With Worlds now moving across the globe, it seems like this would be the next thing to do.
This is basically what Nationals is.
Actually, I was going to say this. Then I noticed he said North America, meaning North America.
Like this:
Great opportunity for any forward thinking promoter ;D
Well I think since nationals is just Americans it leaves out all the great Canadian players so it wouldn’t be quite the same
Anybody see the Mexican players? Astonishing. North America includes Mexico, folks!
Didn’t Zach Gormley win Nats last year?
this makes no sense.
That’s like saying the only California residents can compete in CALStates. We all know that doesn’t happen.
Let me share a few thoughts.
I think the idea is interesting. A North American championship. America, Canada, Mexico. Wow. I mean seriously. There’s an amazing number of phenomenal players in those 3 countries. It has potential all over it.
First, one of my biggest concerns is actually a larger global concern. Pardon me for not understanding everything so bear with me. As I understand it, to participate as a performer at US Nationals, you have to have some sort of award for the tournament year to be able to participate. It’s sort of “by invitation only”. But there seems to be a number of preliminaries that exceeds those kind of numbers.
In the United States, we have some state contests and some regional contests. Do the regionals actually serve the role as state contests for some areas?
Second:
We as the United States, need to re-think a few things about how we run tournaments on a national basis. The issue is there are State and regional contests AFTER US Nationals. Our tournament season needs to start January 1 and end in September, allowing at least 2 weeks before Nationals. Nationals wraps up the tournament season.
Third, will this be a seeded event or an open “invitational” or some combination? Can the US, Canada and Mexico work together to have this all work out? I bet they could. Yoyo isn’t as complicated as politics, but it may take a couple of years to hammer out the bugs.
Fourth, how will this affect Worlds? Worlds seems to require people to achieve certain placement levels at certain contests(nearly all). How many seeds would this get? I don’t see this being a major impact to Worlds, but there needs to be some sort of tie-in to really make this be a logical contests.
Fifth, to avoid the internal turmoil that’s been an underlying problem for Worlds the past few years, this contest MUST move. There needs a regular move between host countries. Annually. With 3 nations, it’s a 3 year rotation cycle. The yoYo Association for that country is responsible for choosing the host state and/or city, and hopefully it can tie into an active skill toy group that will associate with the national association, which in turn can organize the event. Think of it as the Olympics with like a microscopic budget!
Sixth: Excuse more ignorance, but I hear there’s more spin top fanatics in Mexico. I don’t know where the bulk of diabolo players, but I’m thinking that because this contest would be limited, it needs to have more categories to make it more diversified. Work it those and even juggling and determine more champions. Kendama is sweeping the continent, I’m sure we could have kendama freestyles too.
I can see this happening. I don’t see a need for this, but I can see a desire and want for this.
Exactly what I was thinking… just rotate between all 3 countries each year.
About the invitational only thing… I think that would exclude a lot of people, but at the same time having a ton of people doing prelims can be a never ending nightmare. I think we should try and figure out a way where it’s not just an invitational thing, but it’s also not just anyone can compete.
Also, we already have a ton of contests in the US but I guess this would be pretty dang cool.
Smaller contests, like state contests, generally allow for wider participation than just their state/region for various reasons. For example, it allows the contest to attract a better field, more sponsors, etc, and it gives players a chance to compete in more contests, especially for players who don’t have a contest within their own state. They do typically reserve state/regional titles for players within the region, however (for example, someone from outside California can win the top prize at Cal States, but the top California resident is still considered the California state champion).
Nationals does not allow non-residents/citizens to compete in the freestyle divisions. I think non-residents can compete in sport ladder if they want, but that doesn’t crown a National title. Similarly, the European championships have a separate non-European division to attract foreign players, but only Eurepeans can compete for the European title. Under current rules, U.S. Nationals can’t serve as a North American contest that includes Canadian/Mexican/Central American/Caribbean players.
U.S. Nationals is open to any U.S. player, but you do have to qualify through a regional contest. Players who can’t compete in a Regional contest can petition for an exemption into Nationals as well. State contests winners are seeded to the finals at regionals, but state contests are not required to qualify for regionals (and not all states have contests). The regional contests are the only required step in qualifying for Nationals, so you can compete only at regionals and then still qualify for Nationals.
