New UTB Format and World Finals Points Structure Intensifies 2021 World Title Race
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – The PBR announced some significant changes for the upcoming 2021 PBR Unleash The Beast season on Wednesday morning ahead of this coming weekend’s season-opening PBR Monster Energy Invitational in Ocala, Florida.
The format change will afford the world’s best bull riders more opportunities to earn world points while guaranteeing that fans will see a winner every time they attend or tune in to an Unleash The Beast tour stop.
In simple terminology, here is how a UTB weekend will look in 2021.
• Every calendar day of competition will feature a long round and a 12-rider championship round.
• These nightly bull ridings will be referred to as competitions.
• Every Unleash The Beast weekend event will feature one or more competitions.
• Every weekend, the event winner will be the rider who accumulates the most world points over the course of the competitions.
Each competition will be comprised of two rounds. The Top 30 riders in the world will attempt one bull each in Round 1 of the competition, with the Top 12 advancing to the championship round. If fewer than 12 qualified rides are logged in the first round, the remaining positions will be filled on buckoff time.
Riders will be awarded world points for their finish in each round and the competition aggregate. The rider with the most world points at the conclusion of each competition will be crowned the competition winner. One rider will have the chance to earn a maximum of 140 world points at each competition.
| 2021 UTB COMPETITION POINTS | 2021 PBR WORLD FINALS POINTS | |||
| PLACE | ROUND POINTS | AGG. POINTS | ROUND POINTS | AGG. POINTS |
| 1 | 30 | 80 | 160 | 1,200 |
| 2 | 20 | 50 | 85 | 750 |
| 3 | 15 | 30 | 70 | 550 |
| 4 | 10 | 20 | 60 | 350 |
| 5 | 9 | 15 | 55 | 300 |
| 6 | 8 | 10 | 50 | 250 |
| 7 | 7 | 8 | 40 | 200 |
| 8 | 6 | 7 | 30 | 150 |
| 9 | 5 | 6 | 20 | 100 |
| 10 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 75 |
| 11 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 50 |
| 12 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
At the conclusion of each weekend of action, the rider with the most world points earned across all the competitions will be anointed the event winner and presented with a Montana Silversmiths buckle and $10,000 bonus. The event winner will not receive additional world points.
Let’s take a deeper look at some of the changes for 2021 and how that may affect the 2021 World Championship race.
Unleash The Beast two-day events have double the world points in 2021
The new event format for the Unleash The Beast essentially doubles the number of world points available on the premier series each weekend compared to 2020.
In 2020, the most world points one rider could win by sweeping every round of competition and winning the event average was 140 points.
In 2021, that number increases to 280 points if a rider wins every round and the two event average bonuses across the two competitions.
*There are currently no three-day events on the upcoming Unleash The Beast: American Roots Edition series. However, under the updated event format, a three-day sweep in 2021 would net a rider the same amount of world points as last season’s three-day formats (420 world points).
The event aggregate is that much more valuable this season
With the PBR shifting to having a long round and championship round on every day of a UTB event, that has led to a significant opportunity for riders to rack up additional world points via placement in the event average.
In 2020, 234 world points were distributed to the Top 15 finishers in the event average at one event on the UTB. This season, 238 world points are available for the Top 12 finishers in the event average per day.
The event average winner in 2020 earned 80 world points; that number is the same in 2021. The difference is each competition (every day) offers up that 80 world points.
How this impacts the world title race will be fun to watch. Could a rider such as Kaique Pacheco or Joao Ricardo Vieira use the event average bonus to keep pace with fellow World Champion contenders Jose Vitor Leme and Jess Lockwood, who often separate themselves from the field by winning rounds? Of course, if Leme and Lockwood are riding at a 60% clip in 2021, they will also be gobbling up those event average world points.
The key will be which riders are converting consistently in the championship round.
Winning rounds is worth 10 more points in 2021 – but two-day event weekends will feature one more round
Don’t let the UTB changes fool you: winning rounds during each competition remains a premium. Round wins are worth 10 more points (30 vs. 20) in 2021, and two-day events will feature four rounds over the two competitions vs. the traditional three rounds.
The shift to having a championship round on each day of competition will also benefit the world’s top bull riders. Riders that consistently ride the rankest bulls in the world during the championship will be rewarded more in 2021.
Notching a second qualified ride in the championship round will go a long way in a rider separating himself from the 30-man field when it comes to the world title race. The addition of one more championship round may bring with it some more wear and tear for the top riders, too, so that will also be worth monitoring throughout the first months of the season.
