Bringing it back to the Breckenridge superpipe, the men of snowboarding set the pipe ablaze to cap off the first day of live stream action at the Dew Tour Mountain Championship. Looking back to the year prior, Greg Bretz was the man to beat but it would be no easy feat as Danny Davis, Scotty Lago and Ayumu Hirano returned to the hill with their own will to win making for one serious semifinal.

Directly following this year’s semifinal was a last chance qualifier (LCQ) bringing a crisp new twist to the format. During the semifinal thirty riders took two runs each, were ranked by their single best score and were then thinned to a field of ten advancing directly to the final. Next up came the LCQ and the next ten riders ranked from the semi were given a “last chance” to earn a spot in the final with two spots available.

REPLAY: Louie Vito’s handplant into double cork

Semifinal Moment of Relief:

The event was packed with tons of fan favorites, but some of the biggest names all finished outside the top ten including Louie Vito, Taylor Gold, Scotty Lago and Danny Davis. What was nearly the biggest upset of the semifinal was Davis not scoring high enough to try his luck one last time during the LCQ. Davis’ run was full of difficut stylish tricks such as the big blind backside 360 into the switch blind backside 360 and his switch method. However, right when the crowd had come to terms with the fact that he would not get another shot in the LCQ, Seamus O’Connor called in to tell the judges he was opting out which ultimately allowed Davis his last chance in the pipe.

Danny Davis Tops LCQ, Snowboard Superpipe Semifinal

LCQ Moment of Truth:

After leaving the superpipe and then being called back to ride, Davis had his last chance. Knowing he was fully capable of sticking the run he had been after all afternoon, Davis popped in the earbuds, played his music and went for it once more with nothing more on his mind than hold it together and land. Well, he did not disappoint as he came through with the switch method clean as ever and to the surprise of most he even added a cab 1080 as his final trick — amazing! Davis scored a 91.75, the highest score of the day, advancing him to the final.

Arthur Longo Qualifies 1st, Snowboard Superpipe Semifinal

Top Tricks:

Arthur Longo — Huge air fakie, frontside 900, lofty double cork 1080 and a switch alley-oop backside rodeo.

Chase Josey — Switch backside 540 on the first hit, backside michalchuck, switch alley-oop rodeo, cab double cork 1080, and a stylish switch method.

Yiwei Zhang — Giant method on the first hit, frontside double cork 1080, cab double cork 1080, frontside 540 and a frontside 900 — every trick was huge.

Danny Davis — Big blind backside 360, switch blind backside 360, classic extended McTwist, switch method and cab 1080.

LCQ Quote of the Comp:

“It [LCQ] may have just saved me. It’s an interesting concept, I’ve never seen it before. They take twelve, but the guy who got twelveth may not make it — it’s a tough one. It’s just different formats for different contests, I think it’s a good thing.” — Danny Davis

Semifinal highlights

Semifinal Results:
*Top 10 advance to the final

LCQ Results:

*Top 2 advances to the final

Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Final:

Watch the final this Saturday, December 13th at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and online at DewTour.com/LIVE and the NBC Sports Live Extra app.