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2 Judging Manual

2.1 An overview of Freestyle Competition​

In general: In competitive freestyle, teams of freestylers are judged based on the difficulty, variety, artistry, and execution of routines.

Divisions: Competitions are divided into divisions based on team composition: Open Pairs, Open Coop, Mixed Pairs, and Women’s Pairs. All pairs divisions consist of two-person teams performing 3-minute routines. The Open Coop division consists of three-person teams performing 4-minute routines. Routines are usually set to music. Any player may enter up to 3 rounds of competition.

Rounds: Each division is divided into rounds of competition—like quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. The number of rounds per division is determined based on the number of teams who compete in the division. The more teams, the more rounds of competition.

Pools: In each round, the teams are divided into pools. Teams compete within each pool to advance to the next round.

Example: The open pairs semi-finals consist of 2 pools of 8 teams. The top 4 ranked teams in each pool advance to the finals. The finals consist of one pool of 8 teams. The winner of the division is determined by the highest ranked team in the finals.

Seeding: The composition of the pools is determined through a seeding process. The seeding process sorts teams based on expected competitive strength. The purpose of seeding is to ensure that the pools are (relatively) equally competitive. In the first round of a division, seeding is based on the current ranking or rating of the players on each team. In later rounds, seeding is on the results of prior rounds. In general, seeding also determines play order: Higher seeded teams perform after lower seeded teams.

Advancing: A set number of the teams in each pool advance to the next round based on the scores they receive from the judges. The number of teams that advance depends on the division, the round, and the number of teams in the pool. In general, half the teams are cut and half the teams advance from each pool in each round. After the first round in a division, teams are sorted into pools based on their performance

Ranking Teams: In each round of competition, teams are ranked by summing each judge’s category score. Teams with higher aggregate scores are ranked higher than teams with lower aggregate scores. Each round is scored independently, a team’s score in a prior round does not carry over to later rounds. The winner of each division is the team with the highest score in the final round.

2.1.1 What the Judges Evaluate​

Judges evaluate each team’s routine in three categories: (1) Difficulty, (2) Variety, and (3) Artistry. The Artistry category includes 4 unique subcategories: (1) Execution, (2) Teamwork, (3) Musical Choreography, and (4) Form. All categories include a “General Impression” subcategory. Judges do not evaluate every category. Instead, judges are assigned to one category.

2.1.2 How Many Judges are on the Judging Panel​

The FPA requires a certain number of judges to evaluate each round of competition. The number of judges depends on whether the FPA has designated a tournament a “Major” competition. Major competitions include, among others, the World Championship, European Championship, and American Championship.

For Major competitions, the FPA requires a panel of nine judges. For non-Major competitions, the FPA recommends but does not require a panel of nine judges. Six judges may be used instead.

Judges are assigned evenly to the categories. Accordingly, a 9-judge panel consists of 3 Difficulty judges, 3 Artistry judges, and 3 Variety judges. A 6-judge panel consists of 2 Difficulty judges, 2 Artistry judges, and 2 Variety judges

2.1.3 How Long Are Routines​

Routine Length: Routines must be a specified period of time. The specified period of time is determined by the division.

  • Pairs division routines (Open, Mixed, Women’s) must be 3 minutes.
  • Coop division routines must be 4 minutes.

Penalty for Short or Long Routines: There is a penalty for routines that are either too short or too long. For every five seconds that a routine is too short or too long, there is a .3 deduction from the team’s total score.

Grace Period: Teams receive a 5 second grace period before or after the required routine length. That is, teams may end a routine within 5 seconds of the required routine length without penalty.

Examples:

  • Ex. 1: A pairs team that ends at 2:55 is not penalized due to the grace period.
  • Ex. 2: A pairs team that ends at 3:05 is not penalized due to the grace period.
  • Ex. 3: A pairs team that ends at 2:54 is penalized with a .3 deduction from their execution score in the Artistry category.
  • Ex. 4: A pairs team that ends at 3:06 is penalized with a .3 deduction from their execution score in the Artistry category.
  • Ex. 5: A pairs team that ends at 2:50 is penalized with a .6 deduction from their execution score in the Artistry category.
  • Ex. 6: A pairs team that ends at 3:10 is penalized with a .6 deduction from their execution score in the Artistry category.

Artistry judges must input the penalty manually.

Grace Period Applies to Category Scores: Judges may score move or move combinations that occur within the grace period: Difficulty judges can judge any part of a phrase that occurs within the grace period; Variety judges can increment variety components; and all judges can consider move and move combinations in the grace period for their other aspects of judging.

2.2 The Weight of Category Scores​

A team’s final score is the weighted sum of its subscores in each category and subcategory. The component scores are weighted to ensure consistency: The value range of difficulty scores should be consistent with the value range of Artistry scores.

Each of the following groups is weighed separately:

  • Difficulty
  • Teamwork, Music Choreography, and Form (that is Artistry without Execution)
  • Variety
  • General Impression
  • Execution

2.3 General Rules​

2.3.1 Judges can only evaluate what they see​

Judges should evaluate only what they see occur. There are times when a judge may miss part of a move or move combination. This may occur, for example, in a multiple disc routine. Judges should not assume they know what they missed or ask another judge to relate to them what they missed. Judges should instead evaluate only the parts of a move or move combination that they see.

2.3.2 Non-disc skills​

Some freestyle teams may include non-disc elements in their routines, like dancing or gymnastics. Judges should avoid rewarding teams for these elements. Teams should receive points only for elements that relate to the disc or also require some disc skills. If for instance, a team includes a dancing section of their routine that does not include disc-related skills, that team should not receive points in any category. Teams may receive execution errors, however, for the non-disc components. Judges should not otherwise penalize teams for performing non-disc skills in the absence of execution errors.

2.4 Difficulty​

Difficulty judges score the difficulty of moves and move combinations. They put in numerical scores 1-10 with half point increments (like 5.5 or 8.5) for each phrase. Those phrase scores are then summed and each judge’s scores are averaged into a final difficulty score for the team’s routine. Difficulty judges, like all other judges, also provide a score for general impression. Difficulty judges may consider factors other than difficulty in providing a general impression score.

2.4.1 What factors determine difficulty​

Difficulty is determined by many factors. Judges may consider, for example:

  • The skill and effort required to learn a move or combination.
  • The skill and effort required to perform a move or combination.
  • The risk of attempting a move or combination.
  • The precision demonstrated in executing the move or combination.
  • The form displayed in executing the move or combination.
  • The physicality or athleticism of the move or move combination.
  • The coordination and timing required to perform cooperative (teamwork) aspects of a move or combination.
  • The consecutivity of the move or move combination. (Consecutivity is defined below)

2.4.2 Difficulty is relative.​

Judges input difficulty scores for each phrase based on a 1-10 scale, where 1 represents “easy” move combinations and 10 represents “difficult” move combinations. Judges should try to use the entire scale each round. To achieve this, they should mentally set a difficulty scale before each round based on the expected competitive strength of the round. A 5-score combination in the open pairs division may be a 10-score combination in the junior division.

2.4.3 Judges may consider attempted moves​

Judges should consider moves that are completed or attempted.

Relationship with Execution: Difficulty scores will reflect execution to some degree: A completed move should receive a higher difficulty score than an attempted move if all else is equal. Judges should provide difficulty scores that reflect the degree to which a move was successful or unsuccessful: A nearly successful move should score higher than one that was not close to being successful. Difficulty judges should keep in mind, however, that execution is scored separately.

2.4.4 Phrasal Scoring​

Difficulty judges score “phrases.” In general, a “phrase” encompasses the combination of moves from the throw to the catch.

Non-Standard Phrases: In some instances, phrases may involve move combinations that do not include throws or catches. In those instances, judges should use their discretion to determine phrases based on natural starting (beginning of disc movement) and ending points (end of disc movement), recognizing that judges should be cautious about identifying phrases that are unusually long (more than fifteen seconds) or short (less than one second).

Quick Catch or Speed Flow Phrases: In quick catch or speed flow sequences, each throw and catch combination is its own phrase.

