David Bolgarfalvy of Honey String brings us another post-Worlds clip video! If you watch all of the World YoYo Contest post-event videos back-to-back, it works out to like 46% of being there. Honest.
サマーナイツ (Summer Nights) – The #WYYC15 After-Party Video
This video is recommended for audiences 21+.
The World Yo-Yo Contest 2015 held official after-parties on every night (Nights 1 through 4) after the contest. It was well organized, and incredibly helpful to have an officially sanctioned event. It helped unify everyone after the contest, despite everyone staying at different hotels. I think this should be a case-study for future contests, in terms of unification of players, and for monetization purposes. (Yoyo players like to party!) Details of the after-party structure can be found here: http://tokyo15.com/en/world-yo-yo-party/
The 5th night was at a nightclub in Shibuya, Tokyo, where DJ Kohta was spinning. We drank and danced until the sun came up and the trains started again.
Personal thanks to Dimi. Tokyo was too much for one person to take in, so Dimi helped shoot with another camera over several nights. So many of the great shots you see in this video were thanks to him. Without his support, this video would not have been possible. Thank you, Dimi. For more of his photos, follow him on instagram at @iam_dimi.
Music is サマーナイツ (Summernights) by Alejandro Dale.
It can be found on Soundcloud here.
Thank you for watching.
2015 World YoYo Contest – iPhone Edit
Ewin Ee sent us this clip video from his trip to the 2015 World YoYo Contest, filmed entirely on an iPhone 6. Neat!
World Yoyo Contest // ヨーヨー世界大会 2015
Jeffrey Pang just dropped what is quite possibly the greatest post-contest recap video I’ve ever seen for the 2015 World YoYo Contest in Tokyo, Japan. The filming, the editing, the music are all perfect and Jeffrey is the kind of guy who knows how to be where the fun is happening. I missed the contest but after watching this video I feel like I could tell you all about it. Beautiful work.
The Biggest Winners in 24 Years of the World YoYo Contest
First written in 2012, updated with titles up to 2017.
We have no new World Champions in 2017! Every winner this year had won the World Title previously! In 1A, Shion Araya repeated his solid performance from last year to become only the second 1A player in history to win two titles back to back. Shu Takada won his third consecutive title, including the 2015 AP division title with Shaqler. Hajime Miura remains undisputed in 3A, winning his fourth straight title! Rei Iwakura proves hard work pays off, winning his sixth title! 5A saw the return of 2009 World Champion Takuma Inoue, winning his second title after eight years! AP also saw the return of past champions, with the Swiss duo InMotion! (Ivo Studer and Jan Schmutz) also winning their second title.
Some considerations before we give you the goods: we’ve only considered the “modern era” World YoYo Contest, held since 1992. There was one true World YoYo Contest before it, but it wasn’t a freestyle contest. Its winner was mister Harvey Lowe, in 1932. Between 1995 and 1997, the “Pro-Am” division was considered, and counted as 2A for this article’s purpose, as all winners in that division were expected to play with two looping yo-yos.
So without further ado, these are all the multiple time winners of the World YoYo Contest by number of titles.
