2016 Infy Awards – Winners Announced!
We got a late start on the first annual INFY AWARDS voting, but the results are now in. This was designed as a contest of pure popularity, where voters picked their favorite new discs of 2016 in three categories. They also chose the male and female professional disc golfers that they felt were the most influential in 2016 and their favorite 2016 disc golf moment. So, total sales figures had nothing to do with these results. The winners were chosen 100% by vote count.
Certain contests were looking pretty tight as we watched the voting results come in, but then a certain disc brand pushed the poll to their mailing list and we saw a surge of voting that turned the tide dramatically. So, without further ado, here are the results…
Most Popular New Putt-and-Approach Disc of 2016
The three new-release putters of 2016 that topped the voting, in order were as follow:
3rd Place – MVP Spin
2nd Place – Innova Stud
1st Place – Dynamic Discs Marshal
Most Popular New Mid-Range Disc of 2016
All of these new mid-range discs received a lot of love during the year, but the #1 spot finally took over with a lot of momentum and won handily in voting:
3rd Place – MVP Matrix
2nd Place – Latitude 64 Compass
1st Place – Dynamic Discs Emac Truth
Most Popular New Driver of 2016
This was a race where the Discmania DDX was in solid control for most of the voting, but once the Dynamic Discs crowd started flocking to the poll, a new winner emerged:
3rd Place – Latitude 64 Culverin
2nd Place – Discmania DDX
1st Place – Dynamic Discs Defender
Overall Most Popular Disc of 2016
Now this is the big one– the most popular disc of 2016 receiving the most votes in the Infy Awards poll! We’ll run down the top six for you:
6th Place – Innova Shryke
5th Place – Latitude 64 Culverin
4th Place – Dynamic Discs Defender
3rd Place – Latitude 64 Compass
2nd Place – Discmania DDX
1st Place – Emac Truth
Female Professional Disc Golfer
Who Made the Biggest Impact in 2016
This was a very very tight race between both Valarie Jenkins and Paige Pierce. They actually swapped places several times during the voting before polling ended and our winner took the top spot. The winner for this Infy Award in 2016 was…
PAIGE PIERCE
Male Professional Disc Golfer
Who Made the Biggest Impact in 2016
This was more of a run-away win for the #1 spot with young Eagle McMahon taking the #2 place. The winner for 2016 was…
RICKY WYSOCKI
Biggest Disc Golf Moment of 2016
The voting on the biggest disc golf moment of 2016 was a run-away win with the huge, viral albatross on a par 5 hole by Philo Brathwaite winning by a landslide.
Click Here to Watch the Original Live Infy Awards
Announcement on Facebook
And the grand prize for which organization can best manipulate social media is….
TRILOGY!
…kind of makes the whole thing worthless though, doesn’t it?
DD certainly brought out the voters through their social media. But it isn’t worthless if the other manufacturers were to do the same. They obviously didn’t, so where this was a popularity contest, those with the loudest voices won. To see the best-sellers for the year (rather than most voted), I would look at something like this instead. Then separate out the new releases of 2016 and you’ll know which actually sold the most. In the case of the drivers, it was the DDX. But the Infy Awards isn’t a sales tally– it’s a public vote count.
In this day and age having a social media presence is huge! If a company is willing to have a presence and show interest in engaging with the people who throw their discs then why not show them some love with our purchasing power? It seems like a win win to me?
How can the Discmania DDx come in 2nd overall and 2nd in it’s class if the 1st in it’s class is the 4th overall? Either your overall list is wrong or your best new drivers list is wrong.
The overall disc was a separate vote category, not a compilation of the other votes for disc type. So, when narrowed down by disc type, the Dynamic Discs faithful voted up the Defender. But those same Dynamic Discs faithful had to split their “overall” vote between the Defender and the EMac Truth, giving the DDX a boost. Still, it was obviously the Dynamic Discs fans that brought out the vote 🙂
I carry both a Truth and a Compass in my bag and use both depending on the course I’m playing.