Congratulations to Takeshi Matsuura and Janos Karancz, our 2013 World YoYo Champions in the 5A and 1A Divisions! Our new Artistic Performance World Champions are Spination, a team composed of Yu Kawada and Tomiyuki Watanabe.

The 5A division ran with only two players making mostly clean runs. Tyler Severance had tremendous trick diversity in his routine, but couldn’t match Takeshi Matsuura’s speed and technical difficulty in the judge’s eyes. But the amazing performances from both players guarantee that counterweight hopefuls around the world have their work cut out for them if they want to be a contender for next year’s title.

This years World YoYo Contest had the fiercest competition ever in 1A, with the player pool starting at just under 200 competitors, including seeded champions. There were tons of strong performances, but Hungarian slack master Janos Karancz was the clear winner with a remarkably clean and terrifyingly difficult routine. His slack tricks border on the unimaginable, and he nailed them all with ease for his first world title.

Spination’s AP routine was an incredibly executed and highly entertaining slapstick routine that mimiced old silent films with a “cops and robbers” story that had the audience begging for more. Brilliantly performed by Kawada and Watanabe, Spination was the clear winner in a field of excellent routines.