The X Games (extreme games) are an annual competition of several extreme sports. The games are organized and broadcast in the United States (in Aspen, Colorado) by the ESPN television network and are separated in two seasons: The Winter X Games and the Summer X Games. The best competitors receive gold, silver, and bronze medals. The games are also an opportunity to see live music bands, giving them a music festival atmosphere.

History

The Extreme Summer Games were first organized in 1994 under the name first Extreme Games in Rhode Island, with the support of ESPN and ESPN2, the channel dedicated at the time to this type of sport and launched a few months earlier. The games were renamed the next year to The X Games in 1995 and took place in Rhode Island, USA. They later made the name Summer X Games to differentiate them from winter competitions.

Due to the success of the extreme summer games, ESPN launched the ” Winter X Games “1 in Aspen, the USA in 1997.

If the American version exists since 1997, it is in March 2010 that was born the first European version of this unmissable rendezvous of winter. For example, ESPN has partnered with Canal+ Events (an event subsidiary of Canal +) to co-produce the first Winter X Games Europe. This competition, like the American edition, welcomes the best freestyle athletes on the planet.

A real success overseas whose event is broadcast in 140 countries, ESPN decided to organize the same event in Europe in 2010 with the support of Canal + Events. On October 3, 2013, ESPN announced the cessation of funding for the X Games outside the United States, namely Barcelona, Munich and Tignes in Europe and Foz do Iguacu in Brazil. In 2013, the Winter X-Games in Tignes welcomed 117,000 spectators on three days of competition and was broadcast in 184 countries. However, the 2014 edition in Tignes was canceled after ESPN’s decision to remove all X-Games outside the United States for economic reasons although the Tignes Edition is the only profitable out-of-US edition. In response to this cancellation, the Tignes station is suing the American group ESPN3 before the Commercial Court of Chambery. Finally, the host station and the organizer will find an amicable settlement: ESPN will pay the Tignes station compensation of one million euros4.

On April 28, 2015, Maker Studios launched a content creation campaign on Marvel and the ESPN5,6,7 X Games.

BMX

There are many different ways of the BMX, and in all of them, the competitors perform tricks, which later are scored on a ranking scale of 100.

Motorcycling

Freestyle motorcycling consists of performing tricks using motorcycles on dirt ramps in Summer X Games, and snow in Winter X Games. There is a popular competition in high jump called Step where all the competitors take a jump, and after that, they must cross over a bar.

The Supercross and the supermoto are speed races, where the first contains many jumps and forks, where the second race has curved sections on asphalt and more full jumps.

Speed & Style mixes speed and freestyle: all competitors should complete a full-speed ride while performing jump tricks, and score means discount times.

Motorsport

The X Games incorporated motor racing in 2006 in the rally mode, and a new particular stage, with an individual start. The sections were eliminated the following year, to compete only in a stadium mirror circuit, with two cars facing direct elimination.

In 2010 a race of rallycross was added, with groups of cars where they share space on a circuit. The 2011 edition was the last of the rally, where the couples also shared the course. The rallycross test remains unchanged. In the X Games Los Angeles 2013 was added in addition to a test Gymkhana, similar to the format of really used between 2007 and 2010, but with a circuit a lot more locked and conducive to skidding. At the 2014 X Games, there were rallycross and pickups races.