Winners of l'International des Feux Loto-Québec 2008
24th Edition

This is it! Nine firms from nine different countries were trying all along the season to prove to the 19 judges that they deserves to win the bronze Jupiter, the silver Jupiter and the gold Jupiter.

Based on a new evaluation grid, the judges had to evaluate the pyrotechnical components (diversity, quality, colour), the synchronization, the soundtrack, the technical design, and the pyromusical concept of all the shows.

According to nineteen passionates of fireworks (the judges), the winners of l'International des feux Loto-Québec 2008 are:

#1 GOLD JUPITER - United States of America (USA)
Firm: Pyrotechnico
Show: Rock Loves

#2 SILVER JUPITER - Australia
Firm: Howard & Sons
Show: Evolve

#3 BRONZE JUPITER - China
Firm: Sunny International
Show: Forever Love
According to the Telus people (the public), China's show was a "coup-de-coeur", so they won the Telus People's choice.

The results are exactly like my prediction and I'm happy that they won!

And this is the end of the 24th edition of l'International des feux Loto-Québec, presented by Telus. Hmmm... why do all good things comes to an end? Congratulation to all the winners and all the other countries!

***By the way, sorry for the topic title. I think the title that I made up was too long !*** [Edit from Paul: I fixed it now ]

OH!... All along i thought luso could get a jupiter this year ! I think the Luso team might be a bit disappointed... I tought that those 3 still deserves to be jupiter winner though! It's quite close to my rankings.... My ranking was u.s.a for 1st, australia for second, and portugal for 3rd... Congratulations winners... It really was a hard fought year!

vander

I'm really disappointed by the fact that Portugal didn't win.............anything...........not even third place. And I know that China was in contention for the bronze, but to get it over Portugal is really something that is mind-boggling. However, I'm content with the U.S.A and Australia making it there, as I said in my personal choice for the winners for second and third respectively, but just Portugal for first! In any case, congratulations to all the competitors of 2008 - you've all done a fantastic job in your own respective way.

The Panzera display was powerful all the way through, but I felt the finish wasn't long enough - of course it was VERY noisy. The rest of the display was actually pretty sweet and so powerful, considering that so much of it had so many salutes!

And the damp weather really cleared out literally on time - it was raining light-moderately up to 9:50 p.m. However, as expected, the winds were mostly light from the W, and I did notice smoke accumulations building near La Ronde's side and behind there (the opposite during China) - I hope it didn't obscure the display too often, if anything.

Trav.

Congratulations to all the winners! The judges had a very difficult decision to make and their results were very close to my predictions. I had U.S.A., Portugal and Australia, oh well, I can't get everything right

Although I could not attend all the shows, I did watch all the videos of all the countries, and all the countries did a very good job.

Congrats again to the winners

I am astounded that Portugal were robbed of a place on the podium.

Paul.

I think that it's really sad portugal didn't win anything at all.... Maybe a special price for innovation would have been a much better prize!.. After all, (if i'm not mistaken and correct me if i'm wrong ) after they have used their popular ring in 2002... all sorts of structures were used in montreal in the following years such as the towers by holland and france in 2004, the towers by sweden in 2005, the "sun" by england last year, the towers and arcs by u.s.a this year...... It was also clear for us that portugal and u.s.a had the top shows this year...

vander

Quelle soirée! Quelle nuit! De véritables montagnes russes! Quel plaisir de retrouver l'équipe de Pyrotecnico à mon arrivée sur la Place du Canada, de même que le concepteur Jim Shih de la Chine qui était visiblement très heureux d'être là, ne serait-ce que pour le Jupiter de bronze! Quel choc, aussi, de constater l'absence de Grupo Luso Pirotecnia. Hélas pour les vainqueurs, l'ombre de Luso a plané sur cette soirée et il m'a été difficile d'apprécier le feu de clôture après une pareille nouvelle, qui n'est pas sans rappeler la cruelle absence sur le podium 2005 de l'équipe suédoise.

