I am very excited about this!! Kudos to Andre and Steve too!!! Who better than these two to be involved. As for the $25 cost well… You got to pay to play…
IMHO too many people compete in the “pro” divisions… Sport/amateur is for more than just beginners. I believe for anyone who just wants to get up on stage and have fun then sport/amateur is best.
I think it should honestly be considered for state-level NYYL sanctioned contests too.
Allow bigger prize-pools to get kicked back for state-level contests too.
And honestly, I think the bigger thing to keep in mind is that compared to other youth-events, the membership is pretty minimal in cost.
We’re hoping to roll NYYL sanctioning/support out to State contests in 2015, but we have a lot of work to do in getting the system up, working, and refined before we can do that.
Dang it! I wish they wouldn’t put the “thank you” button so close to the “quote” button.
Pat you should just come and compete at the UK National open. Last year it was only Palli and Ann that competed, so even if you did a full routine of nothing but missed GT suicides, you’d still have got a podium spot. 
It’s in the comments on YoYoNews but I wanted to put it here too in case anyone was wondering. 2014 PNWR preceded the roll out of the new NYYL requirements so no NYYL membership was required. All results are still valid for 2014 NYYL seeding/qualifying. 2015 PNWR will require NYYL membership.
Removed that for ya.
It’s not about winning though! In fact, that’s what’s getting me bored about the sport division.
This is how I feel. I know I can’t stand up against some of the superstars in the Mid East like Jake Elliot so I just want to go up on stage for the sake of saying “So yeah, I’m ___ best in the Mid East region.” Also, some people find it immature to ask mommy and daddy for yoyo money. I know they’re trying to make yoyo more legitimate and I know for fact that in comparison to soccer (around Canton [where I’m from] soccer is HUUUGGGEE and everyone plays so competitively) this registration fee is very inexpensive. Of course I’m not contrasting this to soccer, I’m contrasting this to the $25 less I’d have to pay a week ago to compete. Like I’ve already said, I really hope this helps yoyo contests be better and have a better venue, I’ve even said that yoyo contests need more professional venues, but I never thought about the very literal price I’d have to pay haha.
For now this doesn’t really affect me. I’ve only been to one contest and I competed in Sport 1A. I plan to stay in sport 1A for a little while yet. However, if I go to a contest where there is only the option of Sport Ladder or Championship 1A, I will have to register for NYYL and compete in the Championship division.
What about state yoyo contests?
And can I pay the $25 at Pan Nats? Or do I need to pay ahead of time.
You need to register in advance.
So Steve…
If someone comes to a contest not knowing about this, and they never payed online in advance.
Then can they not compete? I feel bad for some of the people who might not know about it.
Thanks man!
So, is it just refional AND Nationals, or is it states as well. rhanks.
These changes apply to anything regional and up