Classic shisha wins creative shisha: the results of Latin Cup HookahBattle 2024, Spain, ShishaMesse expo

Hello everyone, its Stan Medkov – the CEO of HookahBattle. In this article I will give first all the basic info about the passed event and than I will give some of my personal comments regarding the rules of classic HookahBattle and what do I think about comparison of classic shisha VS crazy\creative shisha on our events.

16th June, 2024 the Latin Cup HookahBattle been held

Teams:

(1) A. Borja Shisha / @BorjaShisha / #39 Hall of Fame

(2) B. The GOAT lounge / @davidheinena / #43 Hall o f Fame

(3) C. SmoKing hookah / @AlexAturov / #17 Hall of Fame

(4) D. Akatsuki Hookah / @nacho_sandoval98 / #41 Hall of Fame

(5) E. RaGoHookah / @ragohookah / #39 Hall of Fame

(6) F. Hookah+ x Black Leaf / @OASISSntc / #26 Hall of Fame

(7) G. Heaven / @JORGE_SPHYNX / #? Hall of Fame

(8) H. Poseidon Hookah / @PoseidonHookah / #? Hall of Fame

(9) I. HumoCreativo / @Alej961 / #43 Hall of Fame

(10) J. Hedonic Exit / Joyin / #34 Hall of Fame

(11) K. Dizzy_hookah / @Dizzy_hookah / #43 Hall of Fame

(12) L. Karisma / Jordi Ricou (Karisma, Spain) / #43 Hall of Fame

(13) M. Shisha with Neeve / @Shisha_with_Neeve / #22 Hall of Fame

The show host:

The Jury:

Reza Bavar teams voting: J – L – D – I – F – B – K – M – G – E – A – H – C

Eduardo Zouein teams voting: L- J- I- H- C- F- E- K- B- A- G- M-D

Allan Hideki teams voting: H-J-C-e-G-b-L-i-k-m-d-f-a

Antonio Galdi teams voting: H-J-L-C-E-G-K-M-B-D-F-I-A

Jesus Herrera Vicente teams voting: H-J-L-C-E-K-B-G-I-D-F-M-A

Schulze method calculation of the best compromise between the Jury:

Results:

1st place:  Poseidon Hookah / +10 points Hall Of Fame rating

2nd place:   Hedonic Exit / +8 points Hall Of Fame rating

3rd place:   Karisma / +6 points Hall Of Fame rating

All other contestants: +2 points Hall Of Fame rating 

Article: why do you need Hall Of Fame points

And now I would like to provide my exclusive comments (usually we do not make it in our regular event report post):

How did classic shisha (Poseidon) beat creative shishas (Hedonic Exit and Karisma)? Maybe its more fair to have a separate award for Design \ Aesthetics and for the best mix?

In most of HookahBattle classic events the winners are those one who have made the most creative shisha, it happens because – if all the shishas from a different contestants smokes good – jury will select the winner from those one who impressed them more than others – and when the team make a shisha in some unusual aesthetic way – this is something that impress more than a classic shisha.

Usually we have a critics from some teams (who didnt took any award place) which sounds like:

” Ahh, HookahBattle – its not the competition for the best shisha skills, its just a Cirque du Soleil – the one who built the Eiffel Tower instead of an old good classic shisha always wins”

If the meaning of our competition were only for the best taste and quality of shisha smoking – then we would do our event differently with the next rules:

– judges evaluate all the contestants blindly (they do not see who the contestants are and they do not see how the shisha looks like)

– in this case, not only aesthetics are excluded, but also the factor of the competitor’s reputation (to understand this, here is an example: if a famous blogger HookahJohn competes against an unknown guy and both of them prepared two 100% identical hookahs, then the judges will choose the blogger HookahJohn)

For the first look its logical for the fair shisha competition and we’ve already tried this (we do events for 13 years and its a long time to try many things). It works bad and here the reasons why:

– if shisha for you is just a big smoke clouds to get some nicotine and some nice taste, than why you dont smoke vapes? You know the reply for this question:

1. Because smoking a hookah is not just clouds – it is an emotion, a ritual. Many factors are important to get a memorable positive emotion to enjoy the whole shisha smoking session and its not ends on the quality of shisha bowl.
2. Many people ask me whats been my best shisha smoking expirience (expecting me to give an example of some famous Hookahbattle master or tobacco brand), but I do always reply: 2013 year on the beach of Cyprus with my wife during honeymoon

3. Good shisha session – means good people surround you during this session. Thats why I want judges to see – who have prepared the shisha for them and what is the story behind this person or team.

4. Aesthetics means a lot – how the shisha looks like, how the shisha service looks like. This is not an abstraction, but a practice that is used in shisha lounges: the final goal is not only the quality of shisha, but the final emotion of your lounge guest. Another example: some oldschool guys usually criticize lounges who make expensive “cocktail hookahs”, meaning that this is a waste of food and money. But I disagree, because this is the very thing that can give the guest an emotion

So thats the conclusion: in our classic HookahBattle events we select not the best bowl, but we select the best emotion (which is a complicated result of the next formula: perfomance, aesthetics, taste with a mix, quality of inhale, amount of smoke, reputation and history of team who made it)

And I think this is correct, because this is the true reason why we love hookah.