X Games League Draft
March 12th marked the first day of the future of X Games, for the first time Bmx and skate athletes would be drafted into four teams to compete, being offered a salary, travel and health insurance; for some, a life changing relief from the pressure of to make a living in action sports.
The draft took place at The Cosm in Inglewood, CA, and was broadcasted live across multiple platforms. Whilst it was open for any athlete in the portal to attend, X Games also extended invites to specific athletes - perhaps hopefuls to be selected, and names to show face at their editing event. I was lucky enough to be one of those athletes, along with three of my guests.
When X Games calls, you answer. So my husband Matt, and two good friends, Karley & Dom, booked flights and an airbnb to make the most of a trip to LA.
The idea of the draft is to hit a new, more mainstream audience, and groups big name athletes together representing teams from 4 corners of the globe - sharing fan base, global interest, and investing into the athletes so they can focus on progressive competition. The teams are ‘located’ in four hotspots for actionsports; New York, LA, Saul Paulo and Tokyo. The idea of those selecting athletes is to spread your odds, so to break it down -some athletes can compete in multiple disciplines, skate has more disciplines than bmx across male & female, and seam to have more athletes that have high chances of winning. Of course, there’s athletes that stand out in one category, and each team has to pick a minimum of three Bmxers, so pick wisely. Doing the math from my position - there’s only one women’s Bmx discipline, park, offering 8 spots to riders, therefor it’s essentially the ‘least valuable’ in the eyes of the teams for competitively filling the 10 spots on the 4 teams, with athletes that have high odds to win in multiple disciplines, scoring higher for the team overall… so it’s likely each team would only pick 1 rider to cover the bases. (covering 4 spots in women’s Bmx park). As it so happened that’s exactly what they did; each team selected 2 males and 1 female Bmxer, and focussed heavily on skate and ‘home town’ athletes, which was slightly disappointing for many two wheeled athletes. You gotta play the game.
Knowing this, we planned a 5 day trip to explore the city and enjoy the trip regardless of the result of the draft, as my selection chances were very small, and enjoy we did! I was awesome to share the X Games experience with my husband and good friends, following that we ticked all the tourist boxes there was to tick; LA, completed it mate. Venice (beach being a personal favourite of mine), Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood sign, lots of food, oh and visiting The Vault pro scooter shop and building my own scooter! I vlogged the whole experience, and really enjoyed editing something a little different and making memories, check out the Draft experience and our LA tour guide here.
I didn’t get selected for a team, but since then was invited to potentially compete at X Games Sacramento as a second alternate, meaning if two people drop out, I’m in. X Games have three events total this year, including Tokyo and, one I’d love to be invited to, New Orleans! It’s great to see so much investment into the athletes and events, hopefully this shift uplifts interest and fans of the legendary X Games.
Watch the vlog here.
