LOS ANGELES — Jake Brown was the sentimental favorite. Bob Burnquist was the winner. But it was Danny Way who stole the show in the skateboarding Big Air event at the Staples Center on Thursday night at the X Games.

For the second straight year on the 62-foot-high, 293-foot-long Mega Ramp, one of the skaters had a crash of cartoon-violence proportions. This time it was Way. He was on his second of five runs when he clipped the lip of the 27-foot-high quarterpipe with his legs. He flipped over and landed on his back like a rag doll and slid to the bottom of the ramp.

Like last year, when Brown fell 45 feet from above the ramp, Way walked off on his own. Then he upstaged Brown by returning to the competition without missing a run.

Like last year, Burnquist won on the event’s final run. Burnquist, 33, dropped into the ramp switch — backward — and pulled a backside ollie over the 70-foot gap. He then launched 20 feet above the quarterpipe and pulled an Indy 360, landing backward.

Burnquist, of Vista, Calif., received a score of 96.00, the highest ever recorded in the four years the event has been held at the Games.

The 34-year-old Way, who is credited with building the first Mega Ramp in 2002 in the desert outside Los Angeles, won silver with his final run. He pulled a backflip over the gap and soared 20 feet above the quarterpipe, pulling a 540 spin (one and a half rotations), twisting the board beneath him.

Way did not compete last year because he was injured.

After the competition, Burnquist became emotional and embraced Way on the bottom of the ramp.

It had been an event filled with high drama. Brown, a 33-year-old from Australia, was a crowd favorite after his terrifying plunge in 2007. It was his first competition on a Mega Ramp since the fall.

Last year he pulled a 720 — two full rotations — over the gap. But he lost control as he readied for a McTwist 540 spin on the quarterpipe. As he launched in the air, Brown was shot over the ramp’s flat section. He fell four stories, and landed on his feet with such force that his sneakers shot off. He was thrown onto his back, and his helmet struck the wooden ramp.

As Brown lay unconscious, the arena was silent. But he shocked fans by getting up and walking off moments later.

Way’s dramatics were eerily similar. The difference: Brown went to the hospital, where he spent three days recovering from a broken wrist, a bleeding liver, a bruised lung and cracked vertebrae. Way went back to the top of the ramp to ride again.

Brown was determined to finish the run he aborted last year. But he was unable to land the 720. Instead, he pulled a 360 ollie over the gap and followed it up with a 19-foot McTwist on the quarterpipe for a score of 91.33 and the bronze medal.