The first Street League stop for 2012 is happening in Kansas City on May 19th and the new course for the stop has been revealed. There’s quite a few changes to the comp this year – for those that want to really understand the format and sequence, I’ve laid out the steps below from prelims to finals, and how the scores will accumulate over the weekend. The biggest change is the introduction of the new Run Section which is 45 seconds to put together the best lines the pros can. This is a pretty big change from the previous years so it will be really interesting to see how it works.

Format and Sequence

1. Day 1 of each stop will be a Preliminary Qualifying day where all 24 pros will compete for a spot in the Finals.

2. The pros will be broken up into four heats of 6 skaters each for Qualifying.

3. However, this year the Qualifying will consist of 2 sections as opposed to the usual 3.

4. The new “Run Section” where each skater will be given two 45 second runs. The highest of the 2 scores will be counted for each pro.

5. Next will the “Big Section”, where each pro will have 6 attempts and their top 4 scores will be counted.

6. The single Run Section score and the 4 Big Section scores are combined to determine an overall score.

7. The 5 pros with the highest overall scores will go directly to the Finals.

8. Pros in 6-12th places at the end of Qualifying will go to the Semifinals which will take place the on Day 2 before the Finals.

9. Day 2 will begin with the Semifinals which will be one heat of 7 skaters, those who qualified ranked 6-12 in Qualifying.

10. The Semifinals will consist of one 45 second Run Section attempt. The 3 pros with the highest scores move on to the Finals. The remaining 4 are eliminated.

11. The Finals in 2012 will consist of 8 pros as opposed to 2011 where 10 pros skated.

12. These top 8 pros will skate all 3 sections of the course, the Run Section, Best Trick Section and the Big Section.

13. In the Run Section each skater will be given Two 45 second runs, the highest single score will be counted. The pro with the lowest score at the end of the Run Section will be eliminated.

14. Next up is the Best Trick Section which will be very similar to 2011, 5 attempts and the highest single score counts for each pro. The difference this year is that for the Best Trick Section the pros can skate anywhere on the course excluding the Big Section.

15. This one score is combined with each pro’s Run Section score and the top 6 move on to the Big Section.

16. In the Big Section each pro will be given 6 attempts and their 4 highest scores will be counted.

17. The pros’ Final score will consist of their top Run Section score plus their top Best Trick Section score plus their top 4 Big Section score.

18. The skater with the highest cumulative score will be the winner.