The 6th Slinging World Cup in Ibiza will be on October 22-26.  It's certainly way too early to start planning, but I'm hoping to be there again.

The attached image isn't great.  I'll change it to the official flyer as soon as Pep sends that out.

Nice! Putting it on the calendar now!

Awesome guys!  Maybe this year we'll get a big crew built up again!

Some news on participants for this year's World Cup.  Pep sent out a message saying he had a meeting with the captain of the Almería (city in south-eastern Spain) sling team.  That crew will be at the WC this year.  I sent Pep a message and asked him about the shepherd slingers from Málaga who impressed the heck out of everyone last year.  He said those folks will be back too!

Sounds like the World Cup should be pretty competitive (and tough) this year!

That's a question that could take pages to answer. 
But let me try to provide some info.  There was a post on this forum about that separation.  It's here if you want to look at it (or you may have already): https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1636192449.  This indicates that Pep was not elected (re-elected?) as the president, and that's when the split happened.

That split makes things a little hard to track because names changed.  From what I can tell, what we might consider the first Slinging World Cup was still under the International Sling Meeting (specifically the 7th).  Here are the posts on that: https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1580141635 and https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1577049479.  That seems to line up because in the video included in the first link I provided above, Pep mentions that the event took place in Palma.  That was in 2020.

The second one in 2021 is the first one I see where the World Cup (Copa Del Mundo) was used, https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1617103242.  And then between that and the third year (https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1657804065) is when Pep and the Balearic Federation were officially separated.  So since the 3rd Slinging World Cup, it's been under Pep's control.

In regard to impacts we might see, I think it's already kind of happened.  The information I have on these things is minimal, but at the last WC Pep talked to us about his acceptance of different slings and styles that (according to some) don't really have a place in more traditional Balearic tournaments.  To be honest, I don't really disagree with that.  I understand the notion of holding on to certain historic traditions.  Just one quick example of this, I believe to compete at the Balearic tournament in Mallorca, you need to use a natural fiber sling.  I'm not 100% certain of that, so if I'm wrong someone please correct me.  But at the World Cup, anything goes.  As long as you're using a sling to throw a ball/stone at the target, any materials, types, and styles are fair game.  That's so individuals or groups coming in from around the world can do things in their own way instead of trying to adjust to the local way.

I know there's a lot more to it that I have no knowledge of, but the difference of opinion between adhering to certain traditions and expanding internationally to whatever might come along was part of the split.  I do remember someone saying once upon a time that Pep loves adding flags to the World Cup flyer.  While I think it's possible for anyone (meaning international people) to compete in the Balearic competitions in Mallorca, I don't think that's something that's really advertised anywhere.  Again, grain of salt because my knowledge is very limited.

Sorry for the long post.  Hopefully there was something interesting or useful in there.

Thanks for the info Joe!

I'm still gutted I couldn't make it last year. I'm really hoping to make it this year but I just can't make any promises. October is a difficult month to line up with the Finnish university calendar. I will be starting my Masters studies in the autumn so... I fear I'm going to be incredibly busy and unable to get away. I really hope I can manage it, but yeah we'll have to see closer to the time.