YoYo Related News From Around The World
Filipino badass Joebert Flores has officially been throwing for 10 years! He dropped a new video to celebrate, and you should watch it, enjoy it, and then head over to YouTube and wish him a happy anniversary in the comments. Congrats on 10 years, Joebert!
Yoyo used is the General Yo Legato.
The 2016 Philippine National YoYo Contest just happened, and if you have any love for the history of yoyoing then this event holds a special place in your heart. Plus, you know, tons of talent and kick-ass players. Check out a great write-up of the contest by Kyle Capiral, and video of the winners below!
2016 marked the 12th Philippine National YoYo Contest. The National Contest was held last September 10 and 11, 2016 at SM City Marikina, home to some of the best players in the Philippines. Around 50 players joined the contest and battled it out for the Preliminaries on the 1st day. 31 players played their best on the 2nd day for the Finals which was joined by seeded players Johan Baylosis from Dumaguete and Meejay Olaybar from Manila who won the 2016 Visayas Regional YoYo Contest for 1A and X-Division (with 5A) respectively.
3A saw John Eric Galicha winning his 3rd National title with a clean and technical packed freestyle. Michael Ayuyao followed on 2nd with some basic 3A stuff while John Hernandez tried his best to keep up for 3A finishing 3rd.
Kyle Capiral won 2A again grabbing his 9th National title in consecutive years, followed by Kenneth Santiago on 2nd place with a clean freestyle and various looping tricks. Attempting some risky around the world tricks, Martin Desamito finished in 3rd place.
4A saw a new champion as former champion Sean Perez is back in the USA and 4A powerhouse player Rocky Loyola left for New Zealand. Hailing from Cavite, Macky Profeta blazed the crowd with an energetic and technical freestyle wowing the crowd and the judges (which could easily be dubbed as the Freestyle of the Day). Macky was crowned as the new 4A National Champion, followed by MagicYoYo’s Jaued Cervas who showed his versatility in other styles placing 2nd in 4A, while Jake Marcelo finished 3rd with a clean and classy routine which felt like a cool breeze of air.
5A and 1A became the most contested divisions for the year as new generation players showed great competition for the senior players of the Philippines.
5A had a surprising turnout of events as former 5A champion Jaued Cervas fell out of the podium. YoYofficer’s Paolo Alto showed great variety of bouncing counterweight partnered with an entertaining and smooth freestyle placing him in 3rd. Miggy Hizon of BlkSens placed his highest finish to date at 2nd place with a unique combination of tricks and amazing flow. Gaining back his title and grabbing his 7th National Title for 5A is Bryan Jardin of Duncan Toys. Bryan showed what it’s like to be a top world class player and gave 5A players a run for their money with technicality and banger tricks!
Finally, 1A saw the highest level of competition from all the past years. Majority of new generation players dropped out the senior players and made it through the finals.
Placing 3rd in 1A is first time National competitor Kyle Toribio from Davao who showed technical stuff with cleanliness and difficulty. Consistent 1A finalist, Matthew Garcia had his first podium finish placing 2nd with his smooth freestyle showing top class tricks and variety of hops, whips and lacerations. Reymark Zavalla gained his 5th National 1A Title through a technically-packed and overall entertaining and well-planned performance.
The PNYYC 2016 saw the most exciting players to date and we can’t wait to see what players can offer for the next contests!
Kyle Capiral
FlipSpin YoYo Komunidad
PNYYC
Chuck Short found this great old bit of newsreel footage on YouTube, featuring a Filipino Regiment in the US Army. The entire reel is just a little under 5 minutes and worth watching the whole thing…but if you just want to see a couple of young Filipino soldiers slinging yoyos you can skip ahead to 2:33 in the video.
As usual, we get the whole “yoyo was invented by Filipinos” myth which is false, but still…it’s a pretty awesome bit of historical footage! Here is some more detail about this bit of film:
U.S. Army Filipino Infantry regiments training at Fort Ord, Camp Roberts, and Camp Hunter-Liggett, California during World War II. The video shows the training and routine of the soldiers, mostly comprised of Filipino American volunteers and veterans during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and are preparing for the retaking of their homeland during Gen. MacArthur’s return.
On March 16th, the FlipSpin YoYo Club had a freestyle contest and yoyo meet as part of Viva Manila’s “Intramuros Pasyal” event. This video was shot that day, and is a great glimpse of the yoyo scene in the Philippines.
Thanks to Hiro Koba of Kitty String for the video!