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Top 5 Counterweight Yo-Yo Players of All-Time

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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.

YoYoNews Top 5 Counterweight Players Of All Time

5. Rafael Matsunaga – small_brazil_flag

  • 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 – japanese_flag

  • 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 – USA_flag

  • 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 – japanese_flag

  • 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 – japanese_flag

  • 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.

PreGame2 ft. Tyler Severance & Harold Owens III

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Harold Owens III and Tyler Severance have given up another taste of what we can expect from them at the 2013 World YoYo Contest next month. As always, looks like the 1A and 5A divisions are going to have the fiercest competition.

Yoyos used are the H.O.T. and Supernova by YoYoFactory.

Sheng-Yong Zhu – Circulating

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Some pretty smooth tech counterweight play from Taiwan yoyo player, Sheng-Yon Zhu. Sheng-Yon has a really nice mid-speed style, and you can definitely see a ton of promise in his combos. Good stuff!

Robbie Graham – Motion

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Robbie Graham has dropped a new video of 5A tricks, featuring some really nice concepts and transitions. Yoyo used is the Werrd Hour.

Final 5A Tutorials from Miguel Correa

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National YoYo Champion Miguel Correa has posted the last 4 tutorials in his 5A Video Tutorials series at DefinitiveYoYoing.com, and they should keep you busy for a while.

On a personal note, a huge thanks to Miguel for always working so incredibly hard to promote counterweight yoyo play. There’s been a profound lack of any real promotion of the style in recent years, but Miguel has always gone the extra mile to make these teaching tools available for new players who want to learn. Thanks, Miggy! And if you like these tutorials, you should probably buy any yoyo that has Miguel’s name on it. No idea what yoyo that would be, but if you happen to run across one, it’s probably pretty good.

First Look – Duncan Magnetude

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Duncan Toys Magnetude YoYo

Designed by yoyo player Zach Lytle, Duncan’s new “Magnetude” yoyo has been in development for the past five years. The Duncan Magnetude retails for $120, will be available in red or black, and comes with two magnetic counterweights and magnetic spinning sidecaps. The counterweight can interact with the sidecaps during play for unique magnetic counterweight tricks, or if you feel like dropping $240 you can get two Magnetudes to attach to each other during 3A play.

We don’t have any video yet of the Magnetude in action, but you can watch these videos below of Zach Lytle’s original YoYoFactory G5 mods to get a better look a the play style. Just remember, these are not video of the Magnetude.

Duncan Magnetude Specs:

Diameter: 56mm
Width: 36.2mm
String Gap: 3.28mm
Weight: 69.5g
Bearing: Small (5x10x4)
Response: Small Bearing SG Sticker

VIDEO:

Zach Lytle’s BAC 2010 2nd Place 3A Freestyle (using magnetic G5s)

“Magnetic Flux” – Zach Lytle’s 2008 Proof of Concept video (using magnetic G5s)

New 5A Tutorials – Miguel Correa

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National YoYo Champion Miguel Correa continues his 5A Tutorial series with four more tricks guaranteed to keep you busy for a while. Be sure to check out the rest of his counterweight yoyoing tutorials at DefinitiveYoyoing.com.

Spencer Vs. Drew: Mind Melee

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Just when you’d caught your breath from Takeshi vs. Drew, it’s another single trick throwdown! This time we’ve got two responsive 1A heaters from Spencer “The Wild Man” Berry and Drew “Keeps Giving Himself Nicknames” Tetz. Spencer puts the Walter through its paces with his trick “Armadillo”, a classically-styled mount/regen sequence trick given a twist by his unique blend of grace and chaos, while I chose to return fire with “Crisis”, a plane-bending tribute to the golden age of Spindox.

Who deserves the crown? Cast your vote below, tell us why in the comments, and stay tuned for even more battles!

P.S. Don’t forget to tune in to YoYoRadio tonight to hear me talk about these battles, the Barradrewda, and…. probably whatever Joe wants to talk about. I don’t know. Hope it’s not baseball!

Ryota Torigoe – It Will Not Be

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Ryota Torigoe just dropped this 5A bomb.

