After the elite season kicked off for the U.S. men last week with the Houston National Invitational, it’s now time for the Winter Cup Challenge, set to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada between February 19 through February 21.

The Winter Cup is a national U.S. MAG competition, and includes both preliminary and finals competition. The top 24 in the all-around based on prelims will qualify, as will any gymnast who places in the top 3 on any event (though in this case, these gymnasts are limited in finals to the event or events on which they qualified). Finals will also include the top 18 athletes ranked in the MPC Points Program for a total field of 42 all-around finalists.

As a mid-season meet six months before nationals and eight months before Worlds, the Winter Cup is traditionally where you’ll see athletes testing upgrades and trying new skills in a competitive environment. But there’s a little more at stake – it’s also how the USA Gymnastics MAG program determines the first 2015 senior national team, with the second to be named after P&G Championships in August.

15 spots are available on the national team with seven automatically awarded to the 2014 World Championships team, including Sam Mikulak, Donnell Whittenburg, Jake Dalton, John Orozco, Alex Naddour, Danell Leyva, and alternate Paul Ruggeri. This leaves eight spots up for grabs, determined by the following criteria:

• The top 3 all-around finishers who weren’t on the Worlds team
• 2 athletes based on the National Team Points System
• 2 athletes selected by the Men’s Program Committee
• 1 athlete selected by the national team coordinator

So, if you’re unfamiliar with MAG in the United States, your next question is probably “what’s the national team points system,” right? The system awards points to the top 10 athletes on each individual event in both prelims and finals, as well as to the top 10 all-around gymnasts based on their two-day combined scores.

An athlete’s placement determines how many points he will receive, with the top athlete receiving 11 points, 2nd place receiving 10, 3rd receiving 9, and so on and so forth down the line until the 10th place athlete, who receives 1 point. In the event of a tie, both athletes are awarded the same amount of points.

At the end of the meet, all points are added together to create the final points results and rankings. Not counting the Worlds team members and top three all-around finishers already named to the team, the two ranked highest using the points system are given national team berths. If there is a tie for the last remaining team spot, there are several tie-breakers in place to determine who gets it.

This year, all members of last year’s Worlds team but Naddour were expected to attend, though USA Gymnastics reported that Orozco’s mother sadly passed away suddenly and unexpectedly this past weekend, so I wouldn’t expect him to attend.

Those Worlds team members attending have already established themselves as leaders on the U.S. men’s team, so at this competition they will likely want to show their versatility on several events in an extremely deep field in addition to getting a feel for their new skills.

Two-time Olympian Jon Horton made his return to competition last year after a two-year absence. Though he showed considerable difficulty and execution in 2014, Horton was not in his peak condition, so with a little more time in the gym, he should be eager to prove that he can hit routines the way he used to.

Last year’s Winter Cup champion and 2012 Olympic alternate Chris Brooks was considered a front-runner for the Worlds team, but had to withdraw from the U.S. Championships due to a hand injury. A successful competition for him would mean clean execution with a respectable level of difficulty; it might be too soon to expect much more than this, though don’t count out a surprise killer comeback either.

Other names to know at this year’s Winter Cup include 2013 World vault medalist Steven Legendre, Akash Modi, C.J. Maestas, Marvin Kimble, and Sean Melton. Maestas, Kimble, and Melton were a huge part of the gold-winning team at last year’s Pan American Championships, and though they’re all a bit young, they could all play a big role in 2016.

Junior national team member Alec Yoder, the 2014 Youth Olympic Games bronze all-around medalist, will also participate. Yoder competed at last week’s Houston National Invitational, where he finished 6th in a field full of experienced seniors and was particularly impressive on pommel horse, where he tied Leyva for the second highest score of the day.

The Winter Cup Challenge will be held this weekend at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. For a full list of athletes set to compete, click here. Tickets are available beginning Thursday morning at the Riviera Royale Pavilion Ballroom. There is no information about streaming available at the moment, though USA Gymnastics will upload videos and provide information on the official event website as soon as they are able.

Article by Paul Ochoa