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Brandon Jackson Leaves Duncan Toys

November 5, 2014 By Steve Brown

Brandon Jackson

Photo by Rafael Matsunaga

Late last night, YoYoNews learned that Brandon Jackson is no longer employed by Duncan Toys.

Brandon joined Duncan Toys in the role of National Sales & Marketing Coordinator in September 2009, and quickly began working to help the brand recover from the three-year gap when that position was empty. He took the reigns of the “Duncan Crew” team of sponsored players, and traveled the world working to promote the Duncan brand and product line at contests, retailers, and trade events. In December of 2013, Brandon moved from Duncan’s offices in Ohio to Orlando, Florida to manage Duncan’s retail kiosk at Downtown Disney and help manage their Alliance Partnership with Disney. With that move, Brandon’s job title changed to Regional Sales Manager, and National YoYo Champion Augie Fash was hired to move to Ohio and fill the role of National Sales & Marketing Coordinator at the Duncan office.

Brandon did not give any reasons for the parting, and Duncan Toys could not be reached for comment, but you can read Brandon’s official statement below. YoYoNews wishes Brandon all our best in his future endeavors!

Well, after five fun filled years…I am no longer employed by Duncan Toys (Flambeau Inc). I am sad, but I had a lot of fun working for and growing the brand that I have loved since I was a child. I wouldn’t trade the past five years for anything. I know that I was able to help the company accomplish many things and I am very grateful for the experiences and knowledge I gained along the way. My separation from the company was purely financial and I can keep my chin up knowing that I haven’t done anything wrong, they just couldn’t afford to keep me around.

Whats next for Bojack? Not sure yet. But I’m looking forward to it!

Filed Under: General News, Manufacturer Tagged With: Brandon Jackson, disney, downtown disney, duncan toys, featured, orlando

2014 International YoYo Championship – Full Results

August 2, 2014 By Chris Mikulin

IYYC-1A

Congratulations to Duncan Toys on their first successful International YoYo Championship…they’ve set the bar pretty high with this amazing invitational contest! Check out full results and video of the winners below!

1A Division

1st Place – Luis Enrique – 86.9

2nd Place – Zach Gormley – 84.6

3rd Place – Sebastian Brock – 81.9

4th Place – Janos Karancz – 81.3
5th Place – Anthony Rojas – 76.9
6th Place – Tylor Mccallumore – 76.3
7th Place – Pall Gudmundsson – 76.3
8th Place – Michael Ferdico – 74.8
9th Place – Paulo Bueno – 73.1
10th Place – Eric Koloski – 72.2
11th Place – Isaac Sams – 70.1
12th Place – Paul Kerbel – 62.4
13th Place – Ian Clark – 62.3
14th Place – Petr Kavka – 59.5
15th Place – Eric Tranton – 56.6
16th Place – Shane Lubecker – 54.8
17th Place – Ky Zizan – 51.3
18th Place – Robbie Graham – 51.3
19th Place – Daniel Dietz – 47.1
20th Place – Ben Fiore – 42.8

2A Division

1st Place – Shinji Saito – 93.6

2nd Place – Shu Takada – 88.7

3rd Place – Ryuya Kaneki – 55.9

4th Place – Ben McPhee – 22.2
5th Place – Mai Kurihara – 21.1
6th Place – Alif Izwan – 0.0

3A Division

1st Place – Hank Freeman – 82.8

2nd Place – Alex Hattori – 70.9

3rd Place – Eric Tranton – 70.4

4th Place – Taiichiro Higashi – 54.0
5th Place – Alex Curfman – 47.1
6th Place – Alif Izwan – -6.2

4A Division

1st Place – Ian Johnson – 82.9

2nd Place – Ben Conde – 75.3

3rd Place – John Narum – 64.2

4th Place – Sean Perez – 56.4
5th Place – Tylor McCallumore – 49.6
6th Place – Alex Lee – 35.1
7th Place – Alif Izwan – 19.3

5A Division

1st Place – Samm Scott – 80.6

2nd Place – Tyler Severance – 77.4

3rd Place – Bryan Jardin – 73.4

4th Place – Petr Kavka – 69.8
5th Place – Chase Baxter – 69.4
6th Place – David Molnar – 65.8
7th Place – Jonathan Robinson – 50.6
8th Place – Robbie Graham – 47.9
9th Place – Noel Kunz – 41.6
10th Place – Alif Izwan – 36.2
11th Place – Uri Gottschalk – 22.9

