We've just spotted this official press release from the World Snowboard Tour concerning X Games Tignes...
"X Games Aspen and X Games Tignes will be official events on the World Snowboard Tour starting this winter, TTR Pro Snowboarding announced Monday. X Games Aspen will join the Arctic Challenge, the Beijing and Innsbruck Air & Style, and the Burton U.S. and European Open as a 6Star event on the 2012-13 tour, while X Games Tignes, also a 6Star, will count towards Tour points for the 2013-14 season.
In addition to this, TTR will be co-sanctioning the 2012-13 USSA Grand Prixs as 5Star events. The Grand Prixs have been elevated to FIS World Cup status this year. This means they will count for Olympic qualification points as well as points on the World Snowboard Tour. It is going to be a big year for competitive snowboarding.
Bringing the X Games into the World Snowboard Tour fold is mutually beneficial for many reasons, but the biggest are these:
The original dream of the TTR, back when legendary snowboarder Terje Haakonsen founded it as "Ticket To Ride" in 2002, was to unite the many independent snowboard events of the time under the umbrella of one tour, so there could be one definitive "champion" of snowboarding at the end of a winter season.
The structure of that tour has gone through a number of changes since then -- from the inclusion of women and the inception of a 1 - 6Star tiered ranking system for events in 2005-06, to the addition of discipline-specific champion titles in slopestyle, big air and halfpipe in 2011-12, to this year's name change from TTR World Tour to simply, the World Snowboard Tour -- but the underlying, simple dream that started it all has remained the same: to make all of these events count for something more than just individual "wins."
The Winter X Games have always stood apart from this, as if on an island where no other contest before or after really mattered. By becoming a part of the Tour the X Games get to also become part of a larger narrative that, combined with the other decades-old, highly-prestigious snowboard events on the WST, will tell the true highs-and-lows story of an entire competitive season.
“The X Games is one of the most important events to us. It's really great that it's a part of the World Snowboard Tour now.” 2012 TTR Big Air Champion Seppe Smits
Since riders on the top of the WST points list will get automatic X Games invites, the incentive to compete in the full tour will be that much higher.
As to why Tignes will count towards next season's Tour points instead of this one, Tim Reed, senior director of content strategy for ESPN X Games explains: "X Games and TTR worked to include X Games Tignes as part of the 2013 World Snowboard Tour but unfortunately X Games could not fulfill on all of the necessary event requirements for a final tour stop, so the collective decision was made to have X Games Tignes become the first event on the 2014 calendar. Needless to say it will be a great way to kick off 2014 tour schedule."
While it is not likely that the splitting up of Aspen and Tignes X Games events between WST tour years will continue past this season, there is a benefit to the current division.
Those who have been following the dramatic ups and downs of TTR's attempts to negotiate with the FIS on Olympic qualification matters over the past two years know that stacked competition calendars are a massive stress for snowboarders hoping to get one of their country's team spots in the Winter Games. Riders are often forced to pick between Olympic-sanctioned FIS competitions and TTR events, causing them to miss out on the full TTR season one out of every four years.
With Tignes counting towards 2014's WST tour points, "what we're hoping is that, by getting the opportunity to achieve a 6Star result before the Olympics, riders see it as a way to alleviate some pressure," explains TTR board member Maria McNulty.
"The X Games is one of the most important events to us," says 2012 TTR Big Air champion Seppe Smits. "It's really great that it's a part of the World Snowboard Tour now. It's also relieving to know that with the Grand Prix serving as both Tour points and World Cup result, this gives us at least a little breathing room in an extremely packed season. We all prefer to ride the World Snowboard Tour events and appreciate the efforts of TTR to work on unifying the Tour and making it less hard on us to plan."
The Olympic-qualifying period is already underway. It kicked off in New Zealand this past August and will continue until January 2014. Let the Games begin!"
X Games Tignes will take place from 20th to 22nd March 2013. Keep up to date with all schedules, riders, and X Games news with us on our facebook and twitter pages.
Book your holiday with Tignes Spirit now to avoid disappointment!!
