The Reality of The IFBB: Why Bodybuilding Will Continue to Regress (Cold Harsh Truth)

[AniMaLizTik]

You'd probably be surprised who actually ends up reading threads like this...pehaps place more emphasis on how to begin resolving the issues. IMO:

1. Fix the judging first and foremost. Go back to the writen criteria in the rules and forget about dues paid, hype, or sponsors. Award more appealing physiques above freakiness. Just how the women bodybuilders are supposed to maintain some feminimity (sp) the males should be forced to maintain the classic shapes of small waist, big shoulders, etc

2. Bodybuilding could EASILY get more exposure than it does. More exposure creates more demand. More demand means more people screamiing when corruption prevails. Do you mean to tell me that if the power that be in the IFBB approached ESPN, that they would get denied? Please, ESPN 2 has sht like bowling, cheerleading, and that stupid ass canadian game with broom and the puck FFS.

[NVious]

Thanks a lot. I've considered it and I've had others tell me to create a ******** page but it just seems like every other kid who likes to lift even if they look like shiit creates a ******** page and now it basically means nothing to have one since theres kids that are a joke that have thousands of likes/followers because they spam places trying to get views on their page. But Idk I'll see.

You really should do it, your physique def deserves it.

I do agree though, def a lot of spammish ****kunuts, but hey tis better to have a quality 5k fans than 50k, so even if it's just that, building your name and getting it out there is def worth it.

Very good points OP. The Olympia is still as good as ever but the bottom has really fallen out of nearly every other pro show.

The Arnold this year was just depressing. We all knew a lot of top bodybuilders were skipping it, but holy f*ck, the 2nd place winner placed ELEVENTH at the Olympia last September! The difference in quality between the two shows was just shocking.

Even as little as 3 years ago we got an amazing Arnold, with Phil, Kai, and Dexter, all of them looking amazing...basically the Olympia lineup except for Jay and Victor.

Now it's a completely different show.

Yeah def not like battles of past years, at least Branch didn't compete.

Bravo OP... Bravo

That Arnold Classic 10 year difference is depressing

Just to add my own 2 cent... prime example of corruption from last year was the 2012 Flex Pro
The Poster from before the show


What were the placings?
1 Lionel Beyeke
2 Ben Pakulski
3 Fouad Abiad
4 Shawn Rhoden
5 Eduardo Correa

Many felt Correa (Including Sweet n low Shawn Ray) was hands down the best guy on the stage, Lionel Beyeke clearly was off the mark, and somehow he wins the show. How can you argue that? Because his shape and symmetry? Shiiiiit in that case Branch should never win a show which goes back to the whole "What is actually judged?" question.

And it goes on and on, in this show shape takes precedence and in other show shreddedness and size does.

You'd probably be surprised who actually ends up reading threads like this...pehaps place more emphasis on how to begin resolving the issues. IMO:

1. Fix the judging first and foremost. Go back to the writen criteria in the rules and forget about dues paid, hype, or sponsors. Award more appealing physiques above freakiness. Just how the women bodybuilders are supposed to maintain some feminimity (sp) the males should be forced to maintain the classic shapes of small waist, big shoulders, etc

2. Bodybuilding could EASILY get more exposure than it does. More exposure creates more demand. More demand means more people screamiing when corruption prevails. Do you mean to tell me that if the power that be in the IFBB approached ESPN, that they would get denied? Please, ESPN 2 has sht like bowling, cheerleading, and that stupid ass canadian game with broom and the puck FFS.

Completely agree and I do know that these threads do get read by big names, hell I was banned from MD solely because I was so critical of the IFBB. No prior bans, no warnings, never really had it out with members or insulted moderators....bam perma ban out of the blue..okay.jpeg

Also don't talk bad about Hockey or I may have to put a puck up your ass .

[liuzhoudragon]

I like an idea the D Yates had for judging. Simple , too the point, pose related, easier apply fairly.