I don’t even know what to say about it. It’s kind of insane. And beautiful.

C3YoYoDesign Presents – Maciek Cwynar

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C3YoYoDesign just dropped another great video, this one featuring Polish team member Maciek Cwynar.

There’s some quality counterweight play in this quick minute-plus video, and the horizontal regen at 0:45 is a really neat move. There’s also a great combination of deadspin toss moves (I’m making up the terminology as I go here, folks) starting at 0:51. I’ve really enjoyed those since the first ones I fiddled with in 2007, but it’s not a concept I’ve put much effort in to…so it’s really nice to see someone else doing something cool with it. Deadspin counterweight tosses like this have shown up as throw-away elements in a handful of contest freestyles over the years, but usually just as a quick transition rather than anything that’s expanded upon and explored.

If you’ve got examples of other deadspin counterweight moves, post links in the comments section and maybe we’ll expand on the idea for a future Trick Theory post.

Drew Tetz – 5A Kickflip Suicide

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And once again, Drew Tetz makes his case for Player of the Year. An amazing fixed axle counterweight move from the pride of Duncan Crew! And yes, he’s using a stock Duncan Butterfly.

Horizontal Tangler – 5A Tutorial

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National YoYo Champion Miguel Correa’s Definitive YoYoing has started with the Level 5 tutorials for counterweight tricks, and the first one up is a Horizontal Tangler. If you haven’t subscribed to Miguel’s YouTube channel, get on it.

How To YoYo On TV w/ Bryan Jardin

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Bryan Jardin, the 2012 Asia-Pacific Champion in the counterweight division, just popped up on Hero TV, a cable channel based in Quezon City, Philippines. It’s a great appearance for a yo-yo player (8 minutes long!) and also VERY instructive for any player out there who wants to be on TV for their yoyoing. A few things to note:

1. They flashed his titles across the screen, and managed to turn his 7th Place finish at the World YoYo Contest (a big deal) into 7th Place National Champion of Florida. If you’re a yoyo player and you’re on TV, they are either going to screw up whatever you give them, or they’re going to ignore it and call you a World Champion. Just be ready to smile and nod and be totally fine with whatever they make up.

2. The hosts of a majority of the programs that are willing to book a yoyo player are generally going to be of the loud & wacky variety. Look at that guy’s hat! They are going to exaggerate everything and go out of their way to act loud and wacky. DO NOT try to match them. These people are loud and wacky for a living, and if you try to match their volume it’s going to look awkward. Bryan did a great job of being dignified and reserved, and that gives him a degree of gravity unmatched by that woman’s shorts. It makes him look like the calm in the eye of the storm, and as a result he stands out way more and in a positive way.

3. Keep your tricks simple, and stick with single tricks. What Bryan did was give them individual tricks, with names, that featured a specific and singular movement. Too many players get on TV and just start talking and playing, and the host inevitably asks for the name of the trick and they mumble “It’s, uh, well, it doesn’t have a name really” and it’s super hard for an audience to relate to that and latch on to it. If you’re showing something to people that they’ve never seen before, you need to package and label it for easy consumption so that they can process the information better. Otherwise, it’s just “Did you see that one swingy thing that he did that was like a swingy thing?” and they will automatically assume that it’s completely beyond their reach to even try. Keep it accessible…demonstrate mastery without making it look beyond the reach of the average person.

Bryan did a fantastic job with this interview, and it’s a great reference point for any of you who might need to be on TV to promote your sponsor or a contest or your local club.

 

Rafael Matsunaga Joins YoYoNews

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We’re super excited to announce that Rafael “Red” Matsunaga is joining the YoYoNews team!

Rafael is a National YoYo Master, the 2003 World YoYo Champion in the 5A division, founder and president of the Brazilian YoYo Association, a member of the Duncan Crew,  and the most handsome man in the Southern Hemisphere. His site, HiredToWin.com, quickly became the go-to destination for fast contest results and we’re really pleased that Rafael will be bringing his contest coverage to YoYoNews exclusively!

All past contest coverage from HiredToWin will begin migrating to YoYoNews soon for archival purposes.

Welcome aboard, Red!

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