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Goodbye, Orlando

August 23, 2013 By Rafael Matsunaga

I have fond memories of the World YoYo Contest stage at the Rosen Plaza Hotel. I competed there in 1A, 5A, and Combined divisions, I practiced there late at night to hide my tricks from my biggest rival and good friend Makoto Numagami, I faced public humiliation (and fame) at the Wheel of Penalty, I earned my World Title there ten years ago, and I was awarded National Master on that stage.

2013 was the last of fourteen years when the World YoYo Contest was held in Orlando. In many ways, the contest’s history throughout those years has influenced my own, and the development of yoyoing as a sport owes much of its current state to the Orlando era.

My own yoyo career started in 2000, up until that time, the yoyo was no more than a toy for me. That was when I came upon this clip:

The 2000 World YoYo Contest was the first one held in Orlando, thanks to Gregory Cohen’s effort to save the event after a near disastrous 1999 contest in Honolulu — a symbolic end of the late 90’s boom.

That clip video got me instantly hooked. Paul Escolar, Kohta Watanabe, Hidemasa Senba, and the 2004/2013 AP World Champion Tomiyuki Watanabe were all there.

A very important addition was made to the contest structure in 2000: the X division. In 1999, counterweight play was introduced by Steve Brown, Hironori Mii got second place at that year’s World Yo-yo Contest 1A division playing offstring, you can see Doc Pop introducing some Mobius, and Rick Wyatt throwing some 3A in the clip above. The X division, then judged by the contestants themselves, marked the recognition of the new styles as a developing force.

The contest was held at Universal Studios, outside, in the merciless summer Orlando weather. Just walking outside for a couple of minutes in Orlando is a torture, but in 2000, the entire contest was held in the Florida heat, humidity, and rain. Thankfully, that was the first and last time that happened, and the contest found a new home next year: the Rosen Plaza.

From 2001 to 2013, the Rosen Plaza Hotel, in Orlando’s overly-touristic International Drive, was a yoyo haven for three days a year. There’s nothing quite like being surrounded by other yoyo players for 72 hours. During the other 362 days of the year, you were the oddball yo-yo player, but during Worlds in Orlando, it felt like the World’s population was composed solely of fellow players.

Having a contest inside also meant perfect conditions for yoyoing, leading to an exponential increase in trick difficulty on the stage. But 2001 also set the precedent for the Artistic Performance division. Yu Kawada, the previous year’s 1A winner stunned the crowd by focusing on the performance aspect of his routine rather than going technical. He would not win 1A in 2001, but his freestyle inspired the creation of the AP division the next year. A division he would win himself in 2006 and 2013.

Note the almost complete lack of sponsors in the background. The scene would not recover so easily from the burst of the previous yoyo bubble.

My own first appearance at the World YoYo Contest was in 2002, competing in 1A, when compulsories were still in place. My first participation would end rather soon, missing Pop ‘n Fresh twice in a row. The judges for that trick were my now editor Steve Brown, and my current colleague at the IYYF board of directors, Hironori Mii. “Try again next year” — were Steve’s words as I climbed down from the little compulsories stage disappointed with my performance.

I would come back the next year, for sure. 2003 was another breakthrough year for the World YoYo Contest and for myself. That was the first year the fruits of the X Division would be reaped. After three successful and very popular showings in the “extreme” division, 3A, 4A, and 5A would finally be recognized as independent divisions, each awarding a new World YoYo Champion.

That would set the general format of the World YoYo Contest to this date. Another big change came in 2007, when compulsory tricks were replaced by one-minute freestyles, both in order to better evaluate the players as freestyle performers and to save the judges from the tedious job of watching the same tricks for hours. As 2013 has shown us, however, the system does not scale too well, and some adjustments are being worked on for the next editions of the contest in order to prevent the day-long preliminaries torture for the judges.

An interesting tidbit that took place in Orlando was the Combined Division. Held from 2006 to 2009, the division’s goal was to find out which player was the most proficient in all divisions. As the results clearly show, Shinji Saito was clearly better than everyone else — in addition to being nearly unbeatable in 2A — taking the award in all four instances of that division. The Combined Division was also the first to offer cash prizes at the World YoYo Contest.

The experiments and improvements made to the contest in Orlando set a solid foundation upon which the World YoYo Contest can build and grow. Worlds is now mature enough to take new steps, and advance further into a bigger and brighter future.

The 2013 edition was in some ways a fitting first step into that future. This was the biggest diversity ever among the top places in all divisions, with Hungary (János Karancz), Singapore (Christopher Chia), Mexico (Luis Enrique), Taiwan (Tuan Chih-Min and Who Theather), and of course Japan and United States all represented among the top three in different divisions, a sign of a healthy, growing, and competitive scene. The perfect scenario for the World YoYo Contest to set sail.

Next year, Worlds will be held in Prague, Czech Republic — the first edition under the management of the newly-formed International YoYo Federation — marking its first departure from the United States since the the first edition of its modern freestyle format in 1992.