Currently, only recognized National contests and the World Contest itself seed into Worlds. International contests like EYYC or Asia Pacifics exist on their own merits and don’t seed into Worlds, so a North American contest would probably work the same way.
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I’m almost positive only residents of the United states can compete in nationals so it does make sense? And flute ninja Zach Gormley lives in the United States just sponsored by a Canadian Company
So Jensen and Chuck are US residents?
Fail on my part:P
You do realize there are more countries in North America than just those 3 you mentioned, right? This continent also includes Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, etc. If there is ever going to be a “North American” contest, then it should include ALL of the countries in the region, IMO.
To qualify for Nationals, you have to place top 5 overall at a regional contest, OR be top 5 within your region. The highest placing in region competitor is seeded in the finals. Everyone else has to do prelim freestyles.
http://contest.nationalyoyo.org/freestyle-judging/freestyle-qualification/
As in deciding state champions? If that is what you meant, then no. Regionals decide who qualifies for Nationals, and do not decide who are the division champions for any particular state.
It really doesn’t matter when state contests take place, to be honest. Since they have no real impact on who qualifies for Nationals, they can take place any time of year.
Regionals though, I can see how it could be beneficial to keep those contests within a certain timeframe. But as long as the regional qualifiers are decided before Nats takes place, even if it is almost a full year in advance, does it really matter all that much?
This is a question that will be impossible to answer until someone decides they are going to organize a North American contest. The contest organizer is the one who will get to make that call.
Considering the fact that EYYC and AP winners do not get seeded at Worlds, I highly doubt a North American Champion would be any different.
I definitely agree that the contest should move around from one year to the next. All of the bigger contests should be handled that way, IMO. But I don’t think that it should rotate between the USA, Canada and Mexico exclusively. Like I said above, there are more countries in North America than just those 3, and for the sake of building the sport throughout our region, the love should be spread around a little bit more.
Granted, since the overwhelming majority of the population lives in CAN/USA/MEX, it is a given that most of the contests would take place in those countries. But if one of the smaller countries became a hot spot for yo-yoing, it would only make sense to try to bring the contest to their backyard at some point.
Yeah, and while we’re at it, change the name of the contest to the North American Skilltoy Championships. [/SARCASM]
Seriously though, if it is going to be the North American “Yo-Yo” Championships, then yo-yos should be the focus, IMHO. The competition should not be an attempt to lump yo-yoing together with a bunch of other skilltoys.
No.
I think most people can be forgiven for still thinking of the continental model as being “North, Central, and South America”. People especially of my generation (which includes Studio42!) were taught that way, and unless you’re a geography buff, there’s no opportunity to ever go and update that knowledge.
Now that my knowledge is updated, I agree that they should all be included!
I completely agree with Studio’s idea of having a more organized contest season. Having an order of state to regional to national is important for several reasons.
State contests seed people into regional contests. That might not seem important when you need to win in order to seed into Nationals, but if you’ve ever bombed a prelim then you know how important it can be for a good player to get seeded past them.
Having a Regional or even State seed be determined right after the larger competition is held is pretty poor form, in my opinion. A lot can change in the competition scene over the breadth of a year, and it’s important that the players who are good enough to seed are as current as possible, otherwise you force those who might be more capable to go through prelims, which can bring you back to the first problem of bombing those prelims.
Also, hype. It totally destroys the buildup behind a contest season to not have any sort of structure. Honestly, it’s like either you see a Regional contest and then a state contest has no hype, or you go to a regional contest and it has no hype because Worlds or even Nats already happened that year. It’s really like there is no contest season, the only date I look forward to is Worlds. Provide a structure and everyone will look forward to every contest because it will have some input for the larger picture.
I’m not sure how this ties into your North American competition conversation, and I’m sorry for that, but I really agree with Studio’s point on contest structure, and I feel like anyone with authority (hosting or knowing the host of a contest) should seriously consider this and put less weight on the tradition of an event being held annually on a date that really means nothing.
Bryan Ferougia? (Spelling?)
I thought the winner of EYYC got seeded into finals for worlds the following year. If they don’t that’s not cool. AP and EYYC are very huge contests and I think the winner should deserve a seed.
We could have a system where top two or three at these international contests gets the seed into finals at worlds. Then people who win national contests are allowed to prelims at worlds. Maybe top two or three at these national contests just in case the turn out isn’t big enough. This would eliminate the all the random 100+ people that try out for the world title.