I can’t for the life of me find the info I’m looking for with google.
I attended a Yomega contest in the early 2000’s in Las Vegas, but I can’t remember what year it was and it’s driving me nuts! lol
I forget a bunch…but I do know that Steve Brown was there as well as Doc Pop, Johnnie DelValle, Justin Webber, Takeshi Matsuura (aka Black), and a bunch of others.
I was the dorky noob in the yellow theyo.com shirt getting everyone to sign my shirt haha. I won the novice division which was a ton of fun.
Anyone have any info on this? I just want to know what year it was. I keep thinking it was 2001, but the more I think about it, the more I think that’s not quite right.
I have…and they do have some videos from a y3a in Vegas from the year 2000…but it’s not the one I attended. I don’t recognize any of the top finishers, and they were performing outside…the one I went to was inside.
Yomega ran the Y3A contest a few times…I attended one (maybe two?) and it was their attempt at a more casual “convention” feel of a yoyo event. It didn’t quite work for a few different reasons…it was in Vegas but at the only family resort in Vegas without gambling, so a huge chunk of the appeal of Vegas was removed for the sake of being more family friendly. But families still want to gamble in Vegas so they just all left and went to other hotels and casinos. It was still a competition, but at the time they weren’t pulling the highest-level competitors in all divisions so it felt uneven. And there weren’t enough side activities to keep people really occupied during the weekend. Overall it felt more like a stretched out mall event (great outreach!) than a contest and would have probably worked better as a mall tour of 1-day events instead of a single big 2-day destination.
It’s weird because I still think a “convention” style event could work for yoyoing if done right. Seminars, in-person tutorials, jam sessions, demos, even some offbeat contest stuff. Mainly just a reason for yoyo players to get together for a couple days. But maybe the scene just wasn’t ready back in the early 2000s.
Or maybe I’m way off base and contests are the only thing that brings people together are contests.
I don’t remember everything…but didn’t you (Steve) get up on stage and sing or something at one point? lol :p. I have a fuzzy memory, but I could’ve swore this happened! haha
I live in a small town so this was the first time I’d met up with other yoers in person, and it was SO cool to actually meet some amazing people I looked up to.
And they gave me SO much swag! I remember that if you stayed at the hotel where the contest was, they’d give you a free Metallic Missile yo-yo. I wasn’t staying at the hotel…but they threw the yo-yo into my bag of goodies when I got there and registered anyhow! I was SO excited about that back then!
The trophy I got for taking 1st in the novice/noob division is the fist trophy I’ve ever recieved for anything…and it’s surprisingly heavy and very well made. Man I loved that thing!!
And later that year, I decided it’s be cool to run a small event at my local library for kids teaching them the basics of yoing.
I contacted Yomega and told them I’d won 1st in the novice division and asked if they had any tips or anything on running the event.
The lady got back to me right away and told me she’d send me out a packet.
About a week later a UPS dude comes by and drops off a huge freaking box. It was heavy too!
I open it up, and there was 24 yo-yos (raiders and fireballs and a few brains if I remember right)…24 of their instructional VHS tapes, 24 instruction books, 24 things of lube and string packs, and 24 pouches to put your yos in.
lol I was so blown away by it that it made me cry! >.<’
I bet some of the kids that showed up to the event I ran still remember it fondly! (haha now that I think about it, they’d all be in their 20’s now and are no longer kids!). It was free, and they all got a cool bag stuffed full of awesome yos and accessories!
I kept the left overs in the trunk of my car, and I’d once in awhile find random kids to give the stuff to lol. I was playing with my yo once in a fast food place I worked at on break and a father came up to me and said something about how cool it was. So I went out to my car and brought back a ton of stuff for him and his 2 kids with him lol…they were on vacation from out of state. I’m glad I was able to give them a cool little memory and add to the fun of their vacation!
Yes! That’s it!! I can even hear my mom screaming in the audience a couple of times haha!
She use to embarrass me so much! >.<’
She’s the really loud screamer in this clip…
–edit-- Just found out Yuki passed away in 2012 Damn. What an incredible man. May he rest in peace :*( --edit–
I’d give just about anything to be in an audience with her again! She was so enthusiastic and fun. (she passed away 2 years ago this month).
There was a group of Japanese people there at the event…and they were so cool! Well dressed, cool hairdos (lol) and they had such a cool stage presence! Dancing around and bouncing all over the place and they just had an amazing “cool” factor I’m having a hard time describing.
Thanks for the help Steve! It brings back so many fun memories and it was driving me nuts not remembering what year it was held.
@twitch77 haha! I was trying to figure out what year I went and came across this post and was like “wait he won novice division? but I won novice division!” Turns out we went a year apart, haha! My trophy is also incredibly filthy.
Yup, also Las Vegas. My cousin lived there at the time so I was able to go for just the cost of airfare. My trophy is cracked at the base lol. Here’s what I got with the voucher I got from winning:
So fun! Do you still have al these yos? I don’t remember everything I received…but they spoiled the heck out of me!
They were giving away free metallic missiles, but only if you were staying at the hotel where the competition was located. The lady who was registering everyone at the start threw one into my goody bag even though she knew I wasn’t staying there just to be nice! lol I was so excited about that!!
Nope, I was a 2A player so I modded the heck out of those fireballs and ended up breaking almost all of them by bashing them together practicing wraps. The ones that didn’t break (maybe 4 or 6 of them) got stolen out of my car one day along with my YYJ Clessiah, Black Nova, Speeder, and Hitman, they were inside my Y3A yo-yo case which I assume someone thought was a laptop case.
Damn. What an incredible man. May he rest in peace :*( --edit–
