1 YoYo in a contest? Say your using a code 2 and you mess up like get a knot around the bearing, and you take the slip-knot off your finger, you pick the YoYo up in front of you.
Do you have to use the same YoYo, or could you pick up a different one? I hope this makes sense!
Yep. Always bring backups in case of a bind knot. Legal, but points will be deducted in freestyle.
Thanks! Now I just need to know what CLYW I should get as a back up throw for the contest
puffin
For competition, your best bet would be a Chief.
Yuki
yep that too 
Puffin 
The Chief runs circles around the Puffin.
What to bring as a spare kind of depends on what you bring as your primary. If you don’t have something similar, bring whatever else you are comfortable playing and know. No one else can really tell you what to use.
And I think the CLIFF runs circles around the Chief and Puffin for my purposes. Personal preference is everything in yoyoing. One yoyo will not perform the same way in another person’s hands as it does in yours, so telling someone that one yoyo is better than another doesn’t work.
The Chief probably fits your style and preferences much better than the Puffin, so your opinion is definitely true for you, but the original poster will have to find something that works uniquely well for his/her situation.
I’m going to get the Chief! Thanks
While that is true, the Chief is still the better all around throw.
I don’t want this to be a knock-down-drag-out, but I disagree. My preference does lie with the Chief, but I absolutely can not and will not say that the Chief is better than the Puffin or any other modern ball-bearing yoyo.
I’m sure the Chief is better for your all-around uses as it is for mine, but I guarantee that the Puffin is better suited for some throwers. All-around for you and I are likely two very different things. When you consider how many people throw at a competitive level and how many different signature yoyos exist, you can clearly see how different preferences can be across the spectrum.
You’re more than entitled to believe and discuss one yoyo being better than another, but my belief is that a skilled thrower, when using a yoyo that perfectly fits his or her preferences, will achieve much more than the same thrower using a yoyo considered “the best” by even a large portion of the community. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: personal preference is the name of the game. Variety exists because it is demanded and has been used in our community to achieve amazing things, small and large, private and public.
To throw forth a lighthearted example, look at the ILYY TRVTH when compared to the YYF Genesis. They’re both good yoyos and they’re both capable of the same things, albeit one is much more difficult to use than the other. A skilled thrower can win Worlds with the Genesis the same way a skilled thrower could win Worlds with a TRVTH. In one thrower’s hands the Genesis may feel as awkward as the TRVTH feels to me while the reverse may also be true. Without knowing the player’s preferences and comfort zone we can’t make any specific recommendations at all.