Between doubt and excitement, the consensus is that the World YoYo Contest will never be the same. That’s probably right, and that’s also a good thing. The 2013 World YoYo Contest was not the same as the first contest in Orlando, it’s better in all aspects, much was learned, and all the experience from all these years will be carried on to Prague, then to Tokyo in 2015, and all Worlds editions to come.

The Orlando era will always be remembered as the time when we discovered what we wanted in a yoyo contest, when we figure out how to make it happen, and worked to make it happen. And none of it would have happened without the yearly efforts of one man, who turned the contest’s uncertain future into a solid present, and bright future.

Thank you, Greg Cohen.

Thank you, Orlando.

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: greg cohen, iyyf, orlando, world yo-yo contest, worlds

World YoYo Contest Organizer Charged With Tax Evasion

March 31, 2013 By Steve Brown

Gregory Cohen

Gregory Cohen, the lead organizer for the World YoYo Contest since 2000, was arrested last week and immediately released on bond for failure to pay sales tax to the state of Florida. Authorities say that he failed to file six consecutive tax returns, which are due monthly in the state of Florida. According to our sources, all six of the tax returns in question were from 2010 and Cohen had been working with authorities for some time to remedy the situation when the warrant was issued. While some news sources are reporting specific dollar amounts owed, these dollar amounts are from a press release issued by the local prosecutors office and reflect the total amount if the maximum penalties are assigned, and are not indicative of the actual amount of back taxes owed. YoYoNews has been unable to confirm the actual amount of back taxes owed from 2010, but has confirmed that Cohen is one of at least a dozen local Leon County businesses who have suddenly been pulled off their back tax payment plans and arrested.

We immediately contacted Cohen for comment, and while he was unable to comment on the specific nature of the charges or his tax situation, YoYoNews was assured that “This is completely separate from the World YoYo Contest business and bookkeeping, and will not affect the 2013 World YoYo Contest or the transfer of the event to the IYYF.” Normal procedure for serious tax offenses is for business assets to be immediately seized and auctioned and the State of Florida has shown no interest in doing this. In light of this, YoYoNews has drawn the conclusion that while this arrest certainly indicates that Cohen is a lousy bookkeeper, it’s a simple matter of Cohen working with the State of Florida to rectify the situation and moving on. Hopefully with a better accounting system.

The IYYF was unavailable for a comment.

Gregory Cohen has been an influential, and sometimes controversial, member of the yoyo industry since the early 90s. His store, Infinite Illusions, was widely recognized as the first online yoyo retailer and for many years was easily the largest and most comprehensive. Cohen was an early pioneer of “boutique” yoyo and accessory manufacturing and retail; at a time when ordering spare wooden axles for a yoyo usually meant writing to the manufacturer and waiting weeks for your yoyo to be serviceable again, Cohen became a one-stop shop for string, axles, parts, and accessories. His mailorder business began slowing with stiff competition from companies like the now-defunct YoYoNation, and since YoYoExpert took the position of the world’s largest online yoyo retailer, Infinite Illusions has closed down almost completely.

Cohen took over the World YoYo Contest in 2000 from Dale Oliver, who had been running it in conjunction with IJA juggling festivals. Cohen expanded the event to a stand-alone event held in Orlando, Florida with almost triple the  attendance over the past decade; registered attendees have gone from 315 in 2000 to almost 900 in 2012. Cohen has come under fire in recent years for his inability to grow the contest beyond its current size, and recently agreed to turn over the World YoYo Contest to the IYYF, an independent managing body that would oversee the contest being outside of the United States for the first time since 1932.

The 2013 World YoYo Contest will be his last event as organizer.

Filed Under: Contests, General News Tagged With: florida, greg cohen, gregory cohen, lofty pursuits, sales tax, tallahassee, tax evasion, world yoyo contest

BREAKING NEWS: World YoYo Contest Merges With IYYF

February 8, 2013 By Steve Brown

IYYF International YoYo FederationHere is the official statement from the International YoYo Federation:

We are proud to announce that the World Yo-Yo Contest and the newly formed International Yo-Yo Federation (IYYF) are going to merge into one organization, with the IYYF taking over the running of the World Yo-Yo Contest.

IYYF is a nonprofit organization that unites national associations and is designed to become the governing body for yo-yoing as a sport. Starting in 2014 the IYYF will be responsible for hosting the World Yo-Yo Contest. After 14 years as chairman of the contest, Gregory Cohen is passing the torch to the IYYF so that, together with national yo-yo associations, the IYYF will host the WYYC in countries around the world. The planned schedule for the next four years is:

* 2013 United States of America (Orlando, Florida)

* 2014 Czech Republic (Prague)

* 2015 Japan (Tokyo)

* 2016 United States of America

The exact locations and dates of these events will be announced when they become available.

