" style events, etc.).
I won't watch X-games. The best trick was the best part of X-games and to just say your going to get ride of it, shows how little you know or care about the true foundation of extreme sports. It's also a slap in the face to all the freestyle Pioneers who's efforts and passion are why you have a show.
They are trying to get rid of the guys who cant ride a dirtbike or snowmobile but can hit a ramp and try to do things way out of their skill level. Guys like Scott Murray or Kyle Loza or the two brothers from Winter X.
Bummer. Now where am I supposed to go to watch someone die on national television. MMA?
ronniebarnhardt wrote: about 10 hours ago
They are trying to get rid of the guys who cant ride a dirtbike or snowmobile but can hit a ramp and try to do things way out of their skill level. Guys like Scott Murray or Kyle Loza or the two brothers from Winter X.
BINGO!!!!! Most of the best trick guys shouldn't even be there. Riding a foam pit all year then mowing yourself down once a year at X Games is lame. All the good guys ride the other events.
They got sued by the kid that was hit by the snowmobile at the Winter XGames. I could care less about the injuries, since they are grown adults that make the decision to enter the Comp. What I didn't like was the people that made the X Games a career. They sit home all year and jump a horizontal bar...win a gold....sit at home all year and jump a horizontal bar...win a gold.... these are the idiots that ruined it.
I love all things moto. Roadracing an SX/MX. I would go to a Nuc Cowboys show if my kids were still school age. Saw Travis do the Double and the 360's. Nothing left. I won't lose any sleep over it ...
Step-Up is the lamest competition at X by far, so they should get rid of that too. And that is coming from a lifelong moto lover. I can't believe I am saying this but I might rather watch hillclimbing.
This is the main Xgames competition I watched. Stupid move.
X-games has already been getting dull to watch. Never cared for the snowmobiles, but dirt bike best trick was by far my favorite event. Best whip is lame too, with the 100 whips a minute and fan judging. Maybe they should bring back rollerblading.
This had to happen. There is just nothing new happening in freestyle MX. It's so boring now, everything is just a backflip variation. The old days were so much more fun. I say keep all the Moto X stuff but ban the backflip...
Step=Up got alot of press and great ratings the year Mcgrath battled for the win.. And the X-Games promoters jumped all over it.. It has gotten kinda lame since.. Moto Best trick got ruined by clowns who didnt belong in it.. Some guy with gardening gloves who did a double back flip in a foam pit suddenly earned the right to go to X-Games??? That was bull.. So you had nothing but one trick ponies vying for the X-Games best trick.. That ruined it...
The Super-Moto was cool the year Reed did it and they jumped down into the stadium and things like that.. They have even managed to ruin the Ralley-cross..The X-Games got huge, and now promoters just trying to make more and more money ruined it.. We all could see it happen when it went to L.A. and stayed there.. So Cal seems to ruin everything..
I used to go to the X Games every year and take my kid. I didnt go last year and probably wont go again. They have eliminated most of the stuff I went to watch. I'll watch the skateboard big air on TV and shine the rest. it's pretty mainstream anymore and I'm over it.
For you peeps complaining about the back flip and saying ban because it's dargerous, you sound like sour old men. Should we ban big wave surfing ,back country snowboarding, and base jumping because it dangerous and causes fatalities?
What they need to do is change the event and jumps to make back flips not as possible. Or better yet mark off a zone in Ocotillo, let the riders build lines for a day or two and then run the comp. Just like the Redbull rampage. More entertaining for fans and more about lines and style than tricks and ramp tramps.
@Moto6--ESPN cancels best trick and we want to save it so we sound like sour old men??? That makes no sense at all.. We just dont want to lose the best trick contest, if getting rid of the backflip saves it fine.. We will take that.. How does that make us sound like sour old men.. ESPN is getting rid of it, not us, we want to save it..Get it now???
