The 2014 Pan American YoYo Contest has been cancelled. We’re going to reach out soon to the IYYF and see if this means the Las Vegas Open Yoyo Championship will remain a seeding event, or if it will continue on as a stand-alone contest.

To clarify, the organizers have confirmed the Las Vegas Open WILL proceed, whether it is an IYYF seeding event or not. The Asia Pacific and European multi-national events serve more than a dozen national events each, while the Pan American contest predominately serves the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil; there are national events in Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia but none of these have risen to the level of the rest of the contests in this region, and their champions are rarely able to attend events held outside of their respective countries. There have been rumors of the Bay Area Classic serving as the 2014 Pan American seeding event, but nothing confirmed from the IYYF.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank organizer Greg Cohen for his many years of service to the yoyo community and industry. He held the World YoYo Contest together for many years, when no one else had the resources or wherewithal to do it. While it appears his tenure as a major contest organizer has come to a close, we all owe Greg a huge debt of gratitude for his efforts. It’s now on the rest of us to build on the foundation that he laid and create a better, stronger international contest system moving forward.

Please read Cohen’s official statement below.

I have tried very hard to create a new major contest with a new mission for the yo-yo community. Unfortunately this may not have been the time to do it. Before I announced this event, we had verbal agreements of support from many sponsors and volunteers, but as the event has approached thing have changed that we appreciate that have prevented this support from coming through. Without having the  sponsorship we need to make this event a success and due to the fact we have had almost no hotel registrations to this point, I regret we are forced to cancel the Pan American International Yo-Yo Contest.

I had amazing hopes for this event to grow over the years, and to do some amazing things, and I am sad that this will not come to pass. One of my joys of running yo-yo contests has been to essentially build a clock with a fine movement, wind it up and see it run. Some years this has happened smoother than others, but until now it has always worked.

I am are sad to say that I have had to cancel this event, and I want to apologize to everyone who has give us their support, trust and time to help try create it over the past year.

It has been a pleasure to work with you all.

I look forward to the next Multi-National IYYF seeded contest that will be hosted by Steve Brown called the 2014 Las Vegas Open YoYo Championship, that will happen on December 29th and 30th.

Thank you all for letting me do what I love all these years, and I hope you will let me try again at some point in the future.

-GRegory Cohen