International Yo-yo Federation just released info about new seeding rules. Also notice change in length of freestyle in Semi-Finals.
https://scontent-a-vie.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/537067_570452313002776_1094829706_n.png
More info:
Round structure: http://iyyf.org/rules/round-structure/
Seeding rules: http://iyyf.org/rules/seeding-rule/
This seems like a really fair way of reconfiguring it. I never would have conceived of 30 second routines, but if they’re clicking solely for points and performance is not counted, it actually makes a ton of sense. Seeding national champions to semis instead of straight to finals definitely changes the playing field, but overall it sounds like the best way to make finals as competitive as possible.
I like this system better, national champions arent just seeded straight to finals anymore 
I think I disagree with Nats champs not getting the see into worlds. It just seems like that’s how it should work?
Am I reading this right? half the number of potential people will be in finals for 2-5A then for 1A?
Take it realisticly, many of Nationals Champions are not on same level as world best yo-yoers. They skip 2 rounds, they just have to prove they are really on same level as other top world players, not just better than kids in their local scene.
I’m sure Japan or US champion will have no problem, but some champion from some unknow country, who would still finish last in finals, will be cut.
This year there was 21 people in finals of 1A and 7-13 people in 2A-5A, so there is no change.
At first I thought the Wild Card was stupid but then I realized that if you didn’t place top 10 in your Nats then your probably not going far anyways.
And I’m assuming since there giving a MultiNational seed we will see a North American Yoyo Contest in 2014? (I think people have already talked about this I’m just not sure)
I wasn’t saying it was a change.
By entry numbers half as many finalists for 2A-5A as 1A is very generous.
I think the changes are fair and reasonable. It makes sense to me.
You still have the wildcard round, but I feel that 30 seconds isn’t enough time. You need a good 5-10 seconds to build up, leaving you 20-25 seconds? It seems like once you get going, you get stopped. I think this was done to speed things up at this level. For many people who compete just to say they competed at Worlds, 30 seconds is often 30 seconds too long anyways. From the perspective of the sound team, this is a real grinder though. But who cares about us sound guys anyways, right?
But, they are then adding a wildcard round for dealing with non-qualifiers and the general public. Basically, they still have the contest set up so that anyone can have a fair shot at the title. The preliminaries will be completely qualified people at this point.
I think the only problems will be the first year as people will need to adjust to the new format and rules. I don’t think everyone will be happy. It’s really not that big of a deal. They rules are well spelled out. Of course, change results in complaints and there will be.
I really like this new system personally.
Speaking as someone who’s been to Worlds a few times, I agree 100% with these changes. The prelim rounds (for 1A, especially) are brutally long, and there’s no reason that amateurs should be qualified off-the-bat at the same level as more seasoned competitors.
This is such a great new change, now i just hope they make the judging system so that people with cool looking tricks place higher than people with ew tech.
Seems interesting. At first I wasn’t liking it, but reading some of the points in this thread, it’s starting to sound alright. I guess I kind of feel like I need to see how Worlds would actually be with this new system. For now, it sounds promising, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it actually is in effect.
Also, I wonder if they’re going to put in a North American Yoyo Contest, too. That would be pretty cool.
I actually heard something about this. #NAYYC
Like, something significant, or…?
They still won their nationals tournament, and that should be enough to allow them the free pass into worlds, no? Saying that they “need to prove themselves on the same level as the top players” is kind of ludacris because they WON THEIR NATIONAL TITLE. I think that should allow the community to look at them and be like “Yeah, he probably deserves to be in Worlds”.
I honestly can’t agree more.
Not all Nationals are at the same level of play…and in fact, most of them are not even close to the level of the US/Japan.
It’s a safe bet that the winner of Czech Nationals can hold their own on the world stage, while the winner of the Vietnam Nationals isn’t. The level of play just isn’t there yet in some countries where the scene is still young, and to seed some of these players through to finals isn’t in anyones best interest.
What’s wrong with granting players more experience on a larger stage. More players will rally around a scene if one of their own is sent straight through to the finals, as opposed to the semi or quarter finals. I also believe that there will be more incentive for the scene to try and get back up to that level, because the best player gets a slot in the World Finals.
And to be fair, they are still the winner of their respective nationals contest, which means they have some level of skill beyond that of their counterparts. It’s not as though the winner of the Vietnam nationals contest will be trying to Walk the Dog on-stage, they will have some level of skill that they can build on.