Mark McMorris proved his worth yesterday after he won first place in the Dew Tour Men’s Slopestyle Finals, defending his title as champion for a second year.

There was heavy competition at this year’s slopestyle as US riders were not only competing to win the Dew Tour but a place on the US Olympic Snowboard Team for Sochi 2014.

Shaun White came out top in the qualifiers with a 93.20 in his first run, but pulled out of the finals without warning after complaints of a sprained ankle! He’d come second place to Greg Bretz in the men’s pipe finals on Saturday (the first time he’d been beaten since 2010!) and supposedly aggravated an old ankle injury after falling on the first run. Check out his tweet below:

#RoadtoCouchi had to pull out of Dew Tour slopestyle finals because of ankle sprain from superpipe… http://t.co/F2rSrNs2AV

— Shaun White (@shaun_white) December 15, 2013

With Shaun at home icing his ankle, the path was clear for Mark McMorris, Seb Toots, Max Parrot and Sven Thorgren to battle it out for a place on the podium.

Mark McMorris landed an almost perfect first run. He started with a backside 270 to 270 on the first rail, followed by a cab 270 on the second rail. Then he stomped a sweet cab double cork 1260 and a frontside 1080 double cork on the top two jumps. Finally, he topped it off with his signature double backflip and a cool backside 1080 double cork to finish.

Despite scoring a 95.00 in his first run, Mark went on to clean up with a stonking final run including a 1440 triple cork which bumped his final score up to 97.80! You can watch it below (with some pretty funny commentary from Jack Mitrani):

 
“I had nothing to lose,” Mark told Dew Tour reporters. “I told myself everything was going perfect and I had to do a triple.” Nice.

Max Parrot was just pipped to the post by Sven Thorgren who landed a cab 12 followed by a double back rodeo, frontside 10 and backside 10 on the final two kickers. He claimed second place with a 91.00, leaving Max in third with 89.00.

Dew tour men’s slopestyle finals 2013: results

1. Mark McMorris
2. Sven Thorgren
3. Maxence Parrot
4. Sebastien Toutant
5. Chas Guldemond
6. Sage Kotsenburg
7. Brandon Davis
8. Spencer Link
9. Eric Wilett
10. Eric Beauchemin
11. Ulrik Badertscher
12. Nikolas Baden
13. Stale Sandbech
14. Aleksander Ostreng
15. Gjermund Braaten
15. Peetu Piiroinen
DNS Shaun White