Multiple Winners of the World YoYo Contest
| Player | Country | Total Titles | Divisions | Years |
| Shinji Saito | Japan | 13 | 2A, Combined | 2A: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015 Combined: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 |
| Takeshi Matsuura | Japan | 7 | 5A | 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 |
| Rei Iwakura | Japan | 6 | 4A, AP | 4A: 2008, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 AP: 2009 |
| Daisuke Shimada | Japan | 4 | X, 3A | X: 2002 3A: 2003, 2004, 2005 |
| Hiroyuki Suzuki | Japan | 4 | 1A | 2004, 2005, 2006, 2012 |
| Yu Kawada | Japan | 4 | 1A, AP | 1A: 2000 AP: 2006, 2013 (with Spination), 2014 (with Spination) |
| Hajime Miura | Japan | 4 | 3A | 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 |
| Shu Takada | Japan | 4 | 2A, AP | 2A: 2012, 2016, 2017 AP: 2015 (with Shaqler) |
| Bill de Boisblanc | USA | 3 | 2A | 1994, 1995, 1997 |
| Takahiko Hasegawa | Japan | 3 | AP | 2002, 2005, 2011 |
| Hank Freeman | USA | 3 | 3A | 2011, 2012, 2013 |
| Takuma Yamamoto | Japan | 3 | 2A | 2008, 2013, 2014 |
| Tomiyuki Watanabe | Japan | 3 | AP | 2004, 2013 (with Spination), 2014 (with Spination) |
| John Ando | Japan | 3 | 1A, AP | 1A: 2008 AP: 2010 (with Shaqler), 2015 (with Shaqler) |
| Tomonari Ishiguro | Japan | 2 | 1A, AP | 1A: 2001 AP: 2007 |
| Yuuki Spencer | USA | 2 | 1A | 2002, 2007 |
| Eiji Okuyama | Japan | 2 | 4A | 2003, 2007 |
| Tsubasa Onishi | Japan | 2 | 4A | 2004, 2010 |
| Naoto Okada | Japan | 2 | 4A | 2009, 2011 |
| Atsushi Yamada | Japan | 2 | AP | 2010 (with Shaqler), 2015 (with Shaqler) |
| Takeshi Maruyama | Japan | 2 | AP | 2010 (with Shaqler), 2015 (with Shaqler) |
| Shion Araya | Japan | 2 | 1A | 2016, 2017 |
| Takuma Inoue | Japan | 2 | 5A | 2009, 2017 |
| Ivo Studer | Switzerland | 2 | AP | 2012 (with InMotion!), 2017 (with InMotion!) |
| Jan Schmutz | Switzerland | 2 | AP | 2012 (with InMotion!), 2017 (with InMotion!) |
Shinji Saito dominates both 2A and Combined, and is the sole winner of the four editions ever held of that division. 4A has a surprising number of two-time winners, and Shaqler is the only team to win more than one World Title.
Surprisingly, we only had one first-time winner this year, Shion Araya!
One-Time World YoYo Contest Winners:
- 1A: Ryoichi Suzuki (1998), Joel Zink (1999), Johnnie DelValle (2003), Shinya Kido (2009), Jensen Kimmitt (2010), Marcus Koh (2011), János Karancz (2013), Gentry Stein (2014), Zach Gormley (2015)
- 2A: Dale Oliver (1992), Rocco Ysaguire (1993), Dale Myrberg (1996), Jennifer Baybrook (1998), Takumi Nagase (1999), Tomoya Kitamura (2000), Matt Harlow (2001), Yasushi Furukawa (2010)
- 3A: Paul Yath (2006), Yuuki Tanami (2007), Hiroki Miyamoto (2008), Kentaro Kimura (2009), Minato Furuta (2010)
- 4A: John Narum (2005), Taiki Nishimura (2006), Michael Nakamura (2013), Naoto Onishi (2015)
- 5A: Rafael Matsunaga (2003), Makoto Numagami (2004), Maya Nakamura (2005), Dana Bennett (2006), Tyler Severance (2007), Jake Elliott (2015).
- X: Hironori Mii (2000), Shingo Terada (2001)
- AP: Mark Montgomery (2003), John Higby (2008)
What about per-country count? Can you tell how far ahead Japan is? Check it out:
World YoYo Contest Winners by Country
| Country | Titles |
| Japan | 82 |
| USA | 26 |
| Switzerland | 2 |
| Brazil | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Hungary | 1 |
Japan is far, far ahead of the competition, having added another five titles in 2017, with USA in clear second, Switzerland comes third with the two title from InMotion!, followed by one-timers Brazil (Rafael Matsunaga, 2003), Canada (Jensen Kimmitt, 2010), Singapore (Marcus Koh, 2011), and Hungary (János Karancz, 2013)! If we take the 1932 Worlds into account, Canada rises to two titles, although officially Harvey Lowe competed for China, as there was another Canadian competing and rules only allowed one contestant per country.
Will someone ever equal Shinji’s astounding number? We’ll need to wait at least six more years to find out! Or hope someone wins more than one title in the same year!
2016 World YoYo Contest Announced In Cleveland, Ohio
The 2016 World YoYo Contest location has officially been announced, and it’s Cleveland, Ohio! National YoYo Master and YoYoNews editor Steve Brown will be the lead organizer for the event, with support from the Cleveland Sports Commission, International YoYo Federation, and US National YoYo League.
Cleveland was ranked one of the Top Ten best food cities in the United States by TIME Magazine and Jetsetter, and has been called one of the best cities to visit in 2015 by Travel + Leisure, the LA Times, Fodor’s Travel, and Forbes.
