More Changes To The Final Five Format
Ever since Erik Logan departed the CEO role and Ryan Crosby stepped in, the WSL has been slowly but surely walking back the Final Five.
First was the shift away from Trestles, then came news Pipeline would resume its place as the season closer. That left this year as the last time the Final Five system would run, yet even so, the WSL is tweaking the format away from its original intent.
Jordy looking resplendent in yellow (WSL)
Overnight, the WSL has announced two changes that place more weight on finishing the regular season in the yellow jersey.
The changes are:
- If the No. 1 seed wins the first heat of the best-of-three World Title match, they will clinch the World Title without needing to surf a second or third heat.
- The top-seeded surfer in all Matches will also start with priority. We had this for Match 1 previously (where World No. 4 had priority over No. 5), but it now will apply to all the Matches.
And for those who need to read it in full, here's a cut and paste from the latest version of the WSL Rule Book:
(iv) The Final Match is between the winner of Match 3 and the Surfer who placed 1st (based on CT Ranking Points following the last Regular Season CT Event), and the following scenarios will apply:
- If the Surfer who placed 1st (based on CT Ranking Points following the last Regular Season CT Event) wins the first heat, he will be crowned the World Champion.
- If the Winner of Match 3 wins the first & second heats, he will be crowned the World Champion.
- If the Winner of Match 3 wins the first heat and the Surfer who placed 1st (based on CT Ranking Points following the last Regular Season CT Event) wins the second heat, then a third and final heat will take place (Best of Three Heats) and the winner of the third and final heat will be crowned the World champion.
- The Surfer who placed 1st (based on CT Ranking Points following the last Regular Season CT Event) will have Priority over the Surfer who won Match 3 in all heats.
Comments
Don’t understand how they can change the rules for the final with only one event left before the final. Moving the goal posts very Fcking late in the season.
So the number 5 would have to win 5 heats for a title, the top seed only one
Confused. Does that mean if the #1 seed wins the first heat, its all over? Or just they progress to compete against the #2 seed without a 3 heat battle?
The person that really suffers here is the general public that watch every freaking comp, hoping the surf will actually be good and have waited to see the world's best battle in hopefully perfect Cloudbreak. Who's running this shit show?
Bring back Rabbit B.
Clear as mud.
?si=csHJD0WXftCjPd8-Hahaha!
Is it the same for the woman ha ha ha
"If the Surfer who placed 1st (based on CT Ranking Points following the last Regular Season CT Event) wins the first heat, he will be crowned the World Champion."
Typo opens giant can of worms
The highest seeded surfer will start with priority in all Match heats.
MATCH 1 - Seed 4 vs Seed 5.
MATCH 2 - Seed 3 vs winner of MATCH 1.
MATCH 3 - Seed 2 vs winner of MATCH 2.
FINAL - Seed 1 vs winner of MATCH 3
If Seed 1 loses the first heat then this Final match becomes a best of three.
I don’t dislike this ^^^^.
However.
I do think the final should be out of 3 heats to spice it up…a bit more stress and drama and fear and panic and intrigue and joy and despair….all the things that make sport awesome.
Seed 4 and 5 could potentially have surfed 9 heats before making the final , then at least 2 more. Exhausting .
No, because Matches 1, 2 & 3 are single heat events.
The final matchup against the top seed is possibly a best of three ONLY if the top seed loses the first heat. Obviously, if the top seed wins the first heat, then it’s all over red rover and the top seed is immediately crowned world champion.
If seeds 4 or 5 won the whole shebang, they would be surfing a minimum of 5 heats and a maximum of 6.
Ok that makes sense. I sorta zoned out at trestles and fast forwarded through the lulls.
hmmmm
Kinda hope they keep that change to the priority rule for what Joe had taken to calling ‘the regular season.’ Highest on the rankings gets first crack. The win for the viewer as far as entertainment goes would trump any distortion in the sporting stakes for mine. I reckon you could argue that such a change would make for a more pure sporting contest too.
Don’t get the logic of scrapping best of three for the decider. Would seem to kill off the potential for some drama.
Orcadians have a theory that all sports are pretty well fucked from too many rules.. they recon you only need 2 or 3. Just board up your shops, don't eat too much chirstmas dinner, gaffa tape you pant cuffs to your boots. and wear tight fitting clothes. and throw your weight in with the ba'.
