I think you said it best with “is this a race rather than a show..” because Yoann Berreli got invited I think two years ago and he had no business riding that course, and he was very humble about it. I don’t think he ever cleared the huge car jump...but yet they invite him for his online following maybe?Honestly, I have often wondered that. As far as I can tell, Gee is the only Red Bull athlete at the event. While Hardline is definitely a cool event, the lack of transparency over who is selected to race does detract from the event as a legitimate race rather than a show. Conversely, the US Open is... well... "open" which was always the point. Register and try to make the qualification cut - do so and you get to race for the $$$. This is compared to a World Cup event where you generally need a certain number of UCI points to even register.