Go through mandatory poses. Whoever wins the most mandatory poses wins. How fu.cking simple is that. Then you could just weigh the other finishes with points to pic between 5th and 6th and so on and so forth.

Perfect? no. but I was argue a painfully easy to make improvement.

[liuzhoudragon]

You'd probably be surprised who actually ends up reading threads like this...pehaps place more emphasis on how to begin resolving the issues. IMO:

1. Fix the judging first and foremost. Go back to the writen criteria in the rules and forget about dues paid, hype, or sponsors. Award more appealing physiques above freakiness. Just how the women bodybuilders are supposed to maintain some feminimity (sp) the males should be forced to maintain the classic shapes of small waist, big shoulders, etc

2. Bodybuilding could EASILY get more exposure than it does. More exposure creates more demand. More demand means more people screamiing when corruption prevails. Do you mean to tell me that if the power that be in the IFBB approached ESPN, that they would get denied? Please, ESPN 2 has sht like bowling, cheerleading, and that stupid ass canadian game with broom and the puck FFS.

yeah...........but the females maintaining their feminity thing died a long time ago. They like hidieous she beasts in my opinion.

[patbanya]

Completely agree and I do know that these threads do get read by big names, hell I was banned from MD solely because I was so critical of the IFBB. No prior bans, no warnings, never really had it out with members or insulted moderators....bam perma ban out of the blue..okay.jpeg

You're Nik133? It doesn't look like your account is currently banned. Usually when that occurs the user name is s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶, and there's a caption stating the account is banned.

Also don't talk bad about Hockey or I may have to put a puck up your ass .

Curling.

[MG5]

You really should do it, your physique def deserves it.

Ok finally did it. https://www.********.com/MGettFit

You're like the 5th or 6th person to tell me to make one so I guess its time lol.

[liuzhoudragon]

You're Nik133? It doesn't look like your account is currently banned. Usually when that occurs the user name is s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶, and there's a caption stating the account is banned.



Curling.

that bullsh.it is in the olympics........................and wrestling is not. I don't have any sarcasm or witty response appropriate for this levle of *******ry.

[Hookup]

The real reason the IFBB will never be mainstream is the public opinion of sports technology drugs has never been lower.
Good night Lance, good night IFBB

[NVious]

Ok finally did it. https://www.********.com/MGettFit

You're like the 5th or 6th person to tell me to make one so I guess its time lol.

Get plasmabrah to share your pics on his fitness model page, I'm sure you'll get quite a few likes that way.

[s2814fun]

Its sad to say but points are all valid, especially sad since there are a select few of us who really follow the sport.

PS...once i saw you mention lighting I knew British GP 99 was comin sooner or later.

[LT1Squirrel]

Im still disgusted the ironman got written off... always the best lighting and usually was the olympia qualifier before the arnold took over as #2

[Nep2une]

beautiful post NVIOUS, reps on spread !!!!


The judging and point system needs to be clarified and maybe simplified, we as fans should be able to have a good idea of what the EXACT score is before the judges make their scores known ! But who gives a crap about that if we can't even get a stream ( video game tournaments and card games get streams ) and what's the point of the stream if the lighting is so bad we can't see crap anyways..........

I agree with Groggery, it's beyond saving and needs a complete makeover.

[Zirkon]

I think its interesting the point in the post where OP talks about the Hodgetwins etc in comparison to IFBB pros. Im now a huge Pro and amature bodybuilding fan for a couple years now. I originally was a fan of youtube fitness sites like hodgetwins etc and found my way to pro bodybuilding that way. it is likely lots of other people who follow these youtube sensations will eventuallly find their way to ifbb bodybuilding

[endurancell]

who's that prick in the gif in the OP? what show is that from? what a douche bag

[liuzhoudragon]

The real reason the IFBB will never be mainstream is the public opinion of sports technology drugs has never been lower.
Good night Lance, good night IFBB

general public is stupid as fu.ck about gear.