Don’t underestimate how important the World Finals remains
The increase of points available on a weekly basis on the Unleash The Beast could have led to a rider truly running away with the 2021 world title. Even though that is still always a possibility in nearly any points system, it will be hard for a rider to wrap up the 2021 World Championship before the World Finals. There will be lots of big swings in points on a nightly and weekly basis. All it will take is one or two big rides to earn a chunk of points.
Most of all, the PBR also increased the points available at the World Finals this season, raising the stakes for the 35 riders who qualify for the season-culminating event in Las Vegas.
One rider will be able to earn a maximum of 2,160 world points by winning all six rounds and the event average at the World Finals. Last season, the most a rider could earn at the four-day Finals was 1,060.
Rounds are worth 160 points (double the amount of winning the event average at one UTB competition day) at the 2021 Finals, and the event average is worth 1,200 points (15 times the amount a rider earns for winning the event average at one UTB competition).
Simply put, there is a massive amount of points available at the World Finals.
So, what is a realistic deficit for a rider to pull off a comeback at the World Finals with these additions? Last season it was 650 points. In past years it was around 2,000.
The golden number when it comes to the World Championship race will likely be 1,500 points in 2021. Any rider within 1,500 points of the world No. 1 ranking should have a shot at taking home the $1 million championship.
However, a rider within 1,800 points of the world No. 1 ranking could also remain in contention with a World Finals victory, but he would need some major help from his opponents stubbing their toes in Las Vegas.
What about the annual Unleash The Beast cutline?
In the last few seasons, there have been two cutlines – one after the first five events and another after the first eight Unleash The Beast events.
2021 will also feature two cutlines.
Riders who concluded the 2020 season inside the Top 25 of the world standings are given five guaranteed events (10 competitions) for the 2021 season. Those riders ranked from No. 26-No. 30 at the end of the 2020 season will receive four guaranteed events (eight competitions). Riders who finished 31-35 are no longer guaranteed any UTB events to begin the season.
To maintain a guaranteed spot on the Unleash The Beast, a rider will need to be ranked inside the Top 25 of the world standings. Injury exemptions and alternates will then fill out the 26-30 draw spots. There will then be up to two Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour draw spots on a weekly basis beginning with the PBR Okeechobee Invitational (Jan. 30-31).
So, when should we expect some movement and cutline chatter for riders not ranked inside the Top 25 of the world standings?
The first cut will come following the Feb. 13-14 PBR Unleash The Beast event in Del Rio, Texas. That is also when alternates will be based strictly on the 2021 standings. In the first month of the season, alternates will be based on the 2020 and 2021 world standings in a rotation.
The second cut will be after the next event in Pecos, Texas, on Feb. 20-21.
How do riders reach the Unleash The Beast? Hello, Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour!
There have been no changes to the points system at any other level of PBR competition, so the riders that begin the year on the UTB are going to have an advantage at locking down the guaranteed spots on tour if they ride their bulls.
Any rider that did not finish in the Top 30 of last year’s world standings will likely need to win at the Velocity Tour level to get a crack at the UTB. Riders will still earn points for Touring Pro Division victories (15 world points), but those points are minimal compared to the UTB offerings.
One rider can earn a maximum of 51 points at a two-day Velocity Tour event. Round wins are worth seven points, and the event average is worth 30 points.
Two riders from the Velocity Tour will be invited to compete on the UTB weekly – the past PWVT event winner from a previous invite and the current PWVT standings leader.
Should the PWVT event winner already be seeded on the UTB, the event invite will be negated; however, if the standings leader is already in the draw for the Unleash The Beast event, the invite will pass down to the next rider in the PWVT rankings.
If the event winner and the top-ranked rider in the Velocity Tour standings are the same, that rider will be the lone individual extended an invite.
PWVT riders will begin to earn berths following the Cedar Park, Texas, event on Jan. 16-17. Riders competing at the PWVT season-opener in Cedar Park will be battling it out for spots in the two-day Unleash The Beast tour stop in Okeechobee, Florida, on Jan. 30-31.
Buckoff times will be a factor at some UTB events
A minor thing to keep an eye on is that championship rounds will consist of the Top 12 riders from the long round of each competition. If there are less than 12 qualified rides, the championship round will be filled out via buckoff time.
Riders on the Unleash The Beast went 689-for-2,218 (31.06%) in 2020. We will see if there will be any moments where the championship round will need to be filled by a rider or two who failed to record a score in Round 1.
On the same token, it will be interesting to see how many riders miss out on the championship round each night with the change from 15 to 12 riders.
The fun begins Saturday in Ocala
The Unleash The Beast: American Roots Edition begins Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. Fans can watch the event on RidePass or tune in to CBS Sports Network to watch the first Competition of the PBR Monster Energy Invitational.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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