| Giants Live 2011 |
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The official logo of Giants Live |
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| Tournament information | |
| Location | Various |
| Established | 2009 |
| Format | Multi-event competition |
Giants Live or The Giants Live Grand Prix Competition Series was created in 2009 as the official World’s Strongest Man Qualifying Tour taking over from the Strongman Super Series. Like its predecessor, it is a live, arena-based sport competition for strength athletes.
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On April 27, 2009 Giants Live was named the Official World's Strongest Man Qualifying Tour for 2009–2011, thus taking over from the Strongman Super Series in this regard. The first 2009 qualifying event took place on May 17 at the Mohegan Sun Casino Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, and with the second event being the Viking Power competition, Giants Live appears to mirroring the Super Series for its desired locations.[1]
Giants Live was licensed the exclusive rights by IMG Sports Media, the creator and owner of the 32 year old World’s Strongest Man competition. Previously, the qualifying tournament was known as the Strongman Super Series and from 2003 the "World’s Strongest Man Super Series". A Strongman Super Series continued to operate in 2009, but did not have WSM qualifying status.
At each Grand Prix event, in common with previous such series, each competitor competes in six different tests of strength with the winner crowned Grand Prix Champion. The top three athletes at each tournament win a qualifying slot at the World’s Strongest Man final.
Along with the Strongman Champions League, this event made important progress in acting as a fundamental part of a unifying movement for world strength athletics by making plans to help SCL get its athletes to the 2009 World's Strongest Man contest. SCL chief, Mostert, stated that "The top 5 SCL athletes will have places in the Giants Live tour for qualifying at World's Strongest Man (WSM) 2009". In addition, he also stated that wild cards for the WSM will include SCL athletes. He went on to say that "Finally we made it all possible again that all the athletes have chances to qualify for the WSM, which means in my opinion the WSM will have the strongest field ever in her history!". He went on to thank TWI/IMG and Giants Live for their part in making these possibilities. This was groundbreaking because for a number of years prior to this, the athletes under the IFSA had been banned by the federation from entering WSM (since the IFSA fell out of favour with TWI). Likewise, the athletes invited to participate in WSM were not invited to participate in IFSA events. Some competitions bridged the divide, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic and more recently Fortissimus, but neither had the history or gravitas, or indeed popular appeal of the iconic World's Strongest Man. The IFSA athletes, with the demise of the IFSA finances, almost all competed in SCL from 2008. This deal, along with the Fortissimus deal before it, united storngman in a way it had not been since 2004.
Giants Live is a collaboration between AEG ThemeStar, Crystal Entertainment & Colin Bryce:
| Year | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohegan Sun Grand Prix 2009[2] 17 May 2009 |
Derek Poundstone | Travis Ortmayer | Brian Shaw | Mohegan Sun Casino Arena, Connecticut |
| Viking Power Challenge 2009[3] 6 June 2009 |
Travis Ortmayer | Richard Skog | Mikhail Koklyaev | Stavanger, Norway |
| Giants Live Poland[4] 1 August 2009 |
Jarek Dymek | Mark Felix | Stefan Solvi Petursson | Malbork, Poland |
| Year | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giants Live-South Africa 10 April 2010[5] |
Brian Shaw | Mikhail Koklyaev | Terry Hollands | Johannesburg, South Africa |
| Giants Live-Kiev 30 May 2010[6] |
Derek Poundstone | Laurence Shahlaei | Johannes Arsjo | Kiev, Ukraine |
| Giants Live-London 19 June 2010 Europe's Strongest Man 2010 |
Zydrunas Savickas | Terry Hollands | Mark Felix | London, England |
| Giants Live-Poland 8 August 2010[7] |
Vytautas Lalas | Robert Szczepanski | Janusz Kulaga | Poland |
| Giants Live-Istanbul 24 October 2010[8] |
Zydrunas Savickas | Brian Shaw | Stefan Solvi Petursson | Istanbul, Turkey |
| Year | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giants Live-London March 19, 2011[9] |
Brian Shaw | Laurence Shahlaei | Vytautas Lalas | London, England |
| Giants Live-Poland August 6, 2011[10] |
Krzysztof Radzikowski | Mike Jenkins | Mateusz Baron | Poland |
| Giants Live-Finland August 13, 2011[11] |
Martin Wildauer | Vidas Blekaitis | Rauno Heinla | Finland |
| Giants Live-Ukraine August 24, 2011[12] |
Sergey Romanchuk | Mark Felix | Josh Thigpen | Poltava, Ukraine |
| Year | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
May 13, 2011[14] |
Juha Matti Jarvi | Antti Mourujärvi | Pedro Karlsson | Pori, Finland |
May 21, 2011[15] |
Juha Matti Jarvi | Kai Pasanen | Jarno Kirselä | Masku, Finland |
May 28, 2011[16] |
Juha Matti Jarvi | Jarno Kirselä | Kai Pasanen | Jyväskylä, Finland |
June 14, 2011[17] |
Juha Matti Jarvi | Jarno Kirselä | Janne Illikainen | Oulu, Finland |
| Position | Name | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Juha Matti Jarvi | 60 | |
| 2. | Jarno Kirselä | 44 | |
| 3. | Kai Pasanen | 30 | |
| 4. | Tomi Lotta(via SCL series) | 17 |