I'm curious to here some more experienced guys, especially the pros, chime in on this information. This is obviously posted by a fan, who has no experience at the high level of the IFBB. So I'm really curious how those who've been there feel about it all. Here is part one:
NVious said:So I've been meaning to write this for a while, but I hadn't gotten the time nor felt the inspiration to really lay it out there. However I feel that the time has come to really put the truth out there.
Before we begin, it's best to say that if you're easily upset or have some "loyalty" to any organization, this is NOT the thread for you.
So let's begin, the IFBB is not an organization with the best interest of bodybuilding fans or even bodybuilders themselves. They've proven time and time again that they couldn't care less about people that actually have an interest in this already fringe "sport." How? Well let's take a look at everything the IFBB does wrong.
[size=+2]1.Judging[/size]
Over the years people have seemingly gotten used to terrible decisions, even at the biggest shows with the most spotlight. Some notable examples are Cutler being gifted in 07 and 11/Cedric at the AC and Dallas/Sami being beaten by the monstrosity KE/Branch winning two AC titles and the list goes on and on (think Baitollah Abbaspour/Charles Dixon). More often than not, you tend to expect some retarded decision to be made at pretty much every pro show.
[size=+2]2.What is actually judged?[/size]
NOBODY even really knows, I mean we have an idea: mandatory poses/muscularity/flow/proportions/aesthetics. These are all terms thrown around, but they're EXTREMELY ambiguous since no judge ever steps forward to discuss their decisions and there is no print of how much each of those is worth. You're left with people being placed differently from show to show, standards changing is a new winner is announced, i.e now they award improvements and disregard a bodybuilder who although better doesn't look as good as he has in the past or they award the most shredded guy who doesn't necessarily look the best or maybe they award the biggest guy who doesn't have the best proportions or maybe they award the guy with the best aesthetics. The issue is that the judges can hide behind these terms and just say "oh it's subjective," thus allowing them to make terrible decisions that would not be justifiable if we had some fine print into what is actually judged. There is ZERO consistency, thus leaving the people following bbing just as confused as someone who may not know anything about it as to why someone won.
Probably the biggest issue I have with the judging itself is that posing...you know the thing that so many prior bodybuilders prided themselves on....yeah POSING ISN'T JUDGED. Maybe the NBA should play with a football, maybe the NFL should take away tackling and use, maybe the NHL should use soccer nets instead, maybe the MLB should...actually baseball sucks so who cares? But you get the point, posing...something that used to be how shows were won or lost and the thing that really brought an "artistic" form to bodybuilding, yeah that's now gone.
[size=+2]3.Streaming[/size]
When I first started following bbing in 09 there were actually streams regularly of many pro shows and even going back further, there were obviously streams for gifs like this to be made:
Now have humans improved technology wise from 09 to 13? lol..... So why don't we have more streams? PURE LAZINESS. What kind of a moronic organization DOESN'T EVEN MAKE THEIR "SPORT" ACCESSIBLE TO THE FEW PEOPLE THAT CARE? I can find streams for the local junior sports team and have been able to for nearly a decade, yet in 2013 I can only find streams for two of the biggest events in PROFESSIONAL BODYBUILDING... That's a joke, there is ZERO EXCUSES for this. I don't care if in the past you had to wait months to get results, this isn't the past. They could even charge for a yearly online pass, but IFBB marketing itself and trying to maximize fans? Nahhh.
[size=+2]4.Lighting[/size]
Seriously? How hard is it to get this right? I mean in the 90s it seemed nearly every show had epic lighting or at least half decent lighting. Now you're lucky if you get 2-3 shows a year with decent lighting, let's take a look at some recent poverty efforts:
Yuckk....wtf happened to shows like this:
[youtube]t-qiDzXzhcc[/youtube]
Can the IFBB not afford to hire a professional lighting crew AT LEAST for their pro shows?
[size=+2]5.The Rampant Hypocrisy[/size]
This ties into the judging, but it deserves it's own mention. The recent Cedric fiasco highlights this entire point, I mean what sort of organization DQs one of the biggest draws to it's shows because that person missed a meaningless meeting in a foreign country. Not only did that person have to arrange for his own transportation to get to the actual event, but they had to pay to be in the country.....STRONG professional organization. Of all the things to enforce in their nonsensical paradigm, they choose this? Didn't they put out a memo saying they were going to mark down guts some years ago? Aren't AAS/diuretics banned per their rules? Hmmmm.
/Part1
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