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KEN FEST Freestyle Battle, Hannover, June 4th, Fridolin's Juggling Shop, 11:00am

Started by the milky oolong, 03 June, 2016, 16:19:06

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the milky oolong

Whereas @Boehlstar should probably be in charge of getting this post up there, he's probably busy organizing for tomorrow, so I thought I'd at least drop in and say that this weekend, the redoubtable Kendama Hannover crew are hosting their yearly event at Fridolin's juggling shop on their home turf.

Along with sponsors such as @Kendama Europe, KROM, @Mirek of kendama.cz (who has already confirmed attendance, see you tomorrow!), the forum's own @cello_91 is expected to be offering up a little of his MC2 custom magic.

Of course, @Baum and the Hannover crew will be out in full effect, and we have confirmation that @SkubMosh is intending to make it. The Kendama Berlin regulars (milky, Till, Kentaro) are stepping out at the station with twenty minutes on the clock. Lunar monsters Linus Paeth and Daniel Ashman have also announced their attendance; I await a Lunar showdown of moonage scale and drama. And, do my eyes deceive me, a Facebook confirmation from the Dutch master @JeffreyItaliaander?! Interrobang.

So the event is announcing itself as a Freestyle Battle, but I have word from Mr Boehlstar that competitive elements will be based on creativity and innovation, not just freestyle trick lines. There is little information about the way the event is going to run, so I just hope forum members who are involved can use this post to drop up-to-date announcements, photos, videos, final rankings/winners of this or that, and also, your event write-ups!

See you all tomorrow, will be back online on Sunday to post my pics and vids.

TMO
Kendama Berlin
German Kendama Open 2014: 1st Place Speed Trick, 2nd Place Knockout
German Kendama Championships 2015: 3rd Place Speed Trick
KEN FEST Hannover, 2016: 3rd Place KEN Battle
KENDAMA CLASH Berlin 2016: 1st Place Intermediate

BKA


the milky oolong

Whew, what an amazing weekend!

Ok, so I am still waiting on confirmation of all finalists (hey, I was competing, not reporting!) from Ole, but I'll detail:

Arrived at the park at about 12:00, the beautiful lawn already packed with kendama players from all over Germany, and one very special man with a suitcase from over the Czech border. We were just outside Fridolin's juggling shop, owned by Rudolf, who looks about seventy, smokes cigars and has a kendama permanently around his neck (though I didn't see him play). Thanks to him again for hosting (spatially) the event and putting up so many great prizes.

After a brief reunion handshake-session the event began in what I am being told is the Gloken style, a KEN Battle system of tokens, in which each player gives away one of his unique (player name) tokens to his opponent on losing a letter. So for example I played @cello_91, he won K to KEN, I had to give over three of my tokens, and I got one for the K I scored. This is a great way to get to know all the players at an event as it is expected, if you want points you have to say hello and challenge someone to a game of KEN! (you can only play each player once, though).

At the end of this meleƩ, in which I think everyone learned at least one new way of doing a trick, the results looked like this:

3rd Place: @Boehlstar and @the milky oolong, with 50 points each, which was decided with a nerve-wracking tiebreaker, in which your reporter held his own for once.
2nd Place: Linus with a few more (awaiting confirmation on how many)
@cello_91 with a whopping 75 points (am I having a moment of mental weakness, or doesn't this mean at least 25 opponents in 1h30m?



This was for me a totally new way of competing, no stage, more laughs, more time to talk to players and not just be immersed in preparing for acing your trick; it was nice to see how sportingly certain KEN games were going on  ('if you hit it fourth time I'll let you have it'/'oh you can't do Swirls? Then I'll do something else'): I'm all about freaking people with putting a difficult twist on a well-known trick, and a battle is a battle, but the atmosphere was healthily competitive, not just balls to the wall ruthless.

We took some time out after the KEN Battle to ease off before the Freestyle round began. Learing tricks, getting a bit of shade, listening to some of the more boisterous players gunning before the start of what they saw as the main event. Kugu and Miguel went head-to-head with Miguel putting out a hilarious and brave run against an opponent whose Swirls, Pinwheels and Hurricanes are just seamless. Baum got nervous against Ark but got through to the second round. Nick's run against Linus had serious cojones and few Swirls, with a handle-grip Monkey Chair to Axe just not quite sticking for a three-count. And then I was up! In a Freestyle tournament! I'm a bit of a one-trick pony when it comes to freestyle, so I kept it simple, nice clean Spacewalk > Handroll > Swirl > Carousel, hoping to get points for clean transitions. I buggered my Swirl > Butterfly > Slap into Pinwheel > 2 Turn Aeroplane by a fine shaving, but landed a hazy Spacewalk something line with a Fast Hand Aero Trap, which caused a big cheer! I was happy with that and daddled my last seconds away making sure to Big Cup > Spike on the buzzer; hey, if Thorkild isn't above it, neither am I.

