In order to host an online virtual tournament, we need to adapt our judging rules to fit this model. The IJRU Technical Congress met electronically on October 24, 2020 to review and recommend rules for the IJRU 2021 Virtual Tournament. There were 21 National Governing Bodies (NGBs) represented at the meeting and each NGB had 1 vote and 2 delegates. We will make a public announcement with all rule updates on November 2, 2020. 

Please view the Virtual Tournament Addendum that details all changes that have been made to the IJRU Judging Manual and Competition Manual for virtual tournaments. Here is an overview of some of the major changes. 

Show Freestyle 

Show Freestyle has been removed from the IJRU 2021 Virtual Tournament. Here are some of the reasons for this decision: 

• We believe it will be too difficult for NGBs to record a Show Freestyle event in a way that the judges can see all of the elements clearly 

• There are also concerns that public health guidelines limit the number of people that can gather in person, which will make a large team show not possible for many NGBs 

• Some NGBs are also struggling to access large facilities that would be necessary to accommodate and record the Show Freestyle event 

As a result, we’ve decided to remove this event from the virtual tournament.  

Space violations 

We’ve removed the deduction associated with space violations from the judging manual. Here are some of the reasons for this rule change: 

• We believe it would be too difficult to regulate the size of the video camera field to ensure that it matches the spacing requirements outlined for in-person tournaments 

• We also know that accessing large facilities is going to be difficult in some parts of the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic 

• By removing space violations, it will be easier for NGBs to record and manage videos 

Judges will not award points for any skills or speed steps/multiples that are completed if a member of the team is outside of the field of view.  

Required elements 

We’ve removed the partner interaction required element for the Single Rope Pairs Freestyle and Single Rope Team Freestyle events. Partner interactions are still allowed in the routine, but teams will not receive a reduction in score if they don’t include partner interactions.  

Here is the rationale for this rule change: 

• In some areas of the world, individuals are required to maintain physical or social distance from other people in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 

• By removing the partner interaction required element, we are allowing these NGBs to still participate in this event without receiving a reduction from the overall score 

Since athletes will need to be within 2 m (4 ft.) of each other to participate in double dutch freestyle events, it isn’t necessary to remove the partner interaction required element.  

Records 

We’ve decided that any world records that are set during the IJRU 2021 Virtual World Championships will remain separate from world records achieved at live tournaments. We believe that the tournament environment and video submission guidelines are so different between virtual and in-person events that we shouldn’t compare the records. 

Virtual World Champion 

The winner of an event at the IJRU 2021 Virtual World Championships will receive the title “Virtual World Champion.”  

Video submissions 

Athletes may record as many attempts as they’d like for each event and select their best video to submit for the IJRU Virtual World Championships. All video submissions must come to IJRU through your NGB. We are asking that NGBs work with local clubs and athletes to manage the video submission process. We will not accept videos from individual athletes and clubs. 

We will be releasing complete video submission guidelines in the future and IJRU is working with QTV and our Production Committee to put together clear guidelines about how videos should be recorded. Editing videos in any way is not allowed and will result in automatic disqualification. 

2021 Virtual World Championships timeline 

IJRU is working out the details regarding the registration deadline and video submission deadline. It will likely be similar to the timeline that was presented for the 2020 tournament. You can expect a registration deadline in March and a video submission deadline in April or May. We will announce the official timeline before the new year. 

Questions? 

For questions about the IJRU Virtual World Championships or other general inquiries, please send an email to info@ijru.sport. For questions about the IJRU rules or judging, please send an email to tcom@irju.sport.