Go apesh.it about Lance.
Belive the WWE has a real Wellness policy.
UFC TRT users are actually really in need or extra test. (strange how MMA fighter have such a super high % of guys with low test isn't it?)
NFL full of fast 300 lb guys.........giant HGH hands. Only person they hate on for PEDs is richard sherman for ********.

somehow Hardcore supps in Bodybuilding is shocking and wrong and rare though.

[Mr_Aryze]

who's that prick in the gif in the OP? what show is that from? what a douche bag

This. Looks like Dorian, but can't tell.

And excellent thread OP... I pretty much agree with everything. Although, as someone else has pointed out, that the market has grown, the value of the essence of everything is dwindling. What could be analogous is hip hop music, where there are still some quality artists, but generally the quality has reduced and the system seems to cater to such developments.

[adamsz]

5 star thread

[patbanya]

who's that prick in the gif in the OP? what show is that from? what a douche bag

This. Looks like Dorian, but can't tell.

Shari "King" Kamali got into a shoving match with George Farah at the 2006 New York Pro. Kamali was quite the character, and never a stranger to controversy during his heyday. I guess it worked because it kept him in the limelight for several years. Believe it or not, as a rookie pro, he actually beat Dexter Jackson at the 2001 Arnold Classic. Things were looking promising until he went overboard in the pursuit of more mass.

George Farah Interview

• What did you think of the NY Pro show?

Then the night show comes, and King Kamali and Bill Wilmore placed ahead of me. I don't mind Wilmore placing ahead of me because the guy is such a gentleman. I can't help it but love the guy and be happy for him.

But somebody like King Kamali to place ahead of me, and on top of it, claiming that I said some disrespectful things. And that I shoved him first. What, is he fricken crazy, this guy. I mean, I don't know what happened between me and King, until today, I have no idea why the guy doesn't like me. I hear nothing except negative stuff from him. Every time somebody comes and tells me, and I am talking for the past 4 or 5 years, ever since I turned pro. In the beginning, I was like that I am the tough guy, and he was always talking nice about me. All of a sudden I am no good, and he is making fun of me all of the time.

• So is King Kamali uneducated?

I don't know what King is. I just think that King has a problem. And I don't have a problem with the guy. Like I said, I never wanted to go down to anyone's level. I don't think I am an average bodybuilider. I didn't study all of my life so I can around and act like "I'm the ****" when I am not. I never in my life said that I am going into the show, and show you this and that. I am not like this. I respect everybody, and I would do anything to better our sport. And then you got King pushing and showing and doing stuff. As a matter of fact, I asked him "Dude, you hurt me out there". That is the only time I really talked to him backstage, and there were numerous bodybuilders back there that will tell you. "What was that all about?" Oh, you know, it's no big deal. It's just when I am pumped and stuff. And I said "Pumped what?" And then I walked away. I don't even know why I bothered with that?

• Where you surprised when King did that?

Yes, I was very surprised. I am like "What the **** is wrong with this guy. Why is he acting like this?" Because he is basically losing, and didn't live up to his expectations and promising people that he is coming back with a vengeance. Well guess what. Coming back with a vengeance and discovering reality - he got beat.

[weltweitefurcht]

I forget the details (hopefully someone can refresh my memory here) but I remember reading about a judge who said he gave Arnold the win because the other competitor didn't come down to them and introduce himself, shake hands, and do all of those pleasantries before the competition like Arnold did.

If I remember right, there was debate about the other competitor getting second place to Arnold. The controversy was such, that the judge was interviewed about why he made the decision he did.

Was very surprising that he admitted that straight up.

[Zirkon]

who's that prick in the gif in the OP? what show is that from? what a douche bag

King Kamali. hes shoving george farah

[Rambo26]

Awesome post

[BlackNumero]

Little bit Moaarr!

Lack of Judging Transparency

.