So Boehlstar came out with his crazy under-the-leg stuff (anyone ever seen Super Baby Giraffe? Google it.) and gorgeous string-pinched flips in all directions and combinations, and rightfully went on to fight another day. JL managed a super-clean run against Justus and won for sheer amount of tricks hit, pretty much everything he attempted in the given time. My mental notes are getting fuzzy, but if I'm right cello_91 started his run with closed eyes, going through a whole String Freak routine for the first fifteen seconds blind, which caused a bit of a ruckus.



That was the end of the first Freestyle round. In the intermission I found my inner Unicorn, the final stalemate against Linus having to be solved by a clash of horns (which looks more like a handbag-duel), another one for the Berliners. The winner of a Spike-off (cello_91, who won?) got to take home an original MC2 custom kendama! As in, are you kidding me? I tell thee no lies.

Filming tricks, playing games of KEN, having races, and then the second rounds of the Freestyle comp. JL again through his round by sheer consistency. cello rushing through the quarter-finals peppering his string tricks with Lunar Somersaults and other joy. Kugu proves to have the nerve against Baum, and Linus and Ole provide a serious doo-hickey for the judges, both oozing style and creativity in their lines.

What? A sudden Dan Jam-style mini-game from cello? Prize, something unique with heavenly grain from MC2? Best Trick. I was straight in. The usual queue formed and I thought about the trick I didn't manage to get on stage at the German Kendama Open: the so-called Dandelion Clock 1-Turn Aeroplane (at least the German name), blowing into the cup to give an Aero the extra 1-Turn. Landed it first time with a whipcrack. Ouch! Our man cello had to have three of us perform another trick, he was so torn between his favourites. My second turned out to be tripe, Ole was fresh with the legs, but the final banger from Lutz will hopefully be released in the KEN Battle Edit, so I won't say anything more.

Semis were brutal: judging the best run out of the best parts of two 45 second lines was extremely difficult; of course, some people's first was fantastic, second not so hot. Others had gold and gravel mixed in one run. Others still fluffed the first and spanked the second with renewed swish. JL and Marcel finally stepped up on the same floor, and again, the crowd was wowed by a near-perfect run involving strong hand to weak hand switches, Lunar Flips, everything you never expect to see done in a freestyle run. cello bowed out but grabbed himself 3rd place knocking Kugu off the podium.

Finals finals finals, hopefully they will be covered in the edit but if not, here's a preview of finalist Linus going big for the finish: http://igcdn-videos-b-17-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t50.2886-16/13399842_1203138069731557_1569883947_n.mp4

Evening kendama until your legs fall off, walk to someone's flat playing KEN games and showing tricks until the sun almost comes up. That was about it. Thanks to Fridolin's, Ole, Kendama Hannover, Mirek, and everyone who turned up for making this easily the best kendama hookup I've been to in Germany yet.
Kendama Berlin
German Kendama Open 2014: 1st Place Speed Trick, 2nd Place Knockout
German Kendama Championships 2015: 3rd Place Speed Trick
KEN FEST Hannover, 2016: 3rd Place KEN Battle
KENDAMA CLASH Berlin 2016: 1st Place Intermediate

The Void

If you don't want to BUY MY BOOKS 😉, then why not ask your local library to order them in, and read them for free? That would help too. Cheers!

KenSan

Great write-up. Sounds like a lot of fun, sun and kendama was had.
3rd place @ BKO 2016 Adv. Division. :-)

s070s

so cool
looks like lots of fun and sunshine
good going you guys !!

donald grant

Thanks for taking the time to write this up; sounds like it was a great event!

Hope I can make it over to Germany sometime before the end of the year :)

shalafi

Spanish Kendama Champion 2010, 2012, 2014-16
Depth Perception is Overrated.

the milky oolong

Edit out now!
Kendama Berlin
German Kendama Open 2014: 1st Place Speed Trick, 2nd Place Knockout
German Kendama Championships 2015: 3rd Place Speed Trick
KEN FEST Hannover, 2016: 3rd Place KEN Battle
KENDAMA CLASH Berlin 2016: 1st Place Intermediate

cello_91

better late than never right?..

yes i got 25 wins in the competition :D

this day was amazing! really looking forward to the next meetup!
but first... EKO!!