YoYoRecreation dropped a new video, filmed during the 2014 European YoYo Championship in Budapest, Hungary. Check out some great play from Tatsuya Fujisaka, Ken Takabayashi, Yusuke Otsuka, and Iori Yamaki.
Reiki Sekiya wins East Japan A-Block!
The East Japan Yo-yo Contest A-Block was held yesterday in Chiba, and Reiki Sekiya won the traditionally high-level contest this year!
Fellow YoYoFactory team member Shu Takada not only won 2A with a superb freestyle, but also got second place in 1A! How does someone even practice that hard?!
In 3A, Ken Takabayashi was the winner, while favorites Naoto Okada and Sora Ishikawa took 4A and 5A respectively!
Check the winner freestyles below, courtesy of YoYoFactory Japan and yoyovideoarchive
1A
- Reiki Sekiya
- Shu Takada
- Kentaro Kimura
2A
- Shu Takada
- Tomoyuki Kaneko
- Shinji Saito
3A
- Ken Takabayashi
- Kyouhei Hosono
- Hajime Miura
4A
- Naoto Okada
- Tsubasa Takada
- Junya Kamimura
5A
- Sora Ishikawa
- Sojun Miyamura
- Naoki Uemae
2012 Japan Yo-yo League Kicks Off: Takeshi Matsuura Wins 1A at East Japan A
The 2012 Japan Yo-yo League officially started last weekend with the East Japan A Block Contest in Tokyo!
EJ has traditionally been a very strong regional contest, with the main Japanese competitors taking part. This year the contest was divided into two blocks, A and B. Block B will be held in Ichikawa City, in February.
In the A Block, Yoyojam’s prodigy and 5A World Champion Takeshi Matsuura surprised onlookers by winning the 1A division, ahead of YoyoRecreation’s Takahiro Iizuka, in 3rd, and Kento Noda, in 2nd. Is Takeshi Matsuura, who has won Japan Nationals in both 3A and 5A before, now aiming for the 1A title as well? Also worth noting is that 1A was the only division Takeshi competed in at EJ-A.
The winners in the other divisions were veteran Shuhei Kanai in 2A, Ken Takabayashi in 3A, Youhei Kagawa in 4A and Sora Ishikawa in 5A. Ishikawa was also the winner of the 44CLASH KIKSTYO Battle Tournament last month, and should be a contender for the Japanese title. 5A runner-up was Duncan Crew’s Shingo “Terry” Terada, who is still competing after more than 10 years in the scene!
The league continues next year with more regional contests throughout the country and finally the national contest:
- December 4th, 2011 – East Japan A Block Contest (EJ-A), Tokyo
- January 28th, 2012 – Central Japan Contest (CJ), Iwakura City
- February 4th, 2012 – East Japan B Block Contest (EJ-B), Ichiwaka City
- February 25th, 2012 – North Japan Contest (NJ), Sapporo
- March 11th, 2012 – South Japan Contest (SJ), Kasuya District
- April 21st, 2012 – West Japan Contest (WJ), Osaka
- June 30th, 2012 – Japan National Yo-yo Contest, Ichikawa City
For all those interested in checking the action, proceed to Mr. Yamaguchi’s new YouTube channel. Music is replaced in most freestyles due to copyright issues, but it’s nonetheless great to have such a great resource back online!