I was going to say the same thing
Also, a majority of the freestyle was actual tricks. Just small portions of him doing goofy stuff.
I know I already said it once, and I’m not the only one… but I’mma elaborate. He failed early. Then he failed again. He knew he was out, and on that subsequent failure he turned the failed trick into a bit of humour. Based on crowd reaction and his own personality, the performance overall turned into an extension of that.
It’s not complicated and it’s not nefarious. He made the most out of a ‘bad’ situation. It’s well known that Jensen doesn’t have quite the same competitive drive as some people, but it seems obvious to me (though not to everyone apparently!) that no disrespect was intended towards anyone, and that he was indeed “trying” at first, and that he continued to land some pretty good tricks throughout.
It’s yoyos. It’s fun. Y’alls too serious.
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I think Greg has made the most valid point. Jensen wasn’t gonna get 15th or 14th with mess ups and an OK freestyle, he was gonna go all out last and just mess around and make it a freestyle people talk and laugh about.
I think the h8rz don’t have any grounds to be h8in’.
There’s no hate, just a difference of opinion. Why can’t you understand that some people may feel differently about it than you do?
he knew he was out before he even started. It’s not like he was like, “oops, well that didn’t work, let’s just have fun.” He made sure he messed up. After all, his first trick was around the world and an over-dramatic trapeze, which set the stage for the rest of the freestyle.
It was an intentionally bad freestyle. Btw, it’s more fun to see a good freestyle that Jensen is capable of, than to see this.
Lemme elaborate on that for you again, by h8rz I am obviously being sarcastic.
Anyways, have your opinion. Go for it. See how many more people have fun freestyles at big contests and see how mad you can get at them for doing it. For playing with toys. Toys are supposed to be fun to play with. And when you have fun, you goof off. Sometimes on a stage, sometimes not. Why that matters is beyond me. When you make finals and someone else does NOT, that means the person who made finals can screw around on stage all he or she wants, he or she has earned that right by being better than the person/people who didn’t make finals.
Keep on being bitter about fun freestyles, see how much fun that is. I’ll be enjoying them. You are free to have that opinion just as anyone is free to have a good time up on stage.
EDIT: @guitarplayer Jensen has had many good freestyles. You are welcome to google them.
I didn’t love this freestyle either. I wasn’t as amused by the goofing around as some people are. But that assessment by theguitarplayer is pretty subjective and I don’t tend to agree with it. 
Explaining in detail “why” I don’t will just beat an already dead horse into the ground.
So if you paid $400+ on a plane ticket and another $300+ on Hotel costs plus probably another $20 on contest fees, you would be happy your sponsee went on stage and didn’t even put a serious efforts although you just spent that much for that person to at least try? NFL players are supposed to go out on the field and try at the very least. If a player did that on the field, I’m sure he would face a huge backlash from the football lovers and his team. So would that be acceptable to you? To watch a player on you’re team go out there and not even give effort when the 2nd string on the bench would give his all. That’s blatant disrespect and the same could be said for Jensen.
EDIT* BTW at least 30-40 seconds worth of that two minutes was literally pure nothingness.
People keep saying, “they’re only toys.”
Sure, at their basic classification they are toys, but I don’t see people giving their mint ~insert rare/awesome/sentimental yoyo here~ to their 6 year old sib and niblings to go chuck around because hey, they’re just “toys.”
When we’re this invested into a hobby, the term “toy” is subjective and up for debate. My father thinks his '69 drag car is a “toy” but that doesn’t mean it’s actually a toy.
Chess is just a “game” but look at what that hobby has become at it’s professional levels.
To say that a professional disrespecting the venue because he’s playing with a “toy” is absurd.
Imagine going to see a highly famous professional race car driver, who didn’t have to qualify for the race, and all he does is honk his horn the entire time. Hey, he’s just playing with his “toy.”
Jensen isn’t even listed as a CLYW sponsored player. Hes out there having fun playing with his toys.
Im sure if jensen was being paid millions of dollars to play yoyo he’d put in some effort too, but unlike professional sports, he isnt.
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I’d love to see a NASCAR driver qualify for Daytona then just start the race and do donuts in the infield while everyone else races. He’s not hurting anyone, he qualified so should be able to do whatever he wants.
I just don’t understand why you have to be so deeply angered by this. This is obviously very superficial. Jensen wanted/started to do a funny freestyle so he did. End of story. CLYW seemed amused by it anyways, they even shared it on their facebook (which is ruined by Chuck, but still…)
Chimera. That nascar driver could, but wouldn’t. Because there is a lot more at stake during a nascar race than at a yoyo contest.
Peep Ky Zizan’s instagram and you’ll see that many pro’s are doing what Jensen did for fun now and messing around with it and even created a hashtag for it.
Yeah, think how fast the officials would be out there to stop that nonsense. Fines would be flung in every direction, sponsors would be dropped, etc. etc. The aftermath of all that hurts quite a few people. It hurts the Daytona venue, it costs them money to repair the infield, all the cars parts’ that suffered unnecessary wear and tear, and the fans would have to wait for the whole ordeal to get situated. But hey, that’s not hurting anyone, let’s let him goof off and call him majestic.
Do you not see the problem with “he qualified for it, he should be able to do what he wants.”?
Thats the thing, these scenarios are TOTALLY different. He hurt no one, he isnt paid to do this, and HE WAS PLAYING WITH TOYS. These are yoyos, that is professional sports.
Is that not the point of a freestyle? to do whatever you want?
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Sure the scenarios are extremely different, but it takes a caricature to show how out of hand certain reasoning can get.
And again with the “they are just toys,” refer to my previous post.
Jensen isn’t an official sponsored player but he is technically an “employee” and thus represents the brand. You can use the word “employee” but we all know that is the same sponsorship. If you spent almost a grand getting that guy there I’m sure him fooling around at a big contest like that wouldn’t sit well with you.
Are sponsees not flown, paid for hotels, contest fees, given thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for free? That is the same as being paid to do yoyo but just in different means of compensation.
I want to clarify a few things that might have been misunderstood.
First of all, no one is saying yoyoing shouldn’t be fun, or that you can’t have fun on stage.
Second, i’m not saying that all joke freestyles are bad.
There were prelims, so Jensen took a spot from someone else.
@Irwin, you said if someone makes finals, he has the right to do what he wants on stage.
In my opinion, he has the responsibility to play at the same level on stage.
In the rules for last years AP at worlds, it said that although the performance a competitor does on stage does not have to be same as the one in his audition video, it has to be at the same level.
I don’t think Jensen was trying to be disrespectful, but the organizers might have thought it was. If the organizers were okay with the performance, I don’t have much problem with it, but I think it would be a good idea to clear something like that with them before doing it.
Not sure where Jensen lives, but he might have been close enough so that travel costs weren’t that much.
I checked the ticket prices before I spoke and the plane tickets were around $400 on average