Incomplete Phrases: Judges should input scores even for incomplete phrases. A wild throw should receive an input score. This is not to punish the team but to make sure they receive a phrase for the purposes of the catch percentage multiplier.

2.4.5 How Phrases turn into difficulty scores​

Difficulty judges are tasked only with putting in difficultly scores for each phrase. The electronic judging system then sums those difficulty scores after applying certain multipliers.

Difficulty judges should not try to anticipate the electronic judging system in inputting their scores. They should simply judge each phrase and assign a score between 1 and 10. The multipliers are intended to and designed to apply on top of Judges’ base scores.

Exponential Multiplier: The electronic judging system applies an exponential multiplier to the raw difficulty scores. This scale “stretches” the range of difficulty scores to give more weight to high scores and less weight to low scores. That means the gap between a 9 and a 10 is far greater than the gap between a 1 and a 2. This reflects the fact that achieving a difficulty score on the higher end of the difficulty scale is exponentially harder than achieving a difficulty score on the lower end of the difficulty scale.

Example:

Without Multiplier: The judge scores one phrase 10 and another phrase 2. The raw score for those two phrases is 12.

With Multiplier: The judge scores one phrase 10 and another phrase 2. The raw score for those two phrases is 12. Once the exponential multiplier is applied, the 10 becomes a 15 and the 2 becomes a 1.5. The modified raw score is 17.5.

*The exact scale is subject to change.

The purpose of the non-linear difficulty scale is to recognize that more difficult moves are generally exponentially harder than less difficult moves and judges struggle to input raw scores that reflect exponential differences.

Excess Phrase Multiplier:​

Each judge’s final difficulty score for each team is the sum of all that team’s phrase scores. Only some of the phrase scores receive full weight. The rest receive very little and diminishing weight. (All phrases count equally toward the catch percentage discount in the execution subcategory of Artistry.)

  • In a 3-minute routine, the 12 highest-scored combinations receive the full value. Combinations after those 12 receive diminishing —and very little— value.
  • In a 4-minute routine, 16 highest-scored combinations receive the full value. Combinations after those 16 receive diminishing —and very little— value.

Examples: Assume 3-minute routines.

  • Before weighing: The judge scores 20 phrases. Half of the phrases receive a score of 5 and the other half receive a score of 10. The final difficulty score is 150.
  • After weighing: The judge scores 20 phrases. Half of the phrases receive a score of 5 and the other half receive a score of 10. The 10 scores are higher than the 5 scores, so all 10 of them receive full weight. Two of the 5 scores also receive full weight. The top 12 combinations receive a raw score of 110. The other eight 5 scores receive only partial weight and together add 5 points. The final difficulty score is 115.

Purpose: In simplified terms, teams receive full difficultly scores for the most difficulty combinations—the 12 most difficult in 3-minute routines, and the 16 most difficult in 4-minute routines. All “excess” combinations provide only small additions to a team’s difficultly score. The system is designed to reward a balance of quality and quantity.

It addresses two problems:

  • Quality Problem: If difficulty scores are averaged, then teams with low difficultly phrases but higher overall difficultly will lose to teams without low difficulty phrases. Example: Team 1 performs a routine with high difficulty phrases A, B, and C. Team 2 performs a routine with high difficulty phrases A, B, and C, but also performs additional low difficulty phrases X, Y, and Z. If the difficulty scores are averaged, Team 2 will have a lower final difficultly score than Team 1 even though Team 2 performed all the same combinations as Team 1.
  • Quantity Problem: If all difficultly scores were summed, then teams could perform unlimited numbers of low difficulty combinations to achieve a high difficulty score.

Note: As explained below, a “catch percentage” multiplier is applied to execution scores based on the number of “phrases” in a routine. The more phrases in a routine, the smaller the execution penalty for each error. The number of phrases is determined based on the number of difficulty scores input by the difficulty judges, each of which reflects a phrase. For this reason, difficulty judges should put in difficulty scores for every completed or attempted phrase, even if it is only an attempted move or combination. For instance, if a player misthrows the disc onto the ground, difficulty judges should give that phrase a score, even if it is a 0.

