King of the Road is an American skateboarding tournament held by Thrasher magazine, founded by its editor Michael Burnett in 2003.
History
The tournament involves three or four teams of professional skaters competing over a two-week period. All teams are given "The Book", which contains a series of challenges.[1] The challenges themselves typically involve hard skateboarding tasks and humorous ones, such as making out with a certain number of women, or getting a tattoo.[2] There are various points available for each challenge, usually dependent on how difficult or uncomfortable the challenge is. The teams travel across numerous American cities to complete as many of these challenges as possible.[3]
The tournament was held annually from 2003 to 2007, with each of these years being released on DVD. In 2010, the tournament was returned, however would be released as an Internet series going forward, instead of a DVD. In 2011, Thrasher and Converse hosted a special one-off edition of the competition in China, with the participation of four Chinese skateboard brands.[4]
Later on, Thrasher would sign an agreement for Viceland to broadcast the 2015 tournament, and this agreement would continue for the next two years. Ultimately, Viceland did not renew the rights to distribute any future King of the Road tournaments after the 2017 edition, and there has yet to be any held since.[5]
