Reflections on the first day of A1, watched on the Internet.

Usually, I watch important competitions sitting next to the tables, enjoying the atmosphere, talking to competitors who have already ended their matches, as well as to those who are just about to start their fights. I always try to feel and see more than people watching the event on TV. This time, however, I’m watching A1 on the Internet, so I shall not write about the competition itself, but about the broadcast from the event. In our strange world, where people gather in Warsaw pubs to watch the “live” event, everything is possible.

To the point!

The Internet broadcast from A1 has not reflected the importance of this competition. You don’t get the impression that competitors are pulling for a very high prize. Apparently no is directing the broadcast, or if there’s a director, he is paid for doing nothing. Way too often can you see handsome referees deep in conversation! Way too often there are shown spectators bored to death as there is nothing going on at the tables. Pretty girls are, on the other hand, shown too rarely! There are not enough lights! What I mean is that you can see the matches, yet you don’t feel the atmosphere. It may be a deliberate action, but I don’t like it. There’s something wrong with the cameras, too. It seems as if the decorations were overwhelming the competitors.

These are just details, but the devil is in the detail.

We can hear three people commenting the matches, including the announcer, president of the Russian Armsport Association and a commentator. Each of them is very experienced, but together they are not a good team. It just doesn’t work. As a result the viewer has no idea what is going on there.

The commentator knows what he’s talking about, but the problem is that sometimes you can’t hear what he’s saying!

There are definitely too many tables! If there were fewer tables, let’s say two, the competition would last longer. That’s obvious!

After all, we are all dyeing to watch armwrestling matches!

I didn’t go out anywhere this weekend so as not to miss the broadcast from A1 on the Internet! So it does not make any difference to me whether the competition lasts five or eight hours. I want to see every single match. I really do.

Once again, these are just details, yet they are very important. Taking into consideration the fact that the budget of this event is pretty big, the final outcome is quite poor.

It’s not only me complaining. I’ve been watching the broadcast with people not involved in armwrestling and they just didn’t know what it was all about. They were really confused and simply stopped watching. As a result we’ve lost five potential fans.

Every organizer has to take such factors into account. We, as true armwrestling fans who are totally into that sport, would watch a broadcast of a competition even on a mobile phone, because we really love the sport. A bad broadcast won’t attract new fans!

As far as the matches themselves are concerned, I’ll put it this way, I’m slightly disappointed…

We all expected many big names to take part in ladies’ division at A1, yet there were few famous female contestants. It’s a real shame that no Pole or Swede competed in the tournament. Consequently, the results of the matches did no surprise anyone.

What I really liked about the competition was matches of disabled athletes. Not often can you see disabled athletes competing in professional armwrestling tournaments, fighting for big money.

It was really cool about this competition!

Senior categories were somewhat surprising. I was quite confused as there wasn’t the 110 kg class, nor any “plus” category. Does that mean that every competitor who weighs over 100 kg competes in the open class? Besides, I didn’t know whether the categories were professional or amateur. Of course, the organizer has every right to introduce their own categories, but why would they do it? Is there any point in reinventing the wheel? I don’t think so.

Let’s take a look at the results. The results in the senior division came as no surprise.

The results of the absolute class gave us a clear picture of the situation.

There is only one leader. No one can beat him!

During the third round of the final I was really afraid that Denis would break Andrey’s arm into two separate parts. As a result, Pushkar came in second. Sem and Ivan locked arms to fight for the third place. After a beautiful fight, it was Semerenko who walked away with victory. In my opinion, the remaining 4 contestants were very evenly matched. It was tough and fierce rivalry.

So we’ve got the Super Leader, the Leader and two Contenders to the top positions, the remaining four form a kind of peleton chasing the top pullers.

Left-hand matches are over, we’re looking forward to right-hand fights.

PeSzy