Thanks for bumping this. The lack of transparency in judging bothers me too much lol.

[stealth_swimmer]

Lee Thompson was interviewed on PBW recently. He said the last person to miss a mandatory meeting was Kevin Levrone, and he was DQ'd for it, just like Cedric. Bad for the fans, but does lend credibility to the sport.

As for fixing the judging - an easy way for this to happen is for YOU guys, or others who like classically shaped physiques with tiny waists to become judges. It's very simple (not saying it's easy though since I dunno what goes into it). If it bugs you that much, put your money where your mouth is a become a judge. Personally, I think the judging has improved over the last few years. The top guys in the sport got pretty good structure, Brandon Curry just won the AC Brazil, Cedric won FIBO, Phil Heath and Kai Greene are the top two guys in the world as of last year, etc.

However, I agree with folks saying the judging needs to be more transparent.

[stealth_swimmer]

beautiful post NVIOUS, reps on spread !!!!


The judging and point system needs to be clarified and maybe simplified, we as fans should be able to have a good idea of what the EXACT score is before the judges make their scores known ! But who gives a crap about that if we can't even get a stream ( video game tournaments and card games get streams ) and what's the point of the stream if the lighting is so bad we can't see crap anyways..........

I agree with Groggery, it's beyond saving and needs a complete makeover.

I think Bob Cicherillo a few years back suggested making the scores publicly known in real time via scoreboard (the Challenge Round that happened for two years was an experiment that also included that...but I think the IFBB got discouraged from using the scoreboard in the normal part of the show when they had technical difficulties with either the scoreboard or the devices the judges used to score the athletes electronically).

[MegaLex88]

Another Relative Bump

Hackjob Show Organization

Time and time again people have been saying this, but it seems that no one at the IFBB headquarters seems to give a damn, so I’ll try and make it extra clear: The Mr. Olympia Show is horribly organized. There, I said it. For the “superbowl” of bodybuilding, it gives off the appearance of a circus with so much ****ing **** that even the most avid fitness enthusiasts tire during the show. I swear, it reminds me of the U.S federal budget, constantly growing more bloated in size despite all “attempts” to streamline it and cut things.

First, the webcast sucks. Its 2012, approaching 2013. Does the webcast need to be shaky and skittish for most people? The Arnold webcast is usually fine for me, the Olympia webcast is not. Can’t the fans pay for a better quality webcast, or something? Does the sound need to be ahead of whats showing up on the screen? Could we get more than one person handling the webcast at this event? I could understand how this is complaining given it were ten years ago, but such ineptitude conjures up only incredulity. And can the webcast not zoom in on competitors during comparisons? I never understood this one. Is it really needed? Is THIS what the fans want to see? I think these images accurately describe how all of us feel when this happens:



This is me with my judging face on. Ready to give my shot on objectively comparing physiques to see who wins what pose. But instead Pose X is ruined because:



When meanwhile during bikini:



Second, the lighting and the stages suck. Granted, I thought the 2009 Olympia lighting was great, but in 2010, 2011, and 2012 the stage and lighting seemed very bland. Why this is so, especially when it hurts how the physiques look, is beyond me. Some smaller tier shows have infinitely better lighting. Hell, even the ****ing webcast announcers commented on the lighting and how it washed out physiques! The Olympia stages used to be cool and dynamic. The ones from the 90s, hell I’ll even throw in the 2004 stage, are memorable. The new ones aren’t. The Arnold has some great stages and better lighting, and is really the more professional and adeptly run show (probably because there isn’t nearly as much women’s crap).