We will do our best to help the yo-yo community grow, support contests and national associations around the world and much more. You can find more information at http://iyyf.org and at http://worldyoyocontest.com

Ondrej Sedivy (CYA), Hironori Mii (JYYF), Rafael Matsunaga (ABI), Thad Winzenz (NYYL), Gregory Cohen (WYYC)

 

I spoke with Greg Cohen, who has been running the World YoYo Contest since 2000. “There have been a lot of discussions, and this has taken a long time. I’m not going to lie, it hasn’t been a fun or easy transition.” says Cohen. “But I’m supporting this move because I think it’s best for the community, and for the event. I’m excited to see the World YoYo Contest in Prague in 2014…handing it off to the Czech crew is going to be a huge moment for me at Worlds 2013 in Orlando.”

Rafael Matsunaga, president and founder of the Brazilian YoYo Association, says “I’m quite relieved we never got to a split and I’m grateful Greg approached us to talk, even if it took an unfriendly and aggressive move from IYYF to make him realize we were willing to sacrifice continuity in order to promote change.”

The World YoYo Contest has been under-fire for several years now due to the general stagnation of the event. But while plenty of people agree that it was time for the contest to evolve and change hands, others disagreed about how the change started happening.

“Personally I’m stoked to see the formation of the IYYF as both a player and sponsor of many events including the World Yo-Yo Contest,” said Brandon Jackson, National Sales & Marketing Coordinator for Duncan Toys. “Many players have expressed their dissatisfaction with the current state of the World Yo-Yo Contest and this was especially true during the 2012 event as rumors began to fly of a competing world championship to be held in Prague. The rumors created both confusion and excitement amongst players, but the consensus was that of excitement and hope of a bigger, better world championship to be held in a new location. It’s very exciting to see an uprising, especially in the yo-yo community. But it’s even more exciting to see these two organizations come together for the betterment of competition yo-yo play.”

Seth Peterson, Communications and Team Manager for YoYoFactory was a bit more reserved. “It’s interesting to hear this finally come together. It’s cool that Greg’s part of it…surprising, but good. Greg has been instrumental in a lot of different aspects of the community for a very long time. He’s been a figurehead for a lot of people in their growth in the yoyo community, and I’m glad to see that his accomplishments and gifts aren’t being thrown to the wayside by the IYYF. I think last years “Worlds13” announcement came as a surprise to a lot of people, including people who were involved in the goal of moving the contest. I don’t think the way it was presented was to anyone’s benefit, but I’m glad that its been resolved in a way that is clearly moving the event forward. It was hard for me to see the way that Greg was being treated, in spite of my own hopes of moving the contest. I have a lot of respect for Greg and what he’s done, even if we didn’t always agree on aspects of the event.”

There’s certainly still a lot of work to be done, and lots more detail that we’re waiting to see before anyone can really determine if this move will help the event. But I’ve been assured that the IYYF will be an open and transparent organization, with elected board members and representatives from all countries with national organizations given room to speak and contribute.

We’ll continue reporting on this as more information becomes available but in the meantime we offer our congratulations to the IYYF and all involved in this huge step forward for the World YoYo Contest and hopefully all other major contests worldwide.

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: featured, greg cohen, hironori mii, international yoyo federation, iyyf, ondrej sedivy, rafael matsunaga, thad winzenz, world yoyo contest, wyyc

YoYoRadio To Break News About World YoYo Contest

February 6, 2013 By Steve Brown

World YoYo Contest

This week’s YoYoRadio broadcast will feature an interview with Ondrej Sedivy, Rafael Matsunaga and Hironori Mii. The three international yoyoers will make an announcement on YoYoRadio about the future of the hotly-contested World Yo-Yo Contest, and YoYoRadio will be the first place they will make this announcement.

Looks like we’re finally going to get some answers to the tremendous number of questions raised by the announcement last August that a group of yoyo players were actively working towards creating a rival World YoYo Contest after several years of failed negotiations with the current World YoYo Contest organizer to improve and move the event.

The current World YoYo Contest has been stagnant for quite a few years now, and while a great deal of thanks are due to Greg Cohen, who took over the contest more than a decade ago, it’s clear that it’s now time for the event to evolve beyond what is currently being offered. While the manner in which this “takeover” was held was certainly counterproductive, no one can deny that hiding the contest away in a hotel ballroom for the past decade hasn’t helped the sport or industry in the slightest. We’re greatly looking forward to hearing this broadcast, and will be tuned in with everyone else to find out what is happening.

YoYoRadio is the world’s first internet radio show by and for yoyoers. Started in 2005, YoYoRadio broadcasts live each Friday at 9:30 pm (EST). Listeners can listen live and/or download the one hour show after the fact. To listen to the live show, click the ‘Listen Now’ tab at YoYoRadio.net between 9:30 pm and 11 pm (EST) on Fridays. To listen to previous shows, click the ‘Show Archive’ Tab at YoYoRadio.net. Listeners can call the show via Skype (yoyoradio) or via phone (302) 319-9696.

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: greg cohen, hironori mii, ondra sedivy, rafael matsunaga, world yoyo contest, wyyc, YoYoRadio

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