The newly-formed International YoYo Federation has just announced the round structure for future World YoYo Contests, starting with the 2014 contest in Prague.
There are a couple of big changes here. First and foremost, due to the increasing number of national contests being held around the globe, national champions are no longer granted a spot in the finals, and will instead join the semi-final round.
Multinational, or continental contests are now fully recognized in the round structure, and winners of the Asia-Pacific YoYo Championships, European YoYo Championships, and North American YoYo Championship (if established) will all be granted a spot in the final round.
The top ten players in all National Contests will start in the preliminary round, which now has significantly less competitors.
Non-qualified players will still have a shot at the title, but will start at the new wildcard round. This will be a short 30-second freestyle round, likely held in a private room, with fewer judges evaluating the player’s technical skills (clickers only), and with limited music choice.
Seeding rules have also been announced, and determine the player’s eligibility for national titles and Worlds seeding. Some rules remain the same, such as the Worlds seeding term, which starts at the previous year’s World YoYo Contest and the start of the next edition of the contest.
Rules for players who can legally compete in more than one national contest are now addressed. In summary, a player can only compete at one national contest each year, and if he’s eligible to compete at two national contests for the same Worlds seeding term, only the first one will be considered.
Players from countries without a national contest will also benefit from the multinational contest rules, as placing among the top ten in those contests will grant a spot in the preliminary round of the World YoYo Contest.
These rules apply to all contests held from August 11th, 2013.
If you can’t place top ten in your country, you need to earn your way on stage. If you can’t place top three in your national contest you probably have no shot at winning worlds anyway…
Iam all for getting rid of people who have no business on stage, I don’t care what you paid.
i feel sorta bad for agreeing with you, but yeah. having all those tons of preliminary freestyles to sift through takes away from the buzz of being at worlds.
I’m just sayin 75$ to perform to a 1-2 judges in an isolated room is outrageous professional or not
It’s only outrageous if you don’t have the skill to get past that round. If you have the skill to get past that round, you’re paying to be a serious contender.
If you aren’t a serious contender, why are you trying to compete at that level?
I belive that if a non top ten national winer is a contestant and is in the wildcard round, that 30 seconds is not nearly enough time to show your skills, and since they pay 65$ to get a sot to the finals they should at least get to be able to go on the stage and perform.