TTR Pro Snowboarding has taken a major step towards a unified competitive environment in freestyle snowboarding. As of the upcoming winter season 2012/2013 ESPN´s X Games events in Aspen (USA) and Tignes (France) will be included in the World Snowboard Tour schedule.

The X Games Aspen event will be listed as a 6Star event on the 2013 World Snowboard Tour. The top 10 rated Male and top 5 Female athletes from the World Snowboard Tour´s ranking list for each discipline will be invited to the event and will have the chance to obtain points for the Tour standings. X Games Tignes will count towards the 2014 Tour rankings as a 6Star event.

With more than 300 contests in six categories (1Star – 6Star) and three disciplines (Slopestyle, Halfpipe, Big Air) all over the world, the World Snowboard Tour is living up to its name. The 2013 season marks the return of the Arctic Challenge in Oslo. This 6Star Halfpipe contest will also be the season finale for Men’s Halfpipe competition. Another highlight will be the two-day celebration of 20 years of Air & Style at the Billabong Air & Style in Innsbruck, Austria. The 11th edition of the Red Bull Nanshan Open will host the first ever women’s 5Star competition in China. The World Snowboard Tour is actively looking to expand into new markets; these include further expansion in Asia and initiatives in Latin America.

The World Snowboard Tour is strengthening its presence in the world´s biggest snowboard market, North America. The Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix will be a true highlight in the North American Market.  The contests will be both World Snowboard Tour 5Star events and FIS World Cups. This means that riders can win TTR and FIS World Cup points for the Olympic qualification process at the same events. This test comes as a result of talks between TTR Pro Snowboarding and FIS on how to improve the situation for riders during the Olympic qualification seasons. This follows TTR Pro Snowboarding´s push to improve the Olympic qualification process for the good of the sport and the riders. The test is signifying an important step in trying to alleviate the rider’s increasingly busy schedules and to minimize calendar Issues.