La nuit fut longue. Comme Paul et bien d'autres, je suis stupéfait et je m'interroge beaucoup. Le soleil se lève... un peu de repos devrait remettre les idées en place!

Fred

I am... speechless...

Really... i don't know what to say. I am sad... and disappointed... I feel like there is some sort of boycott regarding Portugal... but i know it can't be right... the 19 judges made their choice... and i disagree with it... Where is Portugal ? Poor Vitor ! He built a hell of a show, and he got nothing for it...

Vitor : I LOVED YOUR SHOW !!!!

and i don't understand what happened tonite.... and will never do. Fred, you are saying that the night might help... no. It won't. I will never forget the feeling i had when i heard the 3 winners. You were beside me, and i felt i was not alone feeling this way. I just wanted to cry.

Anyhow... a very good season in terms of displays, but there is something i'm not getting here...

See you all next year all ! Hope to read you soon !

Salut le monde

Félicitations annoyingkid...Trois sur trois c'est pas rien.Tu es mur pour devenir juge.
Bien difficile pour moi de faire des commentaires sur le choix des juges car je n'ai pas vu les feux de L'Australie, de la Chine,et de la Corée.
Moi aussi j'ai été vraiment très surpris de l'absence du Portugal sur le podium avec leur magnifique spectacle.
J'aimerais bien voir la feuille de pointage. Cà doit être très serré entre chacune des positions genre .5 etc...
Malgré la température nous avons eu encore cette année une belle saison de feux avec de nouvelles firmes qui ont amené un souffle nouveau , plus d'audace, de la créativité etc......

Que sera le 25 ième??Surement spécial. J'ai déjà hâte.
Je me doutais bien que le résultat bousculerait tes pensées FRED mais on sait tous les deux qu'une décision de jury c'est parfois une boite à surprise...



Roger

Oh please !!!!! Portugal is not on the podium !!!! It's not fair !!!


I'm very disappoited....sad and disappointed. This competition should be more realistic. Almost every year there is some injustice:

In 2005 Sweden didn't won and Canada was on the third place. And objectivily the Sweedish show was better.

This year, the same. Do you really think that the Chinese or the Australian show were better. It's not a question of taste, it's a question of facts. And if we think about fireworks and not in our taste PORTUGAL was much better than Auatralia and China.



Sorry but I'm, VERY disappointed. VER VERY VERY disappointed.

THE COMPETITION IS GREAT, BUT THE RESULTS ARE ALWAYS DISAPPOINTING.

Sorry but I'm, VERY disappointed. VER VERY VERY disappointed.

THE COMPETITION IS GREAT, BUT THE RESULTS ARE ALWAYS DISAPPOINTING.

I share your disappointment.

I think one of the problems with the Jury is that - and I know I may get into trouble for this - they appear to be fairly homogeneous. This year they were all white people with probably less cultural diversity than the population of Montreal as a whole. Many of them were witnessing the competition for the first time from La Ronde. So it is probably no surprise that the three winners were also the three largest displays in terms of using a wide firing pattern and larger shells. Of course, I have no inside knowledge of the actual marks that were ascribed so I can only speculate. All I know is that all the people I spoke to (either in person or by phone or email) who are involved in pyrotechnics in a professional sense were very surprised about the injustice shown to Groupo Luso.

My fear is that this real uncertainty with how the actual jury will judge a display may be a disincentive for companies to compete. This is now the third time there has been such a surprise: 2003 with Atlas; 2005 with Göteborgs Fyrverkeri Fabrik and now 2008 with Grupo Luso.

Let's hope that with next year being a special edition, a more experienced jury will be used or the jury selected given more thorough training. I will personally volunteer to help with that if requested.

Paul

It's a real shame.

I can't even begin to express how disappointed I am with the results. I woke up this morning and the thought still won't leave me - it will take probably the rest of the Summer for me to get over this. When I heard the results last night on Rythme FM: Bronze-China, I was expecting either Portugal or USA to follow that, but then I heard "Australia" for silver, and I figured "oh no, that means either USA or Portugal will be denied a place on the podium".

