What a day! The second day of the World Yo-yo Contest in Tokyo is now over and we’re reaching the decisive stages of the competition!
The number of players was again significantly thinned down, and unlike yesterday, the preliminary round does include evaluation scores, so proper freestyle skills were required in order to live another day!
Here are the qualified players in each division:
1A
The toughest division, as usual, with only 23 out of 93 players making it to the next round. Shion Araya, C3yoyodesign player from Hokkaido, took first place, followed by CLYW’s Ayumu Harada, and sOMEThING’s Christopher Chia. Christopher and Jeremy Tan were the two Singaporeans surviving the prelims.
Also with two players making it to the semi-finals is USA, with Colin Beckford from Team Duncan earning a respectable 9th place, and Werrd’s Eric Tran-Ton in 21st. China also has two players among the top players in this round, with Chen Yang, and Weichuan Wang. Slusny’s Matous Tomes, from the Czech Republic was the only European among the qualified players. Other foreigners making it were Benson Fok, from Hong Kong, and Arif Rhamadan, from Indonesia.
Names like Yusuke Otsuka, Ryota Ogi, Akitoshi Tokubuchi, and Shinya Kido come as no surprise, but we are also excited to see “Yo-yo Baby” Kazuya Murata showing he can compete with the big kids!
With so few spots, it’s no surprise that some of the crowd favorites failed to move ahead, including Palli, Zhao Chen, and Paolo Bueno.
- Shion Araya (Japan)
- Ayumu Harada (Japan)
- Christopher Chia (Singapore)
- Ryuichi Nakamura (Japan)
- Izuru Hasumi (Japan)
- Yusuke Otsuka (Japan)
- Yamato Murata (Japan)
- Chen Yang (China)
- Colin Beckford (United States)
- Toya Kobayashi (Japan)
- Akitoshi Tokubuchi (Japan)
- Benson Fok (Hong Kong)
- Shinya Kido (Japan)
- Kazuki Okada (Japan)
- Kazuya Murata (Japan)
- Ryota Ogi (Japan)
- Matous Tomes (Czech Republic)
- Tsukasa Namba (Japan)
- Kento Muraoka (Japan)
- Jeremy Tan (Singapore)
- Eric Tran-Ton (United States)
- Arif Ramadhan (Indonesia)
- Weichuan Wang (China)
The full preliminary ranking for 1A can be found here.
2A
No surprises at the top of the list in 2A, as Hiraku Fujii finishes over 10 points ahead of the second place. It’s also no surprise that the list of players qualifying for the semi-finals only includes Japanese players, but it’s great to see that a new generation of 2A players is now showing great maturity, and is able to compete against the more seasoned players. The only disappointment here is Koichiro Ueta, who had a double discard that cost him a spot in the next round.
- Hiraku Fujii (Japan)
- Shuhei Kanai (Japan)
- Tomoyuki Kaneko (Japan)
- Ginji Miura (Japan)
- Yamato Fujiwara (Japan)
- Arata Imai (Japan)
- Shuji Kotani (Japan)
- Yuki Yamaguchi (Japan)
- Reo Takamatsu (Japan)
- Hajime Sakauchi (Japan)
3A
Only seven players made it to the semi-final round in 3A, and we can expect a fantastic round tomorrow, as Takumi Yasumoto and Minato Furuta top today’s results! Elliot Ogawa, the sole US player, earned a respectable 3rd place, preventing a Japanese clean sweep!
- Takumi Yasumoto (Japan)
- Minato Furuta (Japan)
- Elliot Ogawa (United States)
- Ryosuke Ito (Japan)
- Sora Tahira (Japan)
- Yuto Yamaguchi (Japan)
- Yuki Fujisawa (Japan)
Full results for 2A and 3A can be found here.
4A
Takumi Yasumoto is on fire! Not only he qualified in first place in 3A, but he also tops the 4A list! We’ll definitely keep an eye on him tomorrow!
4A is the second largest division, with 34 players in the preliminary round, and while we are excited about showmen Ben Conde and Futoshi Maruyama making it to the next round, we are also sad to see World Champions Tsubasa Onishi, and Naoto Okada failing to advance. US Champion Bryan Figueroa will also be missed in the semi-final round, as mere 0.6 points prevented him from advancing. That these guys did not make it proves how advanced competitive 4A has become!
- Takumi Yasumoto (Japan)
- Tsubasa Takada (Japan)
- Yuki Nishisako (Japan)
- Shinya Muraki (Japan)
- Ryo Oishi (Japan)
- Ben Conde (United States)
- Keita Kido (Japan)
- Futoshi Maruyama (Japan)
- Chang Chih Chieh (Taiwan)
- Koyo Hashimoto (Japan)
5A
If you ever wondered how clean your tricks need to be in order to compete at the World level, Bryan Jardin’s routine from yesterday is all you need to see. With 9.5 in Cleanliness, and a perfect 10 in Execution, Bryan shows hard practice pays off handsomely! Oh, he also had 9.5 in Music Use!
And speaking of Bryan Jardin, the other Duncan team members also did great, with young Yoshihiro Abe coming in 2nd place, and Takayuki “Marron” Kuriyama in 4th, right behind the trick artist Sora Ishikawa.
Hiroyasu “Pon” Ishihara, who led the Wildcard round yesterday, barely made it to the semi-finals, as a discard put him as the 8th and last player to qualify. 5A legend Shingo Terada failed to move ahead, but we feel blessed to have been able to see him on the stage once again!
- Bryan Jardin (United States)
- Yoshihiro Abe (Japan)
- Sora Ishikawa (Japan)
- Takayuki Kuriyama (Japan)
- Naoki Uemae (Japan)
- Tatsunori Yoshiba (Japan)
- Ju Zi Liang (China)
- Hiroyasu Ishihara (Japan)
4A and 5A full results can be found here.
Join us again tomorrow for even more World Yo-yo Contest!