IYYC2014-result

Filed Under: Contests, Video Tagged With: disney, Duncan, featured, hosue of blues, international yoyo championship, iyyc, orlando, results, video

Goodbye, Orlando

August 23, 2013 By Rafael Matsunaga

I have fond memories of the World YoYo Contest stage at the Rosen Plaza Hotel. I competed there in 1A, 5A, and Combined divisions, I practiced there late at night to hide my tricks from my biggest rival and good friend Makoto Numagami, I faced public humiliation (and fame) at the Wheel of Penalty, I earned my World Title there ten years ago, and I was awarded National Master on that stage.

2013 was the last of fourteen years when the World YoYo Contest was held in Orlando. In many ways, the contest’s history throughout those years has influenced my own, and the development of yoyoing as a sport owes much of its current state to the Orlando era.

My own yoyo career started in 2000, up until that time, the yoyo was no more than a toy for me. That was when I came upon this clip:

The 2000 World YoYo Contest was the first one held in Orlando, thanks to Gregory Cohen’s effort to save the event after a near disastrous 1999 contest in Honolulu — a symbolic end of the late 90’s boom.

That clip video got me instantly hooked. Paul Escolar, Kohta Watanabe, Hidemasa Senba, and the 2004/2013 AP World Champion Tomiyuki Watanabe were all there.

A very important addition was made to the contest structure in 2000: the X division. In 1999, counterweight play was introduced by Steve Brown, Hironori Mii got second place at that year’s World Yo-yo Contest 1A division playing offstring, you can see Doc Pop introducing some Mobius, and Rick Wyatt throwing some 3A in the clip above. The X division, then judged by the contestants themselves, marked the recognition of the new styles as a developing force.

The contest was held at Universal Studios, outside, in the merciless summer Orlando weather. Just walking outside for a couple of minutes in Orlando is a torture, but in 2000, the entire contest was held in the Florida heat, humidity, and rain. Thankfully, that was the first and last time that happened, and the contest found a new home next year: the Rosen Plaza.

From 2001 to 2013, the Rosen Plaza Hotel, in Orlando’s overly-touristic International Drive, was a yoyo haven for three days a year. There’s nothing quite like being surrounded by other yoyo players for 72 hours. During the other 362 days of the year, you were the oddball yo-yo player, but during Worlds in Orlando, it felt like the World’s population was composed solely of fellow players.

Having a contest inside also meant perfect conditions for yoyoing, leading to an exponential increase in trick difficulty on the stage. But 2001 also set the precedent for the Artistic Performance division. Yu Kawada, the previous year’s 1A winner stunned the crowd by focusing on the performance aspect of his routine rather than going technical. He would not win 1A in 2001, but his freestyle inspired the creation of the AP division the next year. A division he would win himself in 2006 and 2013.

Note the almost complete lack of sponsors in the background. The scene would not recover so easily from the burst of the previous yoyo bubble.

My own first appearance at the World YoYo Contest was in 2002, competing in 1A, when compulsories were still in place. My first participation would end rather soon, missing Pop ‘n Fresh twice in a row. The judges for that trick were my now editor Steve Brown, and my current colleague at the IYYF board of directors, Hironori Mii. “Try again next year” — were Steve’s words as I climbed down from the little compulsories stage disappointed with my performance.

I would come back the next year, for sure. 2003 was another breakthrough year for the World YoYo Contest and for myself. That was the first year the fruits of the X Division would be reaped. After three successful and very popular showings in the “extreme” division, 3A, 4A, and 5A would finally be recognized as independent divisions, each awarding a new World YoYo Champion.

That would set the general format of the World YoYo Contest to this date. Another big change came in 2007, when compulsory tricks were replaced by one-minute freestyles, both in order to better evaluate the players as freestyle performers and to save the judges from the tedious job of watching the same tricks for hours. As 2013 has shown us, however, the system does not scale too well, and some adjustments are being worked on for the next editions of the contest in order to prevent the day-long preliminaries torture for the judges.

