Four-man heats instead of two-man duels
Anyone who watched the World Cup yesterday will have noticed that there were always four riders competing against each other. In previous years, four professionals were usually on the water together, but were scored separately in duels of two. Now everyone has three more opponents at once, with the best two progressing to the next round. At the same time, the judges were also split up, with some judging only the jumps and some only the wave rides.
The first-placed rider moves on to the next round, but the second-placed rider is assigned to a new heat at the other end of the "tree". This means that no two riders meet again at the same time and the heats are mixed up.
No real double elimination
Another new feature is that there will no longer be a real double elimination. The first eight places from the single will remain seeded - the winner of the single elimination is therefore also the winner of the contest. Only places nine and higher can still improve their positions in a "small" losers' round.
This is intended to differentiate the higher placings more strongly instead of having four ninth-placed teams in the ranking. It should also make the event more attractive to the media - the winner can therefore be announced and celebrated without restrictions and there will no longer be a potentially days-long wait to see whether something will change in the rankings after a double. "There is a quick, clear winner," says Ben Proffitt - based on the same principle as in tennis, for example.
In the single elimination, there is also a "repechage round" before the semi-finals, in which the losers of the quarter-finals compete against each other once again. This is followed by the semi-finals with three riders each
Many details of the new mode will have to be revealed and proven in competition - we will know more after the Pozo World Cup