2.4.6 Timing​

Difficulty scores may be awarded for up to five seconds after the time limit for the routine has passed. Judges may award scores for the part of a combination that occurred before the five seconds after the time limit has passed.

2.5 Artistry​

2.5.1 General​

Artistry is a category that consists of: (1) Teamwork, (2) Music Choreography, (3) Form, and (4) Execution. Judges provide a 0-10 score in each of Teamwork, Music Choreograph, and Form. Execution is judged by deducting points for execution errors from the team’s final score.

2.5.2 Execution: In General​

Judges penalize errors in execution. Execution errors may occur when a player fails to properly perform the move they intend to perform: Drops, bobbles, misthrows, and pauses may all be execution errors. Execution errors may also occur when a player properly performs a move they clearly did not intend to perform: THE catches, re-revving brushes, “bail” catches, or obvious “saves” may all warrant execution deductions. Execution judges should be extremely demanding and consistent. If Execution judges do not penalize “small” or “minor” errors they are ultimately penalizing teams who execute their routines without small errors. It is not unusual for execution judges to have 20-30 “minor” execution deductions.

2.5.3 Execution: Catch Percentage Multiplier​

A “catch percentage” multiplier is applied to execution scores based on the number of “phrases” in a routine. The more phrases in a routine, the smaller the execution penalty for each error after the multiplier is applied. For example, if two teams have the same base execution score, but one team has more phrases than the other, the team with more phrases will have a higher/better overall execution score than the team with less phrases. This multiplier equalizes execution so that teams are not punished for attempting more combinations. Execution judges do not have to count phrases. The number of phrases is drawn from the difficulty scores, as explained above. Example: Team 1 has 5 .3 deduction drops in a routine with 15 phrases. Their raw execution deduction is -1.5 and their adjusted execution deduction is -1. Team 2 has 5 .3 deduction drops in a routine with 50 phrases. Their raw execution deduction is -1.5 and their adjusted execution deduction after applying the catch percentage multiplier is -.375.

2.5.4 Execution: Deductions​

Judges deduct for execution errors. The worse the error, the larger the deduction. The judging system provides three increments of deductions:

  • .3 (Major Error)
  • .2 (Intermediate Error)
  • .1 (Minor Error)

Judges may use these increments or any combination of these increments to deduct for execution errors. As a guiding principle, a typical drop warrants a .3 deduction.

Judges should note that it is common to combine execution deductions to reflect multiple errors in the same combination or extraordinary execution errors that warrant a higher deduction than a single .3 deduction permits.

For example:

  • A wild throw may warrant a deduction significantly higher than .3 deductions.
  • A re-rev sequence might require multiple .1 or -.2 deduction as the re-rev sequence continues or even multiple .3 deductions.
  • A failed catch attempt that starts as a .2 or .3 deduction might require more deductions if the player continues to “bat” at the disc.

The guiding principle should be consistency and relativity. A judge who provides a .3 deduction for a drop that is quickly recovered should provide a higher deduction for a drop that results in the disc spinning away from the player.

Intent is the Guiding Principle: Players should be judged on their intent. Bobbles, THE delays, wobbles, re-revving, and even “saves” may constitute execution errors if they were not what the player intended.

Breaks in Flow Warrant Execution Deductions: Judges should deduct for any and all breaks in flow.

2.5.5 Artistic Impression: Teamwork​

In the Teamwork category, judges evaluate the quality and quantity of co-ops and speed-flow segments. Judges should place special emphasis on the quality of the co-ops.

2.5.6 Artistic Impression: Music Choreography​

In the Music Choreography category, judges evaluate the team's relationship to the style and content of their music. Judges should not let their own musical tastes dictate the score, but judges should consider how the team interacts with the music. Routines that hit key breaks in the music or that show a well-established relationship to the style and content of the music should be rewarded more than a routine that shows no relationship to the music. Music before play beings: Judges should not consider choreography performed unrelated to disc movement, before the first throw or disc movement, or after the grace period.

2.5.7 Artistic Impression: Form​

Judges should evaluate the extent to which the team incorporates appealing, confident, and purposeful body positioning, as opposed to haphazard or sloppy body positioning.

