After days of voting in our inaugural Skier of the Year tournament bracket, the results from the Round of 16 are in. No big surprises, but a close race between Candide and Ahmet did ensue. Culled down, the Round of 8 provides some dicey matchups. How will Sean Pettit fare against Sammy Carlson? Can Sage Cattabriga-Alosa steamroll Candide like he did his TGR teammate? Monster teammates Jossi Wells and Tom Wallisch duke it out in a match of quintessential comp skiers. And who will take it in the All-American matchup between Simon Dumont and Bobby Brown? Vote in round two and find out.
Matchup 1: Kevin Rolland vs. Sean Pettit
Winner: Sean Pettit, 70%-30%
Veteran youngster Sean Pettit’s opening segment in MSP’s The Way I See It provided enough offense to handily best Kevin Rolland’s double X-Gold defense. While Kevin put on a good run — and look forward to seeing him defend his golds this season — Pettit moves on to another X Games medalist, Sammy Carlson.
Matchup 2: Seth Morrison vs. Sammy Carlson
Winner: Sammy Carlson, 71%-29%
Sammy Carlson, whose hot streak of opening seggy in PBP and closer in TGR, toppled the Seth Morrison empire in this year’s bracket. Despite Seth’s announcement of giving away free skis for life in conjunction with K2, the X Games Slopestyle bronze medalist proved too much for the big mountain vet.
Matchup 3: Candide Thovex vs. Ahmet Dadali
Winner: Candide Thovex, 52%-48%
In our closest contested matchup, the reigning World Champion Candide Thovex edged out Ahmet Dadali. Ahmet’s enormous street cred and Level 1 opening segment fell just shy of beating the legendary Frenchman. Ahmet looks up to Candide so it must be bittersweet to be beaten by one of your favorites. We’ll see how Candide fares against his big mountain brethren in the form of Sage Cattabriga-Alosa next round.
Matchup 4: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa vs. Dana Flahr
Winner: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, 70%-30%
Sage ran away from this one early and never looked back. Dana may have won Jibardy in our December issue, but Sage’s TGR firepower overwhelmed Dana’s injury-shortened TGR ammunition. While we enjoyed both skiers shots in Light The Wick, we’ll only be able to enjoy Sage’s presence in the rest of the tournament.
Matchup 5: Tom Wallisch vs. Dane Tudor
Winner: Tom Wallisch, 70%-30%
Wallisch is currently being featured in two movies (Level 1’s Eye Trip & Field’s Side by Side) to Tudor’s one (PBP’s Revolver), which may have given the Pretzel Man a big advantage. That or Wallisch’s huge bag of doubles, crazy smooth style and long list of accolades suppressed Dane’s backcountry skiing. Wallisch accumulated the single most amount of votes in the first round of any of the 16. Telling?
Matchup 6: Jossi Wells vs. Tim Durtschi
Winner: Jossi Wells, 57%-43%
Durtschi may have double cork 1080’d Chad’s Gap, but he’s practically secluded all winter. All the while Jossi is kissing babies from X Games podiums and winning AFP Overall titles. Tim’s PBP segment put up an impressive fight, but in the end, it’s Jossi who will be moving on.
Matchup 7: Simon Dumont vs. Chris Benchetler
Winner: Simon Dumont, 58%-42%
We expected the Nimbus mainstay to put up a tougher fight against The Dumont. Maybe it was one of his podiums at Winter Dew or maybe it was impressive JOSS edit w/ Mr. Wallisch that propelled him past Benchetler. Either way, Simon moves on to face off against Captain America, Bobby Brown next round.
Matchup 8: Phil Casabon vs. Bobby Brown
Winner: Bobby Brown, 58%-42%
While Casabon had the support of B&E frontman Henrik Harlaut, Bobby’s hardware (3 X Games medals, Dew Cup, AFP title, etc) proved the bigger asset. Young Brown has won almost every accolade, but he’ll face a tough matchup against perennial favorite Simon Dumont.