Recently, more than $16.7 billion of public and private investment has been pumped into Downtown Cleveland, including nearly $3 billion of visitor-related infrastructure development. Cleveland currently sees more than 16 million tourist visitors annually.
The event will take place in downtown Cleveland, within walking distance of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and some of the very best restaurants the city has to offer including Michael Symon’s Lola and Jonathan Sawyer’s Greenhouse Tavern. The official venue will be announced soon.
For more information, please sign up for the email list at the official contest website Worlds16.com.
Ryosuke Kawamura Presents: World YoYo Contest 2015
Japanese player Ryosuke Kawaura gives us a grounds-eye view of the 2015 World YoYo Contest, with a look a the little details we all love about yoyo contests…the t-shirts, the vending booths, and the candid shots of players hanging out. All good!
Zach Gormley wins the 2015 World Yo-yo Contest! Full results and commentary!
Iori Yamaki, Zach Gormley, and Shion Araya
Zach Gormley is the winner of the toughest and greatest yo-yo contest in history!
In a final round filled with favorites, Zach Gormley brought his best and was crowned the new 1A World Champion last night in Tokyo!
2A was equally exciting, with Shiji Saito winning the battle of World Champions against Shu Takada and Takuma Yamamoto!
In 3A, Hajime Miura had no trouble whatsoever, finishing almost 20 points ahead of runner-up Alex Hattori!
We also got a new 4A champion! Naoto Onishi won offstring in an incredibly balanced division!
In 5A champion, Jake Elliott, won by the tiniest of margins: just 0.03 points ahead of Takeshi Matsuura!
Finally, AP was a delight to watch, but ultimately it’s a competition, and Shaqler won with a jaw-dropping routine! Check the full results and commentary below!
1A
With the new seeding rules in place, only the current World Champion was granted a spot in the final round. The result was a final round completely stacked with the best of the best who were able to make it through the qualifying rounds!
In such a high-level contest, predicting a winner was no easy task, reflected on the final scores, where there was only 1.5 point between the 2nd and 7th place finishers, but the online chatter correctly predicted Zach’s win! Another strong candidate was Iori Yamaki, who also had strong popular support, but ended up in 3rd place.
Perhaps the biggest surprise here is the young Shion Araya, who, despite competing at the World Yo-yo Contest for the first time, showed an amazing level of play and maturity, managing to do well not only in the qualifying rounds, but also in the grand final, earning a much-deserved second place!
Last year’s champion Gentry Stein had a great routine, but a single discard cost him the three points that would have put him immediately in second place, and perhaps even first considering the time spent switching yo-yos, and thus he finished 6th overall.
A few other strong contenders had discards as well. World Champions Marcus Koh, and Hiroyuki Suzuki, Ahmad Kharisma, Colin Beckford, and Ryota Ogi were all penalized for the yo-yo switch and ended up in the lower half of the placings.
János Karancz had several unbelievable tricks, as usual, but was unable to go as clean as he hoped, while Anthony Rojas had a fantastic routine, but ultimately without the trick density to achieve a high Technical Execution score.
2A
A fierce battle between World Champions took place in 2A, with Shinji Saito emerging victorious with a high-level routine we expect from the now 13-time World Champion!
Shu Takada brought some very innovative tricks to the stage, that combined with his usual top-notch choreography and music use, were enough to bring his pre-deduction score on par with Takuma Yamamoto’s, even though Shu’s Technical Execution score was almost 8 points behind Takuma’s.
What ultimately decided the final placings was Takuma’s Detach penalty. Hiraku Fujii also suffered from penalties and was unable to place this year.
3A
If there were any doubts about Hajime Miura’s supremacy after his fourth place finish at Japan Nationals, there surely are none left after his outstanding performance in Tokyo!
Finishing almost 20 points ahead of the second place with an unbelievable score of 96.5, Hajime Miura earns his second World Title and becomes a very young legend in 3A play!
In second and third places were US players Alex Hattori and Hank Freeman, respectively, both with very clean routines, but without the extra refinement and difficulty of Hajime’s freestyle.
Be sure to watch Patrick Borgerding’s routine as well! Pat himself stated his goal is not to win, but to bring insane tricks to the stage, and he did not disappoint, hitting all his bangers on the stage in Tokyo!
World Champion Minato Furuta had a very unfortunate run. His tricks were amazing, and he would have been a serious contender had it not been for two disastrous double discards that cost him 12 points in penalties, and a lot of downtime on stage.
