We have a new air guitar world champion: Here’s how the tournament works and how the winner was chosen

How can world peace be achieved? Well the organizers of the Air Guitar World Championships reckon it can be done by “shamelessly” playing an air guitar. Not to mention that it will also stop climate change along with any other bad thing.

The competition has been held every August since 1996 in Oulu, Finland to promote peace with the motto “make air, not war.” The finals for the 28th edition took place on Friday and saw the trophy return home for the first time in 25 years.

Finnish air guitarist Aapo “The Angus” Rautio was crowned the champion beating the 15 other competitors in the final round. The competition this year had an “Air Off” to determine the winner as The Angus was tied with second place winner, Japan’s Yuta Sudo “Sudo-chan.”

Rautio got to take home the ‘Flying Finn’, a real guitar awarded to the winner, made by Finnish guitar maker Matti Nevalainen.

How the Air Guitar World Championships work

The competition is a solo competition, i.e. no backup bands, “real or air bands.” However, they can have personal air roadies. The rules state that performers’ instruments “must be invisible, in other words – air.” No substitues for a guitar are allowed either.

Contestants “can use an electric or an acoustic air guitar, or both.” They can use a pick if they wish.

“There is no dress code, and the contestants may use props as they wish,” the rules state.

Scores of contestants from 13 countries play their invisible axes in two separate rounds, each lasting 60 seconds. In each round they play a different song, one of their choosing and the other chosen by the organizers.

They are scored with a mark between 4.0 and 6.0 for each performance by the five-member panel of judges, consisting of performing arts professionals. The two are added together to get the final score.

The jury judges the performances on “originality, the ability to be taken over by the music, stage presence, technical merit, artistic impression and Airness.” No complaints about the judges decision will be accepted.

Seven “dark horse” contestants move on to the final round to compete against eight national champions and the previous year’s champion, if they chose to defend it. The artist with the highest score at the end of the two-hour finale wins.

In the event of a tie at the end of the final round, the contestants have a “Air Off.” After they are told which song the jury has chosen, to determine the artist that goes first, they play rock-paper-scissors.

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