After I heard the official results, I refused to believe that Portugal didn't have a place at all, so I went around asking people about the winners, just in case I didn't hear right! In the end, I couldn't believe it - I was in a total shock and then full of disappointment and sadness (much like in 2005, when Sweden didn't win at all) - I couldn't even enjoy Panzera as much as I would have liked to, as a result.

Luso - You guys did such a fantastic job with your display, and in all of our minds, you were more than qualified to have a place on that podium last night. For me, your show was easily the best and I would love to see your participation here in the very near future. Really, I can't tell you how disappointed and depressed I am to see you not win anything for your amazingly crafted performance, which had virtually everything a show in this competition needed, and so much more. Furthermore, your display had the best selection of tracks, bringing me in so closely into the show compared to any other. TEAM PORTUGAL - YOU ROCK!!! Don't ever forget the marvelous work you've done for us.

THIS ISN'T FAIR AT ALL!!!!!! In any case, I can't talk about it much, because it makes me go nuts. Not even THIRD PLACE........

Trav.

Félicitations annoyingkid...Trois sur trois c'est pas rien.Tu es mur pour devenir juge.

C'était rien de plus qu'un coup de chance =) ! Pour les USA et l'Australie, j'étais certain qu'ils allaient arriver à gagner un Jupiter. Par contre, mon choix était entre la Chine et le Portugal. Quel choix déchirant!

I agree you guys being disappointed because Grupo Lusa didn't make it to the Top3. I am too. But this year was a special one and we must admit that the fight between Portugal, USA, China and Australia was phenomenal!

I think that if they had to change the result, it would be between: Portugal, China and Australia. USA are safe. Therefore, if I had to change the result, I would have replace China by Portugal.

By the way Paul, thank you for editing the title of the topic =).

I'm also disappointed of the Panzera's show. I think that even if there wasn't much smoke at La Ronde, I wouldn't felt that show!

I also a bit disappointement by the results. I thought Australia presented one of the best displays, but when I watched it again, I realized that the theme and music weren't appealing to me. At least, Luso should've won third place. Now I'm afraid that this result may have discouraged them to participate again. Out of all the competing firms this year, it is another display by Luso that I want to see the most. Regarding the jury issue, I just think it's because they are not experienced enough. Aren't they supposed to be all ordinary people? Then again, it's really difficult to judge 10 30min displays as fair as possible. I know how the judges think, and sometimes I feel that they neglect other different aspects of a display.

Finally, the Panzera was somewhat disappointing, too. I think it's because the wind was blowing on La Ronde and we couldn't see well half of the display. I seriously didn't enjoy the music, nor did I like the theme. The finale was disappointing from our view point because one large cloud of smoke was blocking the shells! The salutes weren't even as intense and loud as they used to be, but I'm not sure if this was because of the smoke and wind.

Next year, I hope it will be another special edition like the one we had in 2004. During the ceremony, someone on the stage (I think the president of La Ronde) said that the 2009 edition will be "exceptional," but I don't know if that's just a way of describing another ordinary edition. Anyway, next year I mostly want to see the participation of some of these firms: Pyrotecnico, Pirotecnia Igual, IPON, Pirotécnia Vicente Caballer, Weco and Royal Pyrotechnie.

My fear is that this real uncertainty with how the actual jury will judge a display may be a disincentive for companies to compete.

I share your fear.


It's true that an anonymous and popular jury is a good way to mantain an objective score. However, the experience (2003, 2005, 2008) shows us thAt they're not always right.
Maybe a good way to solve this could be mixing experts and anoymous people. I'm not here to say what this competition should do to improve, but it's true that the facts are this, and this year, again, the results are not fair. And considering the money that companies spend in your displays it must be solved.

LUSO, you did a MAGNIFIC display, and you should have won at least a third or second place. Hope to see you again in Montreal to show your great job and to demosntrate that the official results of 2008 were an injustice.

Rovira.