2.6 Variety​

2.6.1 General​

Variety reflects how many kinds of disc manipulations and physical interactions a team uses. The main purpose is to avoid or reduce repetition. Judge the routine as a series of ideas. Note whether the team presents a series of unique ideas (a high score) or the same idea over and over (a low score). An idea can be a throw, a catch, a dramatic event involving the disc, or a consecutive portion of a combination. Focus closely on how each move is performed, as repeating the same move with different hands or spins or with an upside down disc is not necessarily repetitive. Purposeful repetition must be considered carefully. It should not be penalized as long as variety is demonstrated within the routine.

Variety is judged through two components: a “quantity” and a “quality” component. The quantity score reflects how many individual unique components a team performed. The quality score reflects the depth, skill, and aptitude of a team’s variety. The quality score is a multiple applied to a team’s quantity score.

2.6.2 Quantity Score​

The quantity score requires the judge to press an “increment” button each time a new element is introduced into a routine. Every new throw, move, catch, direction, side, or other component involving the disc receives an increment.

Types of Variety: There are many types of variety that a team may introduce. The following provide a non-exhaustive examples of variety.

  • Throws: Variations include use of different throws, grips, and hands.
  • Catches: Variations include different catches and different performance of catches (leaping vs. standing; right leg or hand vs. left hand or leg).
  • Disc handling: Variations include basic disc manipulations (control moves, brushing, angle adjustments, turnovers, rolls, deflections, etc.).
  • Styles of play: Variations include diversity of freestyle elements (multiple disc, juggling, padiddling, twirling, speed flow etc.).
  • Spin directions, Ambidexterity: Variations include the use of both hands and the use of both spins (clock and counter).

The same move with a different hand or a different spin may warrant a variety increment. The same moves by different players on the team does not warrant a variety increment.

2.6.3 Quality Score​

The quality component of the variety score is a single score that reflects three considerations: (1) variety of move types demonstrated; (2) the amount of skill in each move type demonstrated; and (3) BSAA (“both spins any angle”) aptitude.

The first factor--the variety of move types demonstrated--measures the number of moves performed across different categories of moves, like throws, catches, rolls, skids, turnovers, tips, kicks, and brushes. It is distinguishable from the quantity score because the focus is not just on the variety of moves (which could occur in a single category like throws), but the variety of moves that show different skill sets.

The second factor--amount of skill in each move type demonstrated--measures the depth and difficulty demonstrated in each move category. It is meant to prevent players from applying a “checklist” approach to variety by doing a series of simple moves in each category. Although it overlaps with difficulty, it rewards difficulty achieved through different skill sets.

The third factor--BSAA aptitude--measures the balance of a routine along three dimensions: (1) clock-counter, (2) upside down-right side up, and (3) vertical-flat.

A few examples help explain the purpose of these changes:

  • Ex. Team A does 25 different unique skids. Team B does 25 unique moves including skids, turnovers, centerwork, rolls, kicks, guides, and throws. Team A and B would have the same increment score, but Team B would have a significantly higher quality score.
  • Ex. Team A does a Throw, Pull, Bad Attitude Hold, Shoot, Chair. Team B does a Throw, Right Hand Tip, Left Hand Tip, BTB Tip, Chair.
  • Both teams have a quantity score of 5. Team A’s quality score will be higher than Team B’s quality score. This is because Team A’s moves are different types of moves versus Team B’s move which are all forms of tips.
  • Ex. Team A does 10 unique clock skids 10 unique counter skids. Team B does 20 unique clock skids. Team A’s quality score will be higher than Team B’s quality score.
  • Ex. Team A does a backhand throw, an under-the-leg pull, and an under-the-leg catch. Team B does a UD behind-the-back throw, to a juice pull, to a gitosis catch. Team A and Team B have the same quantity score, but Team B has a higher quality score.

2.7 General Impression​

Every judge provides a “general impression” score.

Was the team successful in making the Artistic Impression or creating the emotional response they intended? Keep in mind that a team does not have to perform a pleasant or happy routine to be artistically successful.