Current Events > Does anyone here follow slapping tournaments? A Polish athlete died recently

(+) Yeah! (+)

Admittedly I'm a cr1tikal normie, not some deep-diving badass who got into things on my own - but regardless, I've come to really enjoy slapping tournaments, with a preference for the Polish league with Vasiliy Kamotski, Walus and Zales (that last one is a bit butchered without the proper character, it's pronounced "Zalesh").

Here's an example of the Polish slapping league from cr1tikal's channel, it has both Walus and Vasiliy competing:

https://youtu.be/qMXBZNKIvdA

For reference, here's a slapping match between Vasiliy and Zales, as well as the aftermath of their bout:

https://youtu.be/6N0ogsCiYdg
https://youtu.be/CYZpwBGkm1w

Back in October, there was a slapping match between Zales - the guy with the swollen cheek - and Walus - the massively jacked bear guy.

Zales got a slap on Walus and knocked him out - not an uncommon way to win in Polish slap-fighting, since there's a three turn limit, a point system and an emphasis on form compared to American slap-fighting.

So Walus goes down, but he doesn't get back up. He ends up being admitted to hospital and goes into a coma.

From what I've read, he never woke up. He recently passed away.

In case you couldn't tell, I follow this stupid, niche bloodsport kinda closely, and I'm invested in the major players of it. I've seen Walus compete before - dude was huge, seemed unstoppable. To hear that he's died is a serious shock.

I can't convey more than this if you're not already a fan who shares my sentiments, which is who this topic is ostensibly for. I just wanted to make a topic alerting anyone who might be into these slapping videos about what happened, because I only found out in the comments of another cr1tikal video.

I'm not being ironic or taking the piss - RIP to Walus. Dude was an awesome athlete, whether it was lifting or slapping or whatever. Dude was jacked, he was huge and he was in better shape than most of us will be in our lives. His death will probably affect how I watch slapping videos from now on, because as much as I like this bloodsport, it's definitely going to be different now that a known quantity in the Polish circuit has died because of it.

damn, that really sucks.

I don't follow the competition, but I'm familiar with it, and from what I've seen, it can really mess up the competitors.

RIP to the man.

Just sad.

that does not look like a man that could be killed by a mere slap. did they say what the exact cause of death was?

thronedfire2 posted...

that does not look like a man that could be killed by a mere slap. did they say what the exact cause of death was?

this was no mere slap

this was the king of slaps

This story doesn't slap at all.

thronedfire2 posted...

that does not look like a man that could be killed by a mere slap. did they say what the exact cause of death was?

Anything could be a killing blow if you do it hard enough.

A lot of those hits are essentially open hand punches, and hits to the side of the head are more dangerous than hits to the front.

It's bad that manlet brought so much attention to the "sport."

just go back to bare knuckle boxing if you need a blood sport...

thronedfire2 posted...

that does not look like a man that could be killed by a mere slap. did they say what the exact cause of death was?

Multiple organ failure due to a complete shutdown of the central nervous system.

Malcrasternus posted...

A lot of those hits are essentially open hand punches, and hits to the side of the head are more dangerous than hits to the front.

It's bad that manlet brought so much attention to the "sport."

There's definitely people who just strike with the ball of their palms. These three had pretty good form though.

The thing is that these slapping tournaments were going to happen whether cr1tikal covered them or not. They have slapping PPVs in Poland, and it wasn't from one English-speaking YouTuber's popular coverage of the sport - it's because the league grew and gained followers organically in Russia and Poland. Cr1tikal not covering this sport wouldn't have saved Walus.

And then you have opinions like this:

monkmith posted...

just go back to bare knuckle boxing if you need a blood sport...

Where the solution is to watch a much more brutal contact sport.

I wouldn't put this on cr1tikal, is all I'm saying.

Also here's the only English-speaking source I could find for the death:

https://usdaynews.com/celebrities/celebrity-death/artur-walus-walczak-death-cause/

It's a sketchy source, and the original way I found out about this was from a YouTube comment, so by all means take this with a grain of salt. I'm taking it at face value due to how niche the sport is, and because we know Walus collapsed back in October.

With how hard some of those guys hit, it seems like it was only a matter of time. I'll admit this is not something I follow, and most of my exposure is from snippets on Facebook. But it always looked dangerous to me

my girlfriend likes this youtuber and ive seen it on her recommendeds periodically.

sucks to see but i'm unsurprised. those dudes are jacked and it's basically a punch.