The general ineptitude of the Mr. Olympia show is most obviously seen by looking at the Olympia weekend schedule, or lack thereof. Eager bodybuilding fans, from all around the world look forward to the Olympia weekend. Usually its in the third or fourth weekend in September, with two night shows on Friday and Saturday. And its in Vegas. After that, no one has a ****ing clue about A)The components of the actual show and B)When the important stuff starts. Instead, most of us wait for what can only be described as an eternity into the wee hours of the night as endless female divisions are called out on the center stage. For the superbowl of bodybuilding, this is the “Olympia Night show schedule” we are given:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...nd-predictions (The original link to the IFBB website no longer works)

Friday Sept. 28

Fitness, Bikini & Ms. Olympia Finals and Mr. Olympia Judging—7:00 p.m. PT

Saturday, Sept. 29

Figure, 212 Showdown & Mr. Olympia Finals—7:00 p.m. PT

Oh. I mean, lets not go into information overload here! And its not like this is an hour and a half comedy or magic show, I’ve been to Vegas, and I know what standard show lengths are. Webcast preshow included, this is honestly a four hour odyssey. Partially because I was so bored, but more because for posterity of IFBB brahs, I was daring enough to keep track of the entire show on prejudging.
This is me, and frankly all of us when the webcast started:



For me, the webcast aired at 9:30

30 minutes of webcast discussion/commercials

Fitness Routines

Bikini Callouts

Bikini Comparisons

Top 6 Awards Bikini

Ms Olympia Posing Routines

Ms Olympia Posing

Fitness Swimsuit

Fitness Comparisons

Fitness Awards

Top 6 Ms. Olympia

Top 6 Ms. Olympia Awards

THEN MEN START AT ****ING 12:30



Oh, the men are coming up? Let me brush off these cobwebs.

So for 3 hours for those viewing from the internet, or for 2.5 hours for the poor souls whose asses have to sit through all of this, is the price that fans must pay before even being able to watch what they originally wanted…Men’s Bodybuilding. I think its safe to say that most people who go to the events, or watch the online webcast, are there for men’s bodybuilding. I wouldn’t be so mad if the IFBB said “Okay we still want to do all of these other things, so here is the schedule, plan accordingly,” but instead all we are given is a one line sentence that says the show starts at 7. So unless we guesstimate correctly, most of us have to stay tuned, checking periodically every half an hour or so and see if God answered our prayers to make the suffering stop. So for anyone new to bodybuilding, or the people whose excitement causes them to forget each year, we are forced to suffer through an event that takes longer than reading the Illiad. Two contests (Bikini and Fitness, Figure is on Saturday, and female bodybuilding arguably has the criterion that male bodybuilding has) that no one has any idea how they are judged, and with competitors lists that are waaaaaaaaaaay too long. 32 ****ing bikini competitors? I thought this was the Olympia, where the best of the best were supposed to battle? Perhaps the qualification rules (more later) that were halfassedly executed on men’s division should have been made stricter for these divisions? Because its painfully obvious to the viewers that they get way too much time, considering the fact that the 212 Mr. Olympia, erm I mean ‘Showdown’ doesn’t even get its prejudging put on webcast. To be honest I don’t even think the men’s competitors know the schedule, and their last minute prep suffers accordingly. It was obvious to a lot of people that many of the competitors were off in 2011 at prejudging because of poor communication, and Branch supposedly did not even get enough time to pump up before he stepped on stage two weeks ago. Which is quite unfortunate considering these are the competitors who put the most time and effort into their preparation and are what the fans want to see.

Finals night wasn’t nearly as bad, probably because the show featured stuff that people actually wanted to watch (mostly 212 and men’s Olympia), but still featured some time hogs, including the supplement awards (which could have NOT been done on the webcast), and the final giant 10 person Mr. Olympia comparison. Maybe my memory isn’t serving me too well, but I don’t remember anything like this in 2011. Why did they have the Top 10 competitors line up again, when they are tired and depleted, to do mandatories before the posedown? Was this honestly something that impacted the judging? How on earth could this possibly influence placings considering they had to look at 10 bodies hit a pose within a span of 3 seconds? Because if they were only concentrating on a couple of people, why not just have them pose? Again, more information on the scorecard might have helped this one, because I was pretty ****ing clueless. Again, perhaps if we got the scoring results for only this comparison we could see if it was really needed.



