The day after the festival I attended one of the contests that Trompos Cuper utilizes to promote its tops. "Picotaso" translates as a pecking strike by a rooster and is the name given for this style of battle, where one player tries to hit a top inside a circle on the ground. This was part of a regular promotion campaign, where weekly contests are held in a neighborhood. This was the neighborhood final, with the grand prize being a bike.
Each player got a number written with a permanent marker on the back of the hand. I believe there were 70 players. The players compete two at a time and the loser is eliminated. The striking top always has to spin afterwards. The target top is provided by the judges and is just laying on the ground, not spinning. They started with 3 throws per round, but decreased it to just one when it got dark. The point system in this occasion was like this:
Target top out of the circle: 1 point
Target top opens up: 2 points
Target top broken: 3 points
Target top loses its tip: 4 points
Target top spins: 5 points
There were no 5 pointers in this contest, but lots of 2's, some 3's and a couple of 4's.
To entertain the losers, other games were going on, like this one where they had to try to place their tops inside a larger spinning top:
Here is the winner and the 11 runner ups, each of whom got a soccer ball. While Cometa sometimes gives videogame consoles in its contests, Marco told me that he thinks that's against the message that tops take kids away from electronic displays.
The contest ended at night, with no parents around. Taka was very surprised as that would never happen in Japan (or in the US) nowadays. Here is the winning taking away his prize with the help of friends:
