YoYoNews has full results and scoring breakdowns for the 5A Division of the 2017 World YoYo Contest! Congratulations to 2017 World YoYo Champion Takuma Inoue!
2014 Japan National Yo-yo Contest Results – Takeshi Matsuura wins… in 1A!
If you missed the live stream from Japan Nationals yesterday, you missed the most professionally produced yo-yo contest broadcast in history!
Live comments from some of the best players in Japan, and clips from each players’ preliminary round and previous contests freestyles made this a very enjoyable contest to watch, even if NicoNico’s video quality was not quite on par with Ustream.
On to the results, where we had heated battles between the World’s greatest players!
In 1A, in a somewhat unexpected — but not at all surprising — outcome, 5A World Champion Takeshi Matsuura beat last year’s champion Akitoshi Tokubuchi to claim the title! This makes him the unbelievable winner of three different divisions in the history of Japan Nationals, including five 5A titles and the 2010 3A title! Third place in 1A went to Yusuke Otsuka, who had a great freestyle at the EYYC Open division earlier this year.
World Champion Takuma Yamamoto won the incredibly strong 2A division this year, with a smooth freestyle, finishing over 10 points ahead of Shu Takada. Third place went to Ryo Yamashita, and just to give you a glimpse of how strong the division was, it also had Hiraku Fujii, Yasushi Furukawa, and history’s biggest World Title winner Shinji Saito in the final round. Shinji had a strong preliminary round, but was unable to go as cleanly in his final routine.
In 3A, Hajime Miura showed solid improvement over last year’s 8th place, and took the title with unquestionable confidence and skill. In the words of Drew Tetz: someone should tell this kid that 3A is supposed to be hard!
Rei Iwakura won 4A with a jaw-dropping routine, finishing 15 points ahead of Kazuaki Sugimura. Rei once again showed us what makes a great stage performance without sacrificing technique! Like at Worlds last year, some of the favorites had some yo-yo changes and ended up with low scores, like Futoshi Maruyama (3 drops, -9) and Naoto Okada (4 drops, -12).
The fiercest and most expected battle was in 5A, where Takuma Inoue and Takeshi Matsuura once again made us wonder if there’s any limit to their skills, with both players finishing over twenty points ahead of the third place. This time, an unfortunate yo-yo change by Takeshi meant Takuma Inoue finished ahead to claim his third National Title!
On to the results and winner videos, courtesy of C3yoyodesign!
1A
- Takeshi Matsuura
- Akitoshi Tokubuchi
- Yusuke Otsuka
- Shinya Kido
- Tatsuya Fujisaka
- Shion Araya
- Reiki Sekiya
- Ryota Ogi
- Yamato Murata
- Izuru Hasumi
- Masahiro Terada
- Iori Yamaki
- Tsukasa Ryu
- Toya Kobayashi
- Atsunori Tanimoto
2A
- Takuma Yamamoto
- Shu Takada
- Ryo Yamashita
- Hiraku Fujii
- Shuhei Kanai
- Shinji Saito
- Tomoyuki Kaneko
- Shunsuke Kawakami
- Yuzo Okada
- Yasushi Furukawa
- Toshiaki Onuma
3A
- Hajime Miura
- Takumi Yasumoto
- Mizuki Takimoto
- Minato Furuta
- Tomoya Kurita
- Kyohei Hosono
- Ken Takabayashi
- Ryosuke Ito
- Taiichiro Higashi
4A
- Rei Iwakura
- Kazuaki Sugimura
- Yohei Kagawa
- Futoshi Maruyama
- Takumi Yasumoto
- Tomohiko Zanka
- Naoto Okada
- Shinya Muraki
- Yuzo Okada
- Yuki Uchida
5A
- Takuma Inoue
- Takeshi Matsuura
- Hideo Ishida
- Sora Ishikawa
- Naoya Takeuchi
- Takayuki Kuriyama
- Yoshihiro Abe
- Ryota Torigoe
- Yasuhiro Uchida
Top 5 Counterweight Yo-Yo Players of All-Time
As we gear up for the 2013 World Yo-Yo Contest, we take a step back to appreciate and admire the greats of years past. We will be posting the top 5 in each division in the weeks leading up to the World Yo-Yo Contest.
Today we rank the Top 5 Greatest Counterweight Players of All Time. Since our very own Steve Brown debuted his idea at the Bay Area Classic nearly fifteen years ago, the style has evolved tremendously. The evolution bred countless tricks that have brought a certain level of magic to stages across the world. From ‘astro’ to sideways counterweight, finger grinds to slack combos, counterweight play opened many doors in the world of yo-yo and gave these five individuals a medium to create an enduring legacy.
5. Rafael Matsunaga – 
- 1x World Champion, 1x National Champion
The first player outside of the United States and Japan to win a World title in the modern era, Rafael is a legend of counterweight. Innovative in the early stages of counterweight at the World level, much of the mounts and concepts are indebted to Rafael. Promoter, entertaining and organizer, even since retiring from competition, Rafael has remained an important figure in yo-yo.
4. Makoto Numagami – 
- 1x World Champion, 1x National Champion, 3x Regional Champion
Makoto won every major competition to be won: regional, national, continental and world. Highly competitive in the X-Division era and capturing his own World title in 5A in 2004, Makoto was one of the biggest competitors of the early decade. He was highly theatrical in his performances and brought a lot of energy and passion to the stage in his routines. Makoto will always be remembered for his contributions to freehand in its early development.
3. Tyler Severance – 
- 1x World Champion, 2x National Champion, 18x Regional Champion, 13x State Champion
Tyler took home the World title in 2007—the last before the Takuma-Taskeshi era. Just recently winning his second National title, Tyler is still actively competing and seeking to add to his absolutely massive list of accomplishments. Tyler is well known for his intricate tangler and wrap combos which transcend counterweight influence; his creativity is undeniable with a resume to back it up and thus earns a spot as one of the top counterweight players ever.
2. Takuma Inoue –
- 1x World Champion, 2x National Champion, 4x Regional Champion
The only person to even come close to Takeshi—losing by less than a point in 2012—Takuma is a legend of 5A. With his own World title in 2010, Takuma is a loveable performer known for exclaiming ‘THANK-YOU’ during his performances. Takuma is a highly dedicated competitor. His tricks are all extremely high risk and his accuracy when performing them is just one reason why he is one of the greatest 5A players of all time.
1. Takeshi Matsuura –
- 4x World Champion, 2x Asia Champion, 5x National Champion, 4x Regional Champion
Not even a teenager and Takeshi had begun cementing his legacy. The youngest to ever win a World title at the age of 11, Takeshi was not done there. Recently capturing another Japan National title, he seeks his fifth World title going into the 2013 World contest. Takeshi is a performer in the fullest and his tricks, often performed to near perfection, compliment every aspect of his routine—every time. Takeshi is and will remain the greatest 5A player of all time for the foreseeable future.
Honorable Mentions: Maya Nakamura (World Champion), Steve Brown (counterweight play inventor), Miguel Correa (4x US National Champion), Sterling Quinn (top US competitor).
Who do you think are the greatest counterweight players of all time? Feel free to post your thoughts below!
As a reminder, these rankings take into consideration competitive players from around 2000 and on.
World Champions dominate South Japan 2012
This year’s South Japan regional contest saw very little surprises at the final placings, with strong players taking the top spot.
In 1A, YoyoRecreation’s Akitoshi Tokubuchi won for the second time in a row, followed by sOMEThING’s young newcomer Touya Kobayashi.
2A, 3A and 5A were won by the former World Champions Takuma Yamamoto, Minato Furuta and Takuma Inoue, respectively, all with perfect technical execution scores. Hideo Ishida, who had won the 5A division five times in a row, ended up in second place.
Finally in 4A, 2008 winner Shotaro Masuda is back to the top. Check the final placings:
1A
- Akitoshi Tokubuchi
- Touya Kobayashi
- Kengo Kido
2A
- Takuma Yamamoto
- Kensaku Hirayama
- Yuusuke Nakayama
3A
- Minato Furuta
- Masanobu Iwata
- Kazuma Miyakawa
4A
- Shotaro Masuda
- Hideo Ishida
- Takuma Inoue
5A
- Takuma Inoue
- Hideo Ishida
- Kazuma Miyakawa
Mexican Nationals and South Japan tomorrow!
March 11th will be an action-packed Sunday for yoyoing!
In Mexico, the 7th National Yo-yo Contest will put YoyoFactory’s extraordinary duo Paul Kerbel and Luis Enrique against each other again for the title. With expressive results at last year’s World Yo-yo Contest (5th for Luis Enrique, 7th for Kerbel), and Triple Crown (1st place for Kerbel), Mexico is quickly becoming a major force in international yoyoing!
The contest will be held in Plaza Satelite, Mexico City, and will also features guests Paul Yath, Augie Fash, and Tyler Severance.
In Japan, the South Japan regional contest will take place in Fukuoka, featuring big names such as former World Champions Takuma Inoue (5A) and Minato Furuta (3A). In 1A, Kengo Kido, Shinya Azuma, and last year’s winner Akitoshi Tokubuchi are some of the names to keep an eye on!
We’ll be back with contest results as they become available!