Sling Slam 2025 Begleri World Championships 

TLDR Overview 

• Sling Slam 2025 will run August 8th to August 11th, 2025
• The main event is freestyle begleri, and there are side events for komboloi/ MKUltras, chetki, knuckle rollers/ kbones, deadeyes/ contact coin/ or straight up coin manipulation, and rings (including banzhis and hollows in this category
• The contest is being hosted on our Invisible College platform, over at www.invisiblecollege.com
• Cash prizes totalling over $3000, plus draw prizes and other rewards for participating
• It's a great annual event for benchmarking your progress and just generally getting involved with the community

Contest Description

Sling Slam 2025, our seventh annual worldwide open begleri freestyle contest, is scheduled to run August 8th to 11th, 2025. It will be an online event, much like our previous Slang Slammeds, including categories for komboloi/ MKUltras, chetki, knuckle rollers/ kbones, deadeyes/ contact coin/ or straight up coin manipulation, and rings (including banzhis and hollows in this category). Unlike previous years, the contest will not be hosted on social media, and will instead be run on our Invisible College platform, much in the manner of our recent Cut Contra video contest. Participants will submit freestyle clips online, conforming to the rules below, showcasing their best tricks, flow, and video production skills. Videos will be submitted at the Invisible College, but participants are welcome and encouraged to cross post their videos on social media as well (using hashtag #slingslam2025) to share their skills and spread the love. Full details and rules below. 

 

Open Contest

Our focus is on inclusion and participation over competition for these events, so we have draw prizes and a special promo code for ALL participants. This is an open contest, with no "tiers" or categories for players making this a single event with everyone participating side by side.

 

Judging

Sling Slam will be a judged competition, and judging will be conducted according to three equally weighted criteria. This year's judges will be the following:

• Rusty @rmaustemery
• Brax @mkxarb
• Chris @chainheart._
• Soul @the_soul_smith
• Matt @aroundsquare
  

 

Scoring Criteria 

Clip Quality  

• sufficient lighting, begleri (or other items) clearly visible
• good framing, clean/ appropriate background, sufficient contrast
• filming, stable frame, begleri in frame etc.

Technical Difficulty 

• sophistication, complexity, difficulty of tricks
• variety of trick elements
• innovativeness

Artistic Merit

• performance and style
• good flow, tight/ clean execution
• clean editing
• matching with music etc.
• additional elements (humour, finishing moves, combo construction etc.)

 

How to Participate 

Sling Slam 2025 is being hosted on Aroundsquare's new Invisible College platform. This will be very similar to our recent Cut Contra competition. We've made the move to create our own platform due to the increasing issues with using hashtags on social media. The Invisible College has been built on a platform called Circle, and it provides us with an enclosed space that streamlines the submission and adjudication processes. We encourage you to post your submissions on Instagram and other platforms if you like, and if you do so, please tag the judges and use hashtag #slingslam2025 (for what it’s worth). But you’ll need to set up an account and upload your submission through Invisible College to get your submission in front of the judges. 

The process is straightforward, and everything can be done either through a web browser, or using the Circle Communities app on your phone: 

1. Create an Account - Set up an account at www.invisiblecollege.com using a web browser
2. Submission Spaces - Find the Sling Slam 2025 section and the Submissions spaces corresponding to the "event" you are submitting to (meaning, which skill toy category). Note that the submissions spaces will only go live on August 8th at the start of the event. 
3. Post Your Submission(s) - Create a post by attaching your video (similar to the process used to upload attachments on discord, reddit, facebook etc.)

In the Submission spaces, you’ll be able to view and comment on one another’s videos. Note that there is a general landing page that is publicly accessible, but once you have set up an account and logged in, you’ll be able to view the Submissions space, as well as a Discussion section and other areas that are not open to public. 

NOTE: There is a Circle app available on both iOS and Android. Once you've installed it and logged in to your Circle account, it becomes, effectively, a dedicated app for the Invisible College.. great for cutting through the cruft of today's social media, and getting straight to your favourite community! 