(ba' is just how they say 'ball'. About 350 play these days, many more watch on and cheer. Big deal for fathers and their sons. If Uppies win, good farming for the year, Doonies, good fishing. A couple of years ago an Uppie made a successful break-out and hid in a bush for a couple hours till nighttime, while restless mobs roamed the narrow streets looking for him).
I kind of like it.
It is an acknowledgement that the main pretender to the rankings leader (who has potentially just surfed four winning heats at the same break on the same day), has the advantage of momentum.
But this will be a footnote as they're ditching the concept entirely.
I wonder if this is a prelude to keeping the final 5 concept alive in 2026? That would suck.
I like it,except have 3 heats for the win.Gives no1 the best shot in this format.Looking forward to next year.
A Slater wildcard into the finals at Cloudbreak is to me the obvious last moment solution for an extra heat.
I would think seriously about this
Hogwash !
Haha!
Every surfer for the foreseeable future must surf against Slater in their final heat to clinch the world title! If they lose he automatically becomes world champ. Love it. Kelly becomes the gate keeper.
Ok, so we have changed the format back to old , then this one and done rule after consulting the surfers.
For me I feel they should keep this tour schedule.
Yet finish at chopes, start the season at pipe .
September is such an odd time to end as the southern hemisphere is fizzing out yet the northern hemi is barely waking up.
Maybe wind up in chopes end of August 2027 start at pipe .
Usually champ is crowned before last event so trestles before chopes.
P.s keep the cut.
Trim the fat ....
Finish at chopes with 20 000 points on offer for the last event.
Now wouldn't that be entertaining!
Fiji Comp site (Renowned for 30 min Wave lulls)
WOTD Watcher camps 30 mins for 1st & only wave of heat to win the Heat
WSL are promising a default Heat restart every heat to double the Arse Picking Kitty.
* Riveting WSL Arse sitting Lone Surfer Finals Action...{Yew!}
WSL Finals ( Renowned for 75% of 2nd Finals Heat Ramped Scores )
* WSL mandates 75% shittier Ht 1 Lame Finals Action...{Supastoked!}
Anyhow! Fuck the Surfing >
Wotz new in WSL Finals Betting [ Arse Picking Points ]
Finals Fantasy Pick 'Em Rules
Here’s how to play with yerselves:
Pick each Women’s and Men’s match winner of the WSL Finals.
You can change yer Dic Pics up until the match starts.
You earn points for each correct arse pick. The points per correct Dic Pic rise the more you get right.
(Correct!) The more ya Play with it the more it rises...
Scoring Scale:
0 correct picks: 0 points
1 correct pick: 100 points
2 correct picks: 200 points
3 correct picks: 500 points
4 correct picks: 900 points
You also earn 100 “underpants” points each time you correctly pick the lower seed to win.
Bet yer all wanking over that...
Did tbb mention the Tiebreaker Points...farkin' drooling!
Crew can all Come Together! Yes! Ya can bet on that!
https://www.worldsurfleague.com/pages/fantasy-finals-rules
Note under 21 y/o finalists are to young to bet on themselves at Trestles.
Move the Finals to Fiji Where punters can back their fav 18+ Child Slave!
Well apart from Last Year's 20 to 1 tamed Fiji sea lioness...that saved the tour...baby claps!
I hated the final 5 format but they should’ve just waited till the end of the season. Changing the rules during the season just make the Woz look flakier than ever not to mention validating the F5 was a dismal failure. I never read or heard a complaint about the old format. The surfer with the most points is crowned world champ. Pretty simple really. It seems to work for most sports. Eg F1
Am I getting this right? The first 3 matches are single heats, but the Final is best of 3 unless the top seed wins the first one.
Correct.
Lot of confusion here for something that reads pretty damn straight-forward to me.
I support this change. If it had bee like this from the beginning, the whole concept might have been a little more tolerable.
+1
+1
How?
Carissa Moore would still have been in No 1 position by a country mile and lost 2 World Titles.
No change on the mens side except we would have been robbed of whatever drama the day could have provided by a damp squib finish.
the whole point of the concept was to test the No 1 position under a Grand Final Best of 3 pressure situation.
Overall I think it’s irrelevant…in an attempt to manufacture drama for the world title, the Woz has completely misread the room…the drama doesn’t eventuate from the format…it comes from the high quality and on the limit waves.
Trestles totally missed the mark and had no chance …we’ll see how Cloudy goes…but as always, Huey will decide.
Shouldn't there be more concern for Jordy's arm skin rather than the amateur nature of 'professional' surfing?