The Snowboarding Live Scoring System, or SLS, is a new judging system developed over the past three years and launched successfully during the TTR 6Star Arctic Challenge slopestyle, held in Oslo, and the first halfpipe at the 5Star BGOS in New Zealand in 2010. In the TTR competition season of 2010 – 2011 the SLS was used at all 6-star events that featured Slopestyle and Halfpipe.  This year the SLS has had refinement (two judges per feature/hit) and (default scores) based on rider feedback and will be in place for the TTR and BGOS events for the upcoming 2011 –2012 season.

The SLS system combines a sharp focus on individual tricks combined with overall impression. There are dedicated Trick judges and OI (Overall Impression) judges. The combined result of Trick and OI scores gives a detailed overview of a rider’s performance per Trick, their overall run impact, and the effect it has on their ranking. The SLS system allows an easy to follow scoring path delineating how the run result was achieved, a result that can be compared trick by trick, from run to run.

Each TRICK judge (in teams of two) will focus on just one obstacle in the Slopestyle, and one hit in the Halfpipe. Judges will concentrate their judging values on Amplitude, Difficulty and Execution.

Each OI judge (Overall Impression) will focus on the overall impact of the run over the entire course. Judges will concentrate their judging values on Variation, Style and Combinations.

In Slopestyle, the SLS system takes a defined number of obstacles and allocates two dedicated judges per obstacle (rails may be judged as a single obstacle or a set). Each specific obstacle (or rail set) is scored by two judges. Each feature will have a set feature value. Based on the maximum feature value for each feature, a trick score is calculated then for that feature, The individual Trick scores are then added up for a Total Trick score. For the OI (Overall Impression) score, two additional judges are dedicated to focusing solely on the usage and composition of the slopestyle run. The two OI scores are then averaged for a Total OI score. Total Trick + Total OI score results makes a Run score, which defines a rider’s ranking.

In Halfpipe, the SLS system allocates two dedicated judges per hit. Two judges score each specific hit. All hits have the same value assigned. Based on the maximum value of the hit, a trick score is calculated. Only the 4 best individual Trick scores are kept and then added up for a Total Trick score. For the Flow Score, two additional judges are dedicated to focusing solely on the usage and composition of the halfpipe run. Flow judges will take into account all hits (tricks) beyond the 4 top scoring hits that are scored by the trick judges as well as any insecurity including falls. The two OI scores are averaged for a Total OI score. Total Trick + Total OI score results makes a Run score, which defines a rider’s ranking.

Trick and OI judges will score on a 0 -100 scale. The Run score is the sum of the total trick and OI score and will be communicated with a common 0 – 100 points value.