Boy, I hear ya. I’m amazed at how good the “under one year” videos were. I’ve been throwing for about 10 months and I’m nowhere near that level. I too will be in the big league “over one year” level soon and wow, I’ve got to step up my game.
There’s nothing like a timeline with a goal to motivate yourself. I’ve got a long way to go to compete with the any of the video entries, but I’ve been practicing every night and am slowly advancing.
Any news for people’s champ?
Indeed!!! All tallied up!!!
Here was something that was absolutely cool to see: every single player who entered a video got at least one vote for People’s Champ! There’s not a one of you who didn’t impact your “audience” on some level. So awesome!
The 2015 Battle of the Elders “People’s Champion” is…
yomartyo!!
Congratulations! Certainly well-deserved. 
–
For the time they took to view the videos and register their votes, 3 randomly-chosen winners of a $25 YYE gift card are:
Thanks so much, folks!! Once I have the codes secured I will drop them to you via PM. There is no physical shipping involved, just a code you can use on your next purchase!
–
That’s a wrap! But the thread isn’t over. 
Feel free to keep the discussion going; I for one will certainly be back to this thread for a “Final Thoughts” type post.
Thanks everybody!
Way to go yomartyo. And way to go everyone who took part this year. I remember watching the videos last year and thinking it was such a great idea.
Now this year I decided to participate and loved every minute of it. Great videos from everyone.
I was also impressed by the support y’all had for one another. Lots of good feelings and impressive moves all around.
Can’t wait to put something together for next year.
Thanks GregP, the judges, the donating companies, & YoYoExpert for giving us this opportunity for fun, games, & prizes.
Thanks again for the opportunity Greg p and yye plus all the sponsors can’t wait till next year have to improve my game
Congrarts Yomartyo!
Congrats yomarty!
And Sweet! I won stuff!
OK guys,
The Elders are too polite to nag (seriously, not a single nag!) but I wanted to update you that I have not organized all the shipping yet. I found myself utterly without energy and when I managed to recover some of it, I spent that energy immediately on family and holiday preparations; plus with it being “crunch time” on a project at work… well, suffice it to say I have dragged my feet. I will be picking at it slowly over the next couple days and all the addresses should be provided to the prizeholders by New Year’s. I will recommend that they provide shipping tracking #s, but I cannot guarantee anything. 
Since I’m writing this little update, seemed like a good place to consolidate all the prize winners in one post:
1- old_spinner
2- dust
3- vonklinger
1- muu
2- Ricardo Marechal
3- SpawnoftheED
Peter
muu
pissto43
yomartyo
dust (fixies)
Simyo (fixies)
DavidNR
Yertle
alexs_02
Morgoroth
Lseda3984
Some Closing Thoughts
This year was a great success, and much of that was owing to André, YoyoExpert, and of course the rest of the sponsors. As I contacted each sponsor in turn, with my humble “pitch”, not a one of them blinked. I had some of last year’s “marketing reach” statistics on-hand but nobody really seemed to be worried about it… they just wanted to support a unique contest. I’m very certain that most of them would have contributed without anything “in return”. The title cards that were required on the videos were the least I could do, and I was happy to be able to do even that much. In case anybody hasn’t checked recently, the sponsors this year (in no particular order) were:
One Drop
CLYW
2sickyoyos
MonkeyfingeR Design
YoyoExpert
Yoyofficer
C3yoyodesign
Duncan
King Yo Star
G-Squared Yoyos
Hildy Bros, Ed Haponik, Jamie Griles
YoYoFactor
Axis Yoyos
Kyo’s Toys
The enthusiastic support of so many top-notch sponsors provided me with some real challenges:
In addition to these challenges, I tried out a new judging system. I would say that overall it was my favourite way to determine a winner. The very first year, we did a straight-up YYE poll… but that didn’t seem to represent some of the contestants as it overly favoured each voter’s top (ONLY) choice! The next year we had a top-3 system that felt way more fair; however, I kept feeling that in a lot of ways it was still a bit of a “feel good” voting system rather than skills-based. This year’s judging system was about as un-biased as it could get. The main divisions worked themselves out, and then the “opinion” divisions (best banger, best video, judge’s choice) became rather interesting.
I think in future years I will try to maintain some sort of panel of judges, but I might try something else out for the “opinion” divisions… it wasn’t that the judges had too many disagreements, but rather getting everyone online at the same time for a conversation. 
The logistics were tricky!
Speaking of judges, let’s make sure we remember these folks who spent a HUGE amount of their time:
Augie Fash (Duncan)
Daniel Dietz (Spin Dynamics)
Dazzling Dave (http://www.dazzlingdave.com/)
Ed Haponik
Adam Brewster (CLYW)
Amazing folks, honestly. Not only great judges, but also there for me when I needed to bounce an idea or two around.