@therealmofo
I see what you're saying. I'd rather see best trick than the actually freestyle runs. But then it's not really best trick anymore when you put a limit or what the riders can and can't to. You would basically be taking the progression and innovation out of a disipline thats based on progression and innovation.
Drop everything from xgames but bring back the downhill skaters laying on their backs. Signed a sour old man.
MustardDog
You get my vote for that one. They even had the stand up dudes in that event too.
Best trick either snowmobile or moto where the best comps on the xgames apart from the mega ramp, without best trick theres basically no evolution to the sport and if its for safety reasons then you would need to ban freestyle too because guys will start doing their trick on a freestyle run which is as dangerous or worse because you get a lot more tired doing a run than just a single trick. @retardcross... i agree with you with the scott murray deal but loza has thrown complete freestyle runs at the dew tour and is capable of winning any comp he enters and the moore brothers are proven atv and snowmobile freestyle riders
It's their competition so they can do what they want but Moto-X Best Trick was the only event I bothered to watch these past few years so this just means I will have 0 amount of interest in it this year. I can't believe some of you goons want them to ban the backflip. Lets ban triples in supercross and braking bumps in the outdoors while we're at it.
Some of you hit the nail on the head, if these clowns actually cared about the safety of the riders and the sport then they would have had much more stringent qualifications to be in the event in the first place. But this just shows they didn't care and they are afraid of the legal liability of people killing themselves in their event. But the fact that they do have liability even though these are grown adults competing in these events out of choice just goes to show how truly jacked our legal system is. And unfortunately that is also something that far too many of our track owners, operators, promoters and builders have to face every day as well. Heaven forbid people are actually held accountable for their own actions these days.
But if they bring back the street luge race that I think MustardDog is referring to my interest would rise. That was one of the best events ever at X Games.
XGames is Lame, come on best trick was awesome! step up is the worst of them all who cares how high you can go over a bar... bring on a proper whip contest without the public votes, and Super-X with a big prize purse to attract more than just Hansen. and a real Freestyle course like a couple years ago when TP pulled the double back like a boss.
Freestyle was, is and will be a sport with no future. It's self-limiting. People won't continue to pay for something they've seen 1000 times, and when more difficult tricks are tried, people die. Nobody wants that. So it's a dead-end, either way.
career is over kyle loza you loser, burger king is hiring...you could never ride a dirtbike anyway you little turd!
Taublieb never understood what a step-up was. He tried to make it like a high jump in track and field, and the long vertical drop to a too-flat lander is a pain in the ass. From the beginning it was about jumping up to a high landing, not clearing a bar and flying way back down. It would be better for the riders if they could jump up to a higher and higher landing (until they couldn't make it, LOL).
To clarify, from the beginning of real step-ups, the early days of off-road riding and jumping up to higher landings, stepping up was about jumping up to a high landing, plain and simple. It was all about reaching the height of the landing. It wasn't about jumping over a bar and then flying down any significant distance. It was all about reaching the height of the landing!
@Speed shifter--dead on, that is a cool idea too.. Raising the landing as the bar goes up.. Too make it about clearing the jump instead of not destroying yourself on the landing.. Very cool concept..
I think they are just trying to put more emphizes on riding ability. I mean the guys who have been winning best trick are guys who cant make a lap around a true motocross track. Yes they have landed and tried some amazing things. Thing that wernt practical. Best trick is about inovation. I personally dont see the skill in landing a trick one time ever. A trick that cant be competed in a normal run. Yes i understand how hard daring ang the guts it takes to try it. Pastrana landed a double. Wasnt that awesome. Hasnt he or others been able to do it quite successfully? Im certainly not against these new tricks or the guys pulling them. Im not for the removal of best trick. I think it hurts the program. But its boring to watch a guy who didnt grow up riding win a gold then say that he has no desire to ride to the hills or on a track.He as no respect for a racer who can go wide open for 30min+2. He only cares for the medal and money. He could care less about the sport of Motocross. Which without it there wouldnt be any best trick.