UKC

This weekend a novel competition format will take place simultaneously in four climbing walls around the world: The MoonBoard Masters. Wannabes can compete alongside system board WADS on the standardised MoonBoard, thanks to the wonders of livestreaming. Pro climbers are teaming up to compete against other teams at designated walls...and you can try to beat them!

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In reply to UKC News:

I'm oddly excited for this.

Among my friends, I'm currently running a small betting pool on which team will win.

My money is on Alex/Margot...

In reply to UKC News:

I love MoonBoard and I am super excited to watch how this novel competition format turns out. I also like the idea that viewers have a chance to try the same problems during the event -- and realize how ridiculously hard they are!

Unfortunately, the competition uses the brand new MoonBoard 2018 setup which is not available in any other climbing gym, yet. This makes trying the problems during the event practically impossible, which is a huge bummer. While it's a great way to advertise the new MoonBoard 2018 setup, I think that it would have been better to run the competition using the most popular MoonBoard (2016?) setup.

In reply to mplaine:

I watched this and thought it was quite good. Interesting see some of them struggle on their own problems.

In reply to msjhes2:

Thought it was a pretty good competition too.
Tomoa's problem and his solution really made my day, such a cool and original climbing style. Very nice that it was a tight race up to the final problem where Miho could have made still made team Japan the winners by topping. And incredibly strong performance by Megos, unbelievable!

In reply to mplaine:

The new setup looks to have some advantages though. More holds on the lower rows especially, meaning both more opportunities for varied sit starts, and fewer problems all having the same tedious crux getting a foot up onto row five.

I liked it but only got as far as the technical streaming issues, got bored watching a static screen. Will maybe catch up on the rest later.

I think it'd be good if they turned the building lights down so the moonboard lights showed through more so you could see the problem easier.

In reply to UKC News:

Does anyone know if the media company which produced this are planning on releasing a highlight video?

I'd watch that for sure. It was a long haul watching the whole thing with a lot of down time.

And the third men's problem, with the one handed stick by Megos, defies logic. I have no clue how he held that.

In reply to mplaine:


I can see your point but it wouldn't work for the comp. The climbers only have one hour to set their problems. If the existing setup was used they could spend days working on something that no one could repeat in four minutes, or even just use an existing problem. With 15,000 problems already created it'd probably be difficult to find something completely new anyway.

In reply to douwe:

I'm wondering how much conditions came also into play. In Sheffield it was 2°C and on wooden holds that can actually change a lot compared to 20°C but anyway it's rather a fun comp than the World Cup.

Really cool concept overall.

In reply to Spanish Jack:

Yes, I think conditions depend on the location and might give an advantage. Also the time difference can make an impact.