There were 24 jammers over the course of the weekend including several new players. A few of the younger players were adding break dance to their moves which reminded me of Morgan’s freestyle breakdancing. The tournament is named after Morgan’s dog and is a tribute to the late freestyler who made Milan his home. Morgan’s parents were on hand and were very happy to see the large turn out of players and the great spirit exhibited by everyone.

Rohre and Vehro Titcomb came down from North of Milan, Carlo, Andrea “python”, Simone and Marco come up from Rome. And from Milan: Massimo, Lorenzo, Seba, Toni, Zio, Tistee, Johnny Melfi, Angelo Enrico, Claudia, Andrea, Paulo, Eliza and Francesca and several new players all came out to play.

Team Cukka Ukka (Clay, Lorenzo and ‘Stylenando’) was unable to attend because they were performing at a big event in Rimini which turned out to be a big success and may help gain more sponsorship for this years FPA Worlds.

The finals on Sunday saw the top 4 teams from the Saturday preliminary and Sunday semi-final rounds compete.

Taking 4th place was the Roman team of Simone and Marco. Simone won the Skippy Sez ‘most improved’ award last year and he and Marco showed why they deserved to be in the finals – hitting a wide variety of moves including Marco’s handstand catch and Simone’s Bad Attitude delay.

Moving up in the ranks and suprising many was the 3rd place team of Carlo from Rome and Andrea from Milan. They had upset the Italian Nike team of Toni and Massimo earlier in the day to make the finals. (“Piccio” and ‘Mes’ performed at 5 Nike events across Italy – Milan, Torino, Catania, Napoli and Roma – spreading the jam to more new places in Italia.)

Andrea has improved very much since this years Paganello – he hit some nice air catches and big scarecrows. Carlo played very solid – he is great to watch because he has such a unique and flowing style – combining athleticism with balance. These guys were stoked to get into the top 3!

Taking 2nd place were last years Vagolino Champions Enrico and Claudia. They showed some really nice co-ops and very advanced indivual combinations – including double legovers, connecting-the-nuerons, smooth body rolls and double spinning catches. A few less drops and they might have been repeat champs.

But this year the title of Vagolino Champs went to the Milan team of Lorenzo and Sebastian. These guys flat out shredded! Hitting some awesome roll series, gitis pull outs and barrel catches straight out of an old Donny Rhodes video. They also had a side bet that if they won the tournament they would get a tatoo of the dog, Vagolino on their arm – we will see come Rimini if this is true. Congratuations to Lorenzo and Seba! And props to Zio, Tistee, Valentino and everyone who helped make the tournament happen.

Grazie!
Review by Tom Leitner