4A
Naoto Onishi won the 4A World Champion title in a division where the final standings were decided by the penalties!
While Naoto’s routine itself was completely clean and deserving of the title, it was Takumi Yasumoto’s 2 penalty point that knocked down the latter to second place, and amazingly, Rei Iwakura’s astonishing 6-point penalty that cost him the World Title!
The next spots were taken by the three American players. 2013 World Champion Michael Nakamura had a solid routine, but his Performance Evaluation scores prevented him from getting a better placing. Ben Conde was certainly the crowd favorite, and while he managed to hit his unbelievable tricks, they were not in large enough number to guarantee a better Technical Execution score. An epic performance, nonetheless!
5A
Jake Elliott did it! The new World Champion becomes the man who beat Takeshi Matsuura in 5A! What everybody thought was impossible now becomes true as Jake Elliott raises the bar for 5A play, bringing a whole lot of new tricks to the division!
And check out the final score! This is the closest score ever to determine the World Champion! If this is any indication of the future, we can expect truly legendary contests with these two beasts of counterweight play!
On the human side of things, Sora Ishikawa repeats his third place finish from last year with another entertaining freestyle, followed by Hideo Ishida and Bryan Jardin, who went slightly less cleanly than they hoped.
AP
Shaqler! Wow! The AP division this year was truly amazing, and every performance there deserves to be watched several times, but Shaqler’s freestyle is truly epic! Their 2010 routine is already a classic, but this takes their teamplay concepts and skills even further!
The addition of Shu Takada brought even more energy and acrobatics to the team, and making them only the second team ever to win two World Titles!
Shaqler also took home the Entertainment Award, while BeatPoint’s beatbox/yo-yo combo was awarded the Artistic Award, and Taiwan’s WHO Theatre got the Creativity Award for their fantastic team offstring performance!
2015 World Yo-yo Contest Finals Freestyle Order
The player order for the grand finals of the 2015 World Yo-yo Contest is now available on the contest’s website!
All divisions start with the last player qualified for the finals and finish with last year’s champion.
The contest starts with 4A, followed by 5A and AP in the morning, and resuming with 3A, 1A, and 2A in the afternoon.
The the greatest yo-yo contest of all time is coming to an end! Follow the live stream and don’t miss any of the action!
2015 World Yo-yo Contest Day 3 results (semi-finals)
The 2015 World Yo-yo Contest reaches its final stage with a very strong roster and a few upsets! The semi-final round was a real treat, and we now have the complete list of contestants for the grand finals!
1A
A very tough round where players showed great preparation! Most went very clean, making it very hard to predict the outcome! The biggest let downs here were certainly Christopher Chia, whose control was lacking, and Paul Kerbel, who was unable to secure a good Technical Execution score.
We do get a nice and diverse set of players joining Gentry Stein for the finals, however, with established competitors and newcomers from around the globe!
World Champions Hiroyuki Suzuki, Marcus Koh, and János Karancz all secured a spot in the finals, as well as a very strong set of younger players: Ryuichi Nakamura and Shion Araya, who qualified in the first two places, Yamato Murata, who had a very solid routine, young Czech marvel Jakub Dekan, and Colin Beckford, coming all the way from the wildcard round to secure the last spot in the final round!
Check the full list below. It’s safe to say this is the strongest 1A finals in history!
- Ryuichi Nakamura (Japan)
- Shion Araya (Japan)
- Iori Yamaki (Japan)
- Yusuke Otsuka (Japan)
- Yamato Murata (Japan)
- Luis Enrique Villasenor (Mexico)
- Janos Karancz (Hungary)
- Anthony Rojas (United States)
- Ahmad Kharisma (Indonesia)
- Hiroyuki Suzuki (Japan)
- Zach Gormley (United States)
- Takeshi Matsuura (Japan)
- Marcus Koh (Singapore)
- Akitoshi Tokubuchi (Japan)
- Ryota Ogi (Japan)
- Jakub Dekan (Czech Republic)
- Colin Beckford (United States)
2A
No surprises in 2A, where World Champions Shinji Saito and Shu Takada top the ranking. Tomoyuki Kaneko also had a strong routine and ended up ahead of Hiraku Fujii.
It’s the first time Shinji Saito and Takuma Yamamoto will go against each other at the Worlds finals since 2011, when Shinji won his last title.
Also worth noting is the presence of both Chan Chun Hay and Liu Man Ki from Hong Kong in the finals.
- Shinji Saito (Japan)
- Shu Takada (Japan)
- Tomoyuki Kaneko (Japan)
- Hiraku Fujii (Japan)
- Arata Imai (Japan)
- Henson Chan Chun Hay (Hong Kong)
- Liu Man Ki (Hong Kong)
- Ginji Miura (Japan)
- Shuhei Kanai (Japan)
1A and 2A scores can be found here.
3A
The 3A final round deserves a lot of attention this year! In addition to 3-time World Champion Hank Freeman, who barely made it due to a discard, we’ll also get to see current Japanese champion Tomoya Kurita, 2010 World Champion Minato Furuta, and both Patrick Borgerding and Ng Wang Kit, who are not afraid to pull risky moves on stage.
But the star of the semi-final round was Alex Hattori, who showed impressive calm and consistency to top the list ahead of the equally strong Japanese roster!
Unlike previous years, there are no favorites here, and Hajime Miura will have to work extra hard if he wants to add a second World title to his collection!
- Alex Hattori (United States)
- Takumi Yasumoto (Japan)
- Mizuki Takimoto (Japan)
- Tomoya Kurita (Japan)
- Minato Furuta (Japan)
- Yuto Yamaguchi (Japan)
- Patrick Borgerding (United States)
- Ng Wang Kit (Hong Kong)
- Hank Freeman (United States)
4A
Despite Bryan Figueroa’s absence, the USA are very well represented in this division, with all three American players (Michael Nakamura, Zac Rubino, and Ben Conde) securing a spot in the final round.
The quality of the players in this division is unbelievable, with no less than four players getting a 10 in Execution, and Ben Conde’s routine was truly exceptional, scoring 38.5 out of 40 evaluation points!
Do these players have what it takes to dethrone Rei Iwakura? We are about to find out!
- Takumi Yasumoto (Japan)
- Michael Nakamura (United States)
- Naoto Onishi (Japan)
- Zac Rubino (United States)
- Ben Conde (United States)
- Lorenzo Sabatini (Italy)
- Ryo Oishi (Japan)
- Futoshi Maruyama (Japan)
- Zhao Chen (China)
- Kuo Po Han (Taiwan)
- Tsubasa Takada (Japan)
5A
Another brilliant display by Bryan Jardin in the semi-final round! The US player tops the list of players who will face Takeshi Matsuura in the finals with a very comfortable margin, followed by last year’s runner-up Jake Elliott, who, despite having an early restart, still managed to qualify in second place.
World Champion Tyler Severance was unable to qualify and will be missed in the final round, but we still get a quality roster with some of the best in Japan, including Yoshihiro Abe, Sora Ishikawa, and Hideo Ishida.
Unlike the other divisions, where it’s hard to pick a favorite, Takeshi Matsuura is probably still at the top of everyone’s bets in 5A, and the other players will have to pull some big surprises in order to beat the six-time World Champion.
- Bryan Jardin (United States)
- Jake Elliott (United States)
- Yoshihiro Abe (Japan)
- Sora Ishikawa (Japan)
- Naoya Takeuchi (Japan)
- Naoki Uemae (Japan)
- Hiroyasu Ishihara (Japan)
- Hideo Ishida (Japan)
- Kai Zhang (China)
Scores for 3A, 4A, and 5A can be found here.
Finals start at 10:30AM Japan time (1:30AM GMT), be sure to catch the live stream to follow the action!
2015 World Yo-yo Contest Day 3 Freestyle Order
Another busy and exciting day awaits players and visitors tomorrow at the World Yo-yo Contest in Tokyo! The complete freestyle order can be found on the official website.
The semi-final round this year is where things get really serious, as only last year’s World Champions are seeded into the final round. All national and continental champions, in addition to the players qualified from the preliminary round, will have to prove their worth in this round.
These are some of the highlights in each division:
1A
48 players still remain in this division, and only the top 17 will join Gentry Stein in the final round. We saw great freestyles in the preliminaries, including a fantastic show by Shion Araya, but him and the other players from today will face tough competition. Among those seeded into the semi-final round are World Champions Hiroyuki Suzuki, János Karancz, Marcus Koh, last year’s runner up and 5A beast Takeshi Matsuura, Asian Champions Iori Yamaki and Ahmad Kharisma, European Champion Jakub Dekan and Mexican duo Paul Kerbel and Luis Enrique Villasenor. There are more favorites than spots in the final round!
2A
In addition to Hiraku Fujii, who dominated the preliminary round, we’ll also see the legend Shinji Saito, and Shu Takada competing in the semi-finals, and they should be among everyone’s favorites. Can the foreigners prevent an all-Japan 2A final round? Hong Kong veterans Liu Man Ki and Chan Chun Hay definitely have a chance, but it’s not going to be easy!
3A
With so many great 3A players competing, it’s hard to tell who can make it to the final round, but we have great hopes of seeing great shows from Patrick Borgerding and Ng Wang Kit, players who are not afraid to pull super risky bangers on stage! They will need every bit of concentration to go against super consistent players like Mizuki Takimoto, Taichiro Higashi, and Hank Freeman!
4A
A couple of World Champions failed to qualify for the semi-final round, and now Michael Nakamura is the only one competing for a spot in the final round, but even without the former champions, the roster here is stacked, with Ben Conde, Quentin Godet, Han Sanprasert, and Zac Rubino always bringing their best to the stage!
5A
The American players are on the spotlight in the 5A semi-finals, with World Champion Tyler Severance, last year’s runner-up Jake Elliott, and the winner from the preliminary round, Bryan Jardin, all with great chances of making it to the final round. Hideo Ishida and Yoshihiro Abe should be Japan’s best bets here. Also worthy of notice is Mexico’s Betty Gallegos. Tyler Severance’s protege is the only female player in the semi-final round! Go Betty!
The Women’s Division will also be held tomorrow, by the way, and it’s quickly becoming a very serious division, with 21 players competing in a preliminary round to select the 10 finalists!
Be sure to check the live stream tomorrow!
2015 World Yo-yo Contest Day 2 (preliminaries) results
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!
2015 World Yo-yo Contest Day 2 freestyle order
A super busy day awaits players and visitors tomorrow in Tokyo, as over 200 players will be competing in the preliminary round! The full list of competitors can be found on the official website.
The competitor list is a lot more diverse on the second day, as a lot of players come seeded from their respective national contests, and it’ll be quite interesting to see how the difference in styles play out on stage.
In addition to all the players qualified from the wildcard round, we have some top-notch players in this round:
There are still 95 players in the 1A division, including some strong contenders for the world title, including Yusuke Otsuka, Ryota Ogi, and Christopher Chia, and crowd favorites Palli Gudmundsson, Evan Nagao, and Riccardo Fraolini.
In 2A, the most expected performance is from Hiraku Fujii, and while the wildcard round was almost exclusively Japanese, the preliminary round gets a healthy number of foreigners, including four Korean players, a very welcome sight from one of the traditionally less represented countries in a World Yo-yo Contest.
3A gets the addition of World Champion Minato Furuta for the preliminary round, along with seeded players from Taiwan, Singapore, China, Korea, Malaysia, and the USA.
The second largest division in this round is 4A, with 33 players still fighting for a spot in the semi-final round. The wildcard round winners are joined by big names in this division, including Tsubasa Onishi, Jeon Ji Hwan, and Futoshi Maruyama. Tough competition for sure!
The highlights for the preliminaries in the 5A division are some of the world’s most technical and entertaining players, like Bryan Jardin, Sora Ishikawa, and Ryota Torigoe. And with both Hiroyasu Ishihara and Shingo Terada coming from the wildcard round, this division should be a delight to watch!
Tomorrow we also get to see the new “Over 40” division, with both yo-yo dads and veteran players competing at the main stage.
The Iron Mod contest, a tradition from the Orlando era, is also back this year, and will be held on the first floor for all to see! In this time-limited live mod contest, two teams of modders will need to come up with the best possible mod that includes a secret ingredient that will be revealed tomorrow! This time we’ll have Team USA vs. Team Japan, with mod experts Rob Tsou and Kyle Weems representing the US, and custom yo-yo god Shinobu Konmoto and Yuumi Shiga (The Mod Rangers) as Team Japan!
Be sure to catch the live stream starting at around 9:40AM Japan time! (12:40AM GMT)
2015 World Yo-yo Contest Day 1 (wildcard) results
Day 1 of the 2015 World Yo-yo Contest comes to an end after a marathon of over 250 players going through the wildcard round for all divisions! Here are the results!
1A
As expected, this was a tough and cruel round for the 169 players competing for a spot in tomorrow’s preliminaries. Only 33 players made it through, with some of the crowd favorites failing to advance. The American players did a great job, with six players (Andrew Bergen, Colin Beckford, Eric Tran-Ton, Clint Armstrong, Kevin Nicholas, and Lucas Gremler) among the qualified, along with two contestants from China (Pisco and Weichuan Wang) and one from Hong Kong (Benson Fok). Among those who failed to make the cut were Vashek Kroutil, Hidemasa Senba, Eric Koloski, and Ryosuke Iwasawa.
These are the qualified players in 1A:
- Toya Kobayashi (Japan)
- Benson Fok (Hong Kong)
- Izuru Hasumi (Japan)
- Andrew Bergen (United States)
- Yuki Nishisako (Japan)
- Yuya Yatani (Japan)
- Colin Beckford (United States)
- Ryota Komatsu (Japan)
- Shinya Kido (Japan)
- Hiroaki Yoshii (Japan)
- Eric Tran-Ton (United States)
- Tatsuaki Okamoto (Japan)
- Koyo Hashimoto (Japan)
- Clint Armstrong (United States)
- Pisco (China)
- Ayumu Harada (Japan)
- Kevin Nicholas (United States)
- Daiki Tanaka (Japan)
- Kazuya Murata (Japan)
- Tsukasa Namba (Japan)
- Yuki Shigematsu (Japan)
- Kento Muraoka (Japan)
- Kaito Tanaka (Japan)
- Amane Okubo (Japan)
- Weichuan Wang (China)
- Ginji Miura (Japan)
- Takumi Sakamoto (Japan)
- Ryosuke Hara (Japan)
- Shinji Toyoda (Japan)
- Kenta Kushiro (Japan)
- Tomoki Toyama (Japan)
- Lucas Gremler (United States)
- Ryo Igarashi (Japan)
Full results for 1A can be found here.
2A
With only one player outside Japan competing in the wildcard round, it’s no surprise that all eleven qualified players are Japanese. We hoped 1999 World Champion Takumi Nagase would make it, but he was unable to match the speed of the current 2A generation.
- Ginji Miura (Japan)
- Koichiro Ueta (Japan)
- Yutaro Kasuya (Japan)
- Reo Takamatsu (Japan)
- Yuki Takami (Japan)
- Shinnosuke Ishizaka (Japan)
- Hajime Sakauchi (Japan)
- Yamato Fujiwara (Japan)
- Masaki Iida (Japan)
- Shuji Kotani (Japan)
- Yuki Yamaguchi (Japan)
3A
3A has been improving at a fast pace, and the times when just being able to throw double-trapeze were enough to be competitive are long gone. Almost all of the competitors in the 3A wildcard round are Japanese, but Ayoun Kuo from Taiwan managed to squeeze into the next round!
- Yuto Yamaguchi (Japan)
- Takumi Yasumoto (Japan)
- Shoto Yamamoto (Japan)
- Sora Tahira (Japan)
- Ayoun Kuo (Taiwan)
- Takayuki Namba (Japan)
4A
There are a lot of people who want Rei Iwakura’s spot as king of offstring! No less than forty-two players competed in this division, including a handful from the world’s 4A elite! Ben Conde, Bryan Figueroa, and Naoto Okada had no trouble making it to the preliminary round, while two-time World Champion Eiji Okuyama, and Atsushi Yamada both failed to make it through in this tough division.
- Yuki Nishisako (Japan)
- Shuji Kinoshita (Japan)
- Ben Conde (United States)
- Bryan Figueroa (United States)
- Sota Maeda (Japan)
- Naoto Okada (Japan)
- Keita Kido (Japan)
- Koyo Hashimoto (Japan)
- Renta Motoyama (Japan)
- Ryo Oishi (Japan)
- Kei Hashimoto (Japan)
- Tomohiko Zanka (Japan)
- Yohei Kagawa (Japan)
5A
Counterweight is the contest’s smallest division, and while the number of contestants was small, we are super excited about the players who are competing, and even though 2004 World Champion Makoto Numagami was unable to make it through, the wildcard ranking is led by two equally legendary names: Hiroyasu “Pon” Ishihara, and 2001 World Champion Shingo Terada!
- Hiroyasu Ishihara (Japan)
- Shingo Terada (Japan)
- Shohei Nishio (Japan)
- Kazuma Miyakawa (Japan)
- Tatsunori Yoshiba (Japan)
The full list for 2A-5A can be found here.
Stay tuned for more updates from the greatest contest ever!
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