Think you’re a good judge? Do the rankings of this pose in 1-2-3 Times up!

What irritates me the most when it comes to the major shows is how the commentators try to hype up stories. I have no problem with these per se, but it gets frustrating when they create rivalries when another competitor really should be in the running, or they say one guy is going to flat out win when he shouldn’t. The two most obvious cases that come to mind are 2011 Cutler v. Heath (the “teacher” versus the “student”) and Branch Warrens 2012 arnold classic comeback. I can see the Cutler v. Heath going into the show considering the 2010 Mr. Olympia, but then when it becomes painfully obvious that Jay does not deserve top 2…or top 3…etc that they still include him and picture it as a close race. Huh? Like, what happened to Kai? Its obvious that from the prejudging that hes clearly better than Jay, shouldn’t he be the one next to Heath in the final prejudging callout, etc? Nope. Jay even manages to beat Kai at the Sheru guest posing (contest??) event. Then Branch Warren. “Oh, you can’t even notice his leg”, “Wow, its so amazing how he did all of this” “Hes destroying the competition”. All of this crap when at the very least it’s an extremely close down to the wire victory or a gifted placing. Nope. None of that. Instead, in WWE fashion, Branch wins with a “trifecta” (whatever the **** that is) to make for a good story. With a perfect score, of course.

And of course whenever things don’t work out the way they want them to, the IFBB always changes the rules, not to make the shows better, but instead to make it work how they want it to….

[nonamewut]

i fking hate the lighting

[Devils]

THE CAMERA MAN

In the webcast (when it actually loads and no cut outs), the camera panning has got to stop. Often we have times where it's focused in on 1-2 competitors from the waist up whilst doing a leg pose, or panning away again when they're about to hit any sort of shot.

It looks absolutely atrocious and ruins the whole experience, you never get a good view of the persons physiques or be able to make a direct comparison between bodybuilders. Post show we have all the websites like RXmuscle and Team-Andro upload 1080p HD video to youtube and it's so much better quality and professionalism. I don't understand why the people at the Olympia can't just set up a high quality camera, have everyone on stage in shot and just record the whole lineup. The great thing about HD is that you can zoom in and see all the detail yourself, you don't need extreme closeups of someones back as the camera sweeps over to the next guy. It just looks horrible and distracting.

I can't stress this enough, it really needs to be fixed and theirs no excuse.

Rx will be doing a complete show coverage with a live pre-show and interviews then a full stream of their show, it's going to be amazing and set the bar for all contest coverage to come. Stay tuned

[FAN0FdaSport]

Lee Thompson was interviewed on PBW recently. He said the last person to miss a mandatory meeting was Kevin Levrone, and he was DQ'd for it, just like Cedric. Bad for the fans, but does lend credibility to the sport.

What show? Kevin was late for the olympia meeting in 01 and still competed because joe weider gave the ok. lol kevin didnt even sign a contract to compete that year lol

[Natural_O]

I forget the details (hopefully someone can refresh my memory here) but I remember reading about a judge who said he gave Arnold the win because the other competitor didn't come down to them and introduce himself, shake hands, and do all of those pleasantries before the competition like Arnold did.

If I remember right, there was debate about the other competitor getting second place to Arnold. The controversy was such, that the judge was interviewed about why he made the decision he did.

Was very surprising that he admitted that straight up.

I think you're thinking of the 1971 Nabba Mr. Universe contest between Bill Pearl and Sergio Oliva. Here is the story from Bill Pearl's book Beyond the Universe -

motto should have been, “win at all cost.” With all due respect,
several years later, Arnold apologized for making the 1971
N.A.B.B.A. Mr. Universe challenge. He commented that he
understood the burden he had placed on me at that stage of my
life because he had reached that stage of his life.

