Kunte,

You are right. What catches your eye may or may not catch the next guys.. Or the judges.

I have talked to a few guys who competed this year and they all empahsized that the compulsory maneuvers played a big part in judging. Some who had exciting 3D were a little lacking in the compulsory stuff and it hurt their scores.

One thing I liked about Jon Leylands flying was his rolling point circle. Each snap that he did was to a different direction and to a different point. Some were 1/2 snaps, some were 1-1/4 snaps and he was chaging the direction of the snaps and the rolls as he was going through the circle. VERY NICE!
Most people go around the circle, rolling. Then they'll put a snap at every 90 but its always a snap to the same direction and ends at the same point.
He also does something I havent seen anyone else do and that is a High Alpha rolling reversal where the plane seems to flip direction at every half roll.