 

Rules

1. This is an “open” freestyle competition, meaning there are no restrictions on play. Multiple grip changes, aerials, two-handed play, and so on, are all allowable. Players are limited to one set of begleri (or, chetki, ultras, kbone, coin as the case may be).
2. Any set can be used (i.e., it does not need to be an AO2 set).
3. Clip must be continuous, and must be 20s to 30s in length
4. Clip may contain slow motion segments, zooming, and other editing, provided the continuity of the clip is not interrupted (freeze frames are allowed, but no reversal of clip direction)
5. Clip editing should not detract from the clear depiction of the freestyle performance (text and drawn animations are allowed, but should be used sparingly; additional windows within main window should not be used)
6. Minimize introductions (title screens are allowed, but will count as part of the max 30s clip length)
   
7. Notwithstanding the rules and clarifications above, the clip must reflect the intent of this contest as a pure freestyle contest. If the judges feel there are excessive deviations from that intent, the clip may be disqualified at the judges’ discretion, regardless of whether they are explicitly breaking the rules.
8. Anything not explicitly allowed in the rules, and anything falling into a grey area, will be subject to judges’ decision, which will be final. If you’re unsure of something you can contact AO2 for clarification prior to the competition.
9. Please only submit one clip per event. You may participate in as many events as you like (begleri, chetki, ultras, kbones, coins, and rings). Participants posting more than one clip to a single event will be disqualified.
10. Submitting clips to multiple events will give you multiple chances to win draw prizes, up to a maximum of five chances (one per event). 

Suggestions

• Use the best lighting available. In general, the more light you flood into your filming space, the better the quality of your clip.
• Use a clean background such as a blank wall, a hanging backdrop or sheet, a clean floor, or if all else fails, a clean patch of pavement or grass outdoors etc.
• Minimize fancy editing that creates visual clutter and detracts from following the flow of the begleri
• Add a tune to your clip (it makes it more entertaining for viewers)
• Use editing sparingly to accentuate key tricks or highlight sync with your selected music

 

Prizes 

Lots of great prizes are planned for this year’s contest, including draw prizes that will go to randomly selected participants. There will be designated prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the main begleri contest. There will also be a top prize and runner-up for the best chetki entry, the best komboloi/ MKUltras entry, the best knuckle roller/ knucklebone entry, the best coin manipulation, and the best ring manipulation entry. Draw prizes will be given to randomly selected participants on each day of the event, meaning those who enter on the first day have more opportunities to win.

 

Competitive Prizes 

Begleri

1. First Place (begleri): $500 cash; bragging rights as 2025 World Champ; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
2. Second Place (begleri): $300 cash; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
3. Third Place (begleri): $100 cash; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)

Komboloi/ MKUltras

1. First Place (komboloi/ MKUltras): $300 cash; bragging rights as 2025 World Champ; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
2. Runner-up (komboloi/ MKUltras): $200 cash; choice of any non-exotic item in the shop

Chetki

1. First Place (chetki): $300 cash; bragging rights as 2025 World Champ; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
2. Runner-up (chetki): $200 cash; choice of any non-exotic item in the shop

Knuckle Rollers/ Knucklebones

1. First Place (knuckle rollers/ kbones): $300 cash; bragging rights as 2025 World Champ; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
2. Runner-up (knuckle rollers/ kbones): $200 cash; choice of any non-exotic item in the shop

Coin Manipulation/ Deadeyes 

1. First Place (coin manipulation/ deadeyes): $300 cash; bragging rights as 2025 World Champ; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
2. Runner-up (coin manipulation/ deadeyes): $200 cash; choice of any non-exotic item in the shop

Ring Manipulation/ Banzhis/ Hollows

1. First Place (rings): $300 cash; bragging rights as 2025 World Champ; choice of almost any AO2 item (any standard item, and most exotics)
2. Runner-up (rings): $200 cash; choice of any non-exotic item in the shop

Draw Prizes

Draw prizes will be awarded on each day of the contest, from August 8th to 11th, meaning that participants who submit a clip earlier will have more chances to win. There will be one draw prize winner per day, randomly selected from the clips as of that day. 

 

Participation Prizes

All participants will be given a promo code, offering 25% off a future purchase with Aroundsquare (some exclusions may apply)

Participation and community involvement is a big part of this contest, so we'd like to encourage you all to follow the hashtags on Instagram and to give some feedback and encouragement to one another as the posts show up in your feed throughout the week, let's go