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Very fun trick ^^

As per my usual ramblings, I expressed a lot of my thoughts in the Discord server. To sum things up though, this trick is notorious for being extremely difficult, requiring 2 instances of "bowling" proxies, from unnatural angles, back to back. However, after spending much of today practicing and learning this trick on my own, with special thanks to n30n6r33n's TAS demo of it, seen here: https://youtu.be/IFmDN0ZGAFs, I found its actually not nearly as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe.

The main difficulty lies in being able to have a good facing angle and positioning before your jump and chageglide inputs for the proxies. The trick to it though, is camera manipulation.
Enemies tend to not act or "activate" when they are out of view of the camera. It just so happens that the angle we approach the enemies at causes them to stay inactive until the D-Pad Right Charge to face them. Because they appear on camera at very predictable and controllable times, we can use this to our advantage. Since the distance between us and the enemy we will proxy off of is roughly identical in every attempt, the inputs and timing to get a chargeglide into the rolling enemy at the precise height will also be the same.

This means that, presuming you are able to consistently do the same "bowling input" for the jump + chargeglide sequence, then the only variables are your position and angle facing the enemy. However, these are also normalized to a set range, which only further increases consistency. you position will be effectively the same each time if you follow the same lines and route up until turning right. This is then normalized even more by the magic staircase charging jumps at the start, for the first proxy, as you will almost always end up in the exact same position next to the large enemy that you flame.

As a result the only major variable is your facing angle then, which can vary easily due to the camera not quite catching up to Spyro in the very short time we turn, specifically on the first half. Because you may hold Right for a slightly different amount of time, keeping a good angle that is lined up exactly with the enemy, without need of micro-adjustments mid jump (while you hold forwards), is difficult. Thankfully because of normalizing the height we collide with them for the animation proxy, the affects of this is mitigated somewhat, as many angles and positions will work for getting the required height to make each bowling attempt.

Beyond this, there are several other backup options available by choosing this route. If you fail the first proxy, depending on where you end up, you can continue forward into the river lower area to attempt Metalhead Wallglide, which loses roughly 2-3seconds or so compared to going directly for it.

If you happen to make the first proxy (or get bounced far towards the bridge), but fail the second bowling, you can instead attempt Squop, a squeeze proxy involving the small metal enemy and the torch just as you round the corner down the ramp to the boss. This trick is difficult, but it still saves 4 seconds over single Bowling if done optimally. Even if you don't get enough height form it to make it to the Vortex room directly, you can always convert it into going the out of bounds way by damage abuse through the water. I would imagine at worst, this would still be on par with attempting single Bowling, or even just Metalhead Wallglide, both still major timesaves regardless.

As a result, the tradeoff, I think, is worth it. Instead of attempting Single Bowling, which in itself is already very difficult due to the timing being vague with not the most clear visual cues, you instead have to get a bowling proxy twice, but using a method that is much more consistent and one that you can build muscle memory for, AND is faster if performed successfully. On top of that, it allows for the use of all other tricks as backup options if something goes wrong, with minimal timeloss in each case compared to the respective backup trick on its own.

I will certainly be practicing this more and attempting to get it in full runs, similar to Fish Escalator. I think it has a lot of potential at all levels of play really, and could make this level even more interesting to watch in races, as it opens up so many more options and trick combinations that can turn the tides very quickly in one's favor. It also adds a bit of flexibility in one's play, as you can always route for Double Bowling, but then have all other routes still available to you.

Overall, very fun trick, and very cool level. My goal with this trick and level for IL attempts will be to do the TAS variation in full, but that will take quite a bit more practice! If I happen to accomplish that, I will be sure to upload a video of it similar to my Tree Tops IL.

That's about all, and I'm running out of characters for the description so I'll end it here ^^ Thanks for watching, and see you next time!

~ Xeirla