Photo: Joshua Duplechian/ESPN

X Games has been a strange affair this year. The women were condemned to Big Air in a snowstorm. Last night saw what appeared to be a communication error fail to give the rider with the most points the gold medal on the men's side. Thankfully, there was nothing so controversial in slopestyle today, though the athlete selection was a little strange, with some left-field names in the mix. The course was a bit generic, but the weather was perfect so there wasn't really an excuse not to put it all on the line. Some of the runs were perhaps a bit overambitious and we saw a lot of small mistakes as a result. But it was a good show nonetheless, with a familiar name returning to the top of the podium after a huge injury. It was particularly crazy to see Evan McEachran return for slopestyle after two huge hits last night in Big Air, big props for that.

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Run 1:

Woodsy was the first to drop a full run and it was dope to see him back on the big stage. His switch 4 continuing two on the last gap down rail and left triple 14 to right dub 14 combo on the jumps were dope. Max Moffat had a silky smooth forward double bio 14 japan on the final jump but a loose grab or two meant he slotted in behind Woodsy. Colby Stevenson had an insane switch 2 backslide blind 2 on the extended rainbow rail, but fell on the final hit. The rest of the riders had issues on their first runs and didn't post a (non-existent) score.

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Run 2:

The second run saw a couple more riders put things together. Max Moffat opened his run with a handplant misty 9 on the rainbow and put down a dope, varied jump line (switch right dub 12 true nose, left dub 14 safety, right dub bio 16 japan) to take the lead. Andri Ragettli didn't have the craziest rails (eg front swap p4 was pretty mellow by the standards of the comp) but he threw down on the jumps with both ways switch dub bio variations and bumped Max to second.

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Run 3:

Sebastian Scherve took three tries to put a run together but it was a banger when he did. Both the jumps and rails were heaters, but some slight bobbles kept him back in third. Woodsy fell on the rails, so we were treated to a huge switch double backie on the final jump. Mac Forehand cleaned things up, with a back 3 swap rail transfer (blind 2 out) and both ways dub 16s on the jumps to go second. Evan McEachran had two 3-up variations in his run but crashed on the final run. Alex Hall went down again on his pretzel dub leaving, both himself and Colby Stevenson, the pre-event favorites needing something from the final run.

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Run 4:

With the pressure on, we had a few bobbles yet again. Max Moffat cleaned up his run, putting it down perfectly. The blind 3swap continuing 4 was crazy, as was the huge dub bio 16 safety to the bottom. Good enough for second, but he did also have one weaker rail trick (switch 2 p4, similar to Andri in that). Evan McEachran finally put a run down but the last jump wasn't clean enough to challenge the podium despite some great rails. Alex Hall, the guy you would definitely want on your side in a tight spot, also put it down in the final run. His rails could have been cleaner but the pretzel dub (set like right dub 10 brought back to 9) and switch dub 14 buick at the bottom were good enough for third place. Last to drop, Nick Goepper took a heavy hit on the second jump, but walked away and hopefully he's ok. That left Andri with a comeback gold at X Games and he's going to be tough to beat in Beijing in a few weeks.

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Results:

1) Andri Ragettli

2) Max Moffat

3) Alex Hall

4) Mac Forehand

5) Sebastian Scherve

6) James Woods

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Highlights:

Alex Hall:

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1028231/A-Hall-Podium-Run-mov

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Max Moffatt:

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1028232/Max-Moffat-Podium-Run-mov

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Andri Ragettli:

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1028233/Andri-Podium-Run-mov