An interesting tidbit that took place in Orlando was the Combined Division. Held from 2006 to 2009, the division’s goal was to find out which player was the most proficient in all divisions. As the results clearly show, Shinji Saito was clearly better than everyone else — in addition to being nearly unbeatable in 2A — taking the award in all four instances of that division. The Combined Division was also the first to offer cash prizes at the World YoYo Contest.

The experiments and improvements made to the contest in Orlando set a solid foundation upon which the World YoYo Contest can build and grow. Worlds is now mature enough to take new steps, and advance further into a bigger and brighter future.

The 2013 edition was in some ways a fitting first step into that future. This was the biggest diversity ever among the top places in all divisions, with Hungary (János Karancz), Singapore (Christopher Chia), Mexico (Luis Enrique), Taiwan (Tuan Chih-Min and Who Theather), and of course Japan and United States all represented among the top three in different divisions, a sign of a healthy, growing, and competitive scene. The perfect scenario for the World YoYo Contest to set sail.

Next year, Worlds will be held in Prague, Czech Republic — the first edition under the management of the newly-formed International YoYo Federation — marking its first departure from the United States since the the first edition of its modern freestyle format in 1992.

Between doubt and excitement, the consensus is that the World YoYo Contest will never be the same. That’s probably right, and that’s also a good thing. The 2013 World YoYo Contest was not the same as the first contest in Orlando, it’s better in all aspects, much was learned, and all the experience from all these years will be carried on to Prague, then to Tokyo in 2015, and all Worlds editions to come.

The Orlando era will always be remembered as the time when we discovered what we wanted in a yoyo contest, when we figure out how to make it happen, and worked to make it happen. And none of it would have happened without the yearly efforts of one man, who turned the contest’s uncertain future into a solid present, and bright future.

Thank you, Greg Cohen.

Thank you, Orlando.

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: greg cohen, iyyf, orlando, world yo-yo contest, worlds

Duncan Toys x Radio Disney Vacation Sweepstakes

July 19, 2013 By Steve Brown

Duncan Toys Radio Disney Sweepstakes

Duncan Toys has announced another cross-promotion with Disney, this time partnering up with Radio Disney for multiple demonstration events and to give away a trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Duncan yoyo demonstrators will be on-hand at multiple Radio Disney events throughout the summer, and at each one there will be special Duncan prize packs available, as well as opportunities to enter to win a trip to Disney World. Event schedule and original release from Duncan Toys is below.

Radio Disney wants to give you a vacation powered by Duncan® Toys you’ll never forget at the Walt Disney World Resort®! A trip to Never Land. An exciting blast into space. Or a close encounter with a Yeti. With so many Disney memories waiting for you, you’d be goofy to pass this up. At each event Duncan Yo-Yo Professionals will be on-site demonstrating and teaching the coolest yo-yo tricks! You could win a Duncan Toys prize pack and enter to win a Memorable Vacation Sweepstakes Powered By Duncan Toys! Visit www.yo-yo.com to find an event near you!

7/20 – Boy Scout National Jamboree – Mount Hope, WV

7/27 – Summer Fest at Venice Beach – Venice Beach, CA

8/03 – Cleveland Brown’s Family Night – Cleveland, OH

8/04 – Back To School Bash – Orlando, FL

8/05 – Cuyahoga County Fair – Berea, OH

8/17 – Telemundo Orlando’s La Feria de la Familia – Kissimmee, FL

9/01 – Viva Volusia Latino Arts Festival – Daytona Beach, FL

Filed Under: Contests, Manufacturer Tagged With: contest, duncan toys, event, family, featured, florida, orlando, prize, radio disney, sweepstakes, theme park, trip, walt disney world

Duncan YoYo Demonstrations at Downtown Disney (2.15 – 2.17)

February 7, 2013 By Steve Brown

 

Duncan Yo-Yo Professionals Takeshi Kamisato & Drew Tetz are performing once again at the Downtown Disney® Area in Lake Buena Vista, Florida 2/15 through 2/17! Visit Once Upon A Toy in the Downtown Disney® Marketplace to meet the guys and learn a trick or two! They’ll be on site each day from 2-9pm!

Filed Under: Manufacturer Tagged With: buena vista, disney world, downtown disney, drew tetz, duncan toys, florida, once upon a toy, orlando, takeshi kamisato

2012 World Yo-yo Contest Day 3: 1A & 5A results!

August 4, 2012 By Rafael Matsunaga

The final day of the 2012 World Yo-yo Contest is over! Check today’s results!