As always, I am interested in hearing some thoughts! Of course we’ve already had lots of talk in this 24-page+ thread, but I’m interested in hearing anything else you might have to say!
In particular, I wonder what people would like to see next year? Any changes/improvements? Any ideas in getting the participation numbers even higher? (finding enough Elders is the challenge, I think!) Anything that stuck out as a sore spot?
What contest could happen without those participants? I want to offer another thanks (can’t have too many!) to everyone who submitted videos. Some people have video-making as second nature and can throw together a video without too much effort… but most of the Elders are not those people. Haha! Not meant as a negative statement, of course-- just wanting to draw attention to the fact that these awesome people took time out of their schedules to put together something that is out of their “comfort zone” in many cases. It takes not only more time for some of us to put a video together, but it also takes a certain kind of motivation to put ourselves out there. For the past 3 years, contestants have routinely told me that it was the MAKING of the video that turned out to be the fun part of the whole thing. Prizes are nice, but having an excuse to show a few tricks on camera turns out to be the interesting and exciting part.
So thanks to the contestants:
old_spinner
Morgoroth
alexs_02
msysko
dust
bigbs_domain
vonklinger
Sweetwilliej
muu
yomartyo
isaackanarek
SpawnoftheED
snitch
Ricardo Marechal
shuag
JasonKirsch
mgiroux77
peter
pissto43
mdk0209
beezy
yooldman
DavidNR
Yertle
Simyo
FiveIronBrian
frodoslair
Sircus
Waylon
AngryGumball
Finally, a huge thanks to the YYE forum members who have followed this contest, who have contributed to this thread, and who have watched the videos of the contestants! Naturally none of this would be happening if not for all of you. Thank you so much!
See you next year!
Greg
Any clue as to when one might be on the look out for a prize pack? Fixie pack came real fast, still checking the mailbox daily for the other one.
edit i see now. No worries! take all the time you need.
Take your time GregP, it’s a busy and sometimes stressful part of the year, I think all of us “older folks” totally get it 
Thanks for providing such a fun contest and Muu totally deserved that win! His video had some of the best chopstick style tricks I’ve seen in a long time. Muu please create more videos with your amazingly creative tricks!
Congrats to all the winners!
Any one recieved any of their prizes yet and also any idea about the free kitty string? Again thanks to all the sponsors and Greg P
YYE are serving as the hub for some of the prizes being sent out, and the Kitty Strings come from them, too. Once I get YYE all the addresses they need for processing, it can all start filtering out of their warehouse. Should see the first packages from YYE (including the strings) mailed this coming week.
I am personally in charge of the Canadian stuff (MonkeyfingeR accessories, Green Pun), and I will get those out this week, too.
MAJOR HAUL!
Something unexpected landed today on my porch!
THANKS SO MUCH! They all three are so steller! Very excited to put some time in with each.
YYF Primo!YYO IMP!! C3 Accellerator! OOoh yea!
Thanks YYE, and All the Sponsors! AMAZING!!!
Mad love!
Also received a package today from YoyoExpert.
Really love the color of this Imp. Not usually a fan of the splash but this purple/blue guy is sick!
If I’m not mistaken, there is supposed to be some Duncan’s too?
Also Thank goodness for some string, I’ve been running low on that hahah!
Thanks!!!
Just to clarify for everybody:
All of the shipping information has been sent out. The prizes are contributed by prize sponsors-- when it was easier to use YYE as a shipping hub (specifically, YYF, YYO, C3), the items come from YYE. In most other cases, the prizes are shipped directly from the manufacturers. So you will almost always get separate packages to comprise your prizes.
I…
have not shipped the MFD stuff or the Pun yet…
…I should go to the penalty box and feel shame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGKdle1bbvo
The Duncan stuff will be a bit delayed because of Augie’s epic trip abroad that he is wrapping up as we speak. Once he’s re-situated at work I’m sure he’ll come across the email I sent him with the addresses and get the Duncan stuff out.
Thanks for the clarification. You are awesome!
I got my role model from yoyoexpert the other day, thank you. If you want to throw in some ketchup chips, a coffee crisp or any other Canadian goodies with the pun i wouldn’t be upset about it lol
Received my Kitty Strings & the YoyoFactory Tactic in the mail. Think that Tactic will be good to pass along to a new player as it seems to have a size A bearing to make it responsive. Nice beginner metal throw.
Now I am looking forward to that custom Kyo throw! Excited to see what sort of work they do.
Thanks again GregP and all the sponsors, judges, & contestants. Great fun.
Just got a package from Augie. . .with a couple of extras! I’ve been loving the Imp and waiting to post till everything had arrived. Thanks again to everyone!