To make the prejudging more interesting for the audience
that year, one of the major competitors was so obviously bombed
out of his head, he was having difficulty responding to the
judges’instructions. Sergio Oliva helped the entertainment by
standing in the line-up loudly complaining that he was hungry, as
his two-hour pump-up was causing him to deflate like a slow leak
in the Hindenburg. To further add to the audience’s delight, Reg
Park, a previous three-time winner, kept up a running word-battle
with Oliva on how bad each of them thought the other looked.
My main concern was getting offstage. After standing in a flexed
position for over an hour, my calves had cramped so badly I
wasn’t sure I could move. The cramping began during the
comparison portion of the prejudging and we still had the overall
posing and final comparisons to go through.

Before competition began, an incident occurred that might
have had a slight difference in the outcome of the contest. A
young Belgian boy, about eleven years old, had been brought
backstage, to see and possibly meet some of the contestants. The
father nudged the boy, his autograph book in hand, toward Sergio.
BIG MISTAKE! The moment the boy got into his space, Sergio
shouted something like, “Get the hell out of here! I don’t have
time for autographs! See me after the show!” The outburst
shocked the father and son to the point where you could actually
see dismay on their faces.

Regaining his composure, the father began pushing the boy
toward me. The boy walked over, his head down, autograph
book at arm’s length, afraid to make eye contact. Having seen the
crest fallen look on the child’s face, I signed my name and then
picked him up and placed him on my shoulder as he flexed his
skinny arm while his father snapped a photograph.

The next time I saw his father, he was looking at me while
sitting at the judge’s table with a smile on his face, nodding his
head up-and-down, mouthing the word, “Yes--yes--yes.”
The following day, Cecil Peck, the Master of Ceremonies,
announced Bill Pearl as the overall winner of the 23rd annual
N.A.B.B.A. Professional Mr. Universe contest. The audience
Above: Sergio Oliva onstage at the 1971
N.A.B.B.A. Professional Mr. Universe
contest.
Below: Bill Pearl with a young Belgium
fan, Chris Vandenbroele, backstage at
the prejudging of the 1971 N.A.B.B.A.
Professional Mr. Universe.

[gomez26]

It has a bigger fan base than it ever did before as well as bringing in the most money it ever has. I see your points though

this. if profits arent dwindling, a business will simply not undertake any major overhauls.

THE CAMERA MAN

In the webcast (when it actually loads and no cut outs), the camera panning has got to stop. Often we have times where it's focused in on 1-2 competitors from the waist up whilst doing a leg pose, or panning away again when they're about to hit any sort of shot.

It looks absolutely atrocious and ruins the whole experience, you never get a good view of the persons physiques or be able to make a direct comparison between bodybuilders. Post show we have all the websites like RXmuscle and Team-Andro upload 1080p HD video to youtube and it's so much better quality and professionalism. I don't understand why the people at the Olympia can't just set up a high quality camera, have everyone on stage in shot and just record the whole lineup. The great thing about HD is that you can zoom in and see all the detail yourself, you don't need extreme closeups of someones back as the camera sweeps over to the next guy. It just looks horrible and distracting.

I can't stress this enough, it really needs to be fixed and theirs no excuse.

Rx will be doing a complete show coverage with a live pre-show and interviews then a full stream of their show, it's going to be amazing and set the bar for all contest coverage to come. Stay tuned

this is my pet hate lol, i hate those stupid angles just when a competitor hits his best shot. one angle is like from floor level from the far side of the stage, i remember one guy on these forums called it the cockroach angle.
still, with virtually no other organization competing in this marketplace, nothing will get done.

The real reason the IFBB will never be mainstream is the public opinion of sports technology drugs has never been lower.
Good night Lance, good night IFBB

it makes no difference. even if pros were natural it still wouldnt be more popular, its really that simple. the public arent that moral to be concerned about illegal drugs, they idolize rock stars & rap stars who sing about drugs & most simply wouldnt be able to give a decent performance onstage if forced to be clean.