1A

  1. Hiroyuki Suzuki
  2. Marcus Koh
  3. Christopher Chia
  4. Harold Owens III
  5. Pong Si Yee Peter
  6. Gentry Stein
  7. Benson Fok
  8. Wong Kin Kwan
  9. Takeshi Matsuura
  10. Luis Enrique Villasenor
  11. Izuru Hasumi
  12. Zach Gormley
  13. Tatsuya Fujisaka
  14. Ricardo Marechal
  15. Shinya Kido
  16. Paolo Bueno
  17. Vilmos Zoltan Kiss
  18. Ryota Ogi
  19. Tomas Bubak
  20. Francesco Gioia

5A

  1. Takeshi Matsuura
  2. Takuma Inoue
  3. Hiroyasu Ishihara
  4. Hideo Ishida
  5. Tyler Severance
  6. Samm Scott
  7. Maya Nakamura
  8. Miguel Correa
  9. Naoya Takeuchi
  10. Gabriel Pedrosa

 

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: 1A, 2012, 5A, 5a may, orlando, results, worlds, wyyc

2012 World Yo-yo Contest Day 2: 2A, 3A, 4A & AP results!

August 4, 2012 By Rafael Matsunaga

The first 2012 World Champions have been crowned! Meet the 2012 2A, 3A, 4A and AP champions!

2A

  1. Shu Takada
  2. Takuma Yamamoto
  3. Hiraku Fujii
  4. Joseph Harris
  5. Liu Man Ki
  6. Shota Aizawa
  7. Ryuya Kaneko
  8. Jan Schmutz

3A

  1. Hank Freeman
  2. Ng Wang Kit
  3. Minato Furuta
  4. Ken Takabayashi
  5. Taiichiro Higashi
  6. Eric Tran-Ton
  7. Donald Hodgkinson
  8. Yu Tsumura
  9. Wang Zerong
  10. Hiro Koba
  11. Takuma Inoue

4A

  1. Rei Iwakura
  2. Bryan Figueroa
  3. Naoto Okada
  4. Ben Conde
  5. Lim Aik Hwee
  6. Sean Perez
  7. John Narum
  8. Ian Johnson
  9. Peter Pong Si Yee
  10. Tomohiko Zanka
  11. Michael Nakamura
  12. Lam Yan Ting
  13. Gustavo Amaral

AP

  1. InMotion
  2. Takahiko Hasegawa
  3. Tomiyuki Watanabe
  • Ouka
  • Noel Kunz
  • Justin Weber

 

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: 2012, 2A, 3A, 4a, ap, orlando, results, worlds, wyyc

2012 World Yo-yo Contest Day 2: 5A Prelims and 1A Semi-final results

August 3, 2012 By Rafael Matsunaga

The 5A preliminary round and 1A semi-final round were held earlier today. This is the list of finalists joining the seeded players tomorrow!

1A

  1. Pong Si Yee Peter
  2. Shinya Kido
  3. Izuru Hasumi
  4. Benson Fok
  5. Tatsuya Fujisaka
  6. Takeshi Matsuura
  7. Gentry Stein
  8. Ryota Ogi
  9. Paolo Bueno
  10. Zach Gormley

5A

  1. Hideo Ishida
  2. Hiroyasu Ishihara
  3. Tyler Severance
  4. Maya Nakamura
  5. Miguel Correa
  6. Naoya Takeuchi

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: 2012, 5A, 5a may, orlando, prelim, results, worlds, wyyc

The World Yo-yo Contest starts today!

August 2, 2012 By Rafael Matsunaga

The 2012 World Yo-yo Contest is about to start! Contestants are already all over the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando ready for action!

The competition starts with 2A Prelims at 10AM (EDT), followed by 3A Prelims at 11AM, and 4A at noon. Then, the whole afternoon will be occupied by the three huge 1A Prelim groups, with over 140 players battling for a spot in the semi-finals tomorrow!

YoyoSkills has its usual coverage page up, with the live stream and twitter box conveniently laid out on a single page. Instagram and Facebook are also flooding with pictures from the contest floor, so there’s plenty to enjoy even for those not in Orlando!

We’ll be back later with today’s results! Stay tuned!

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: 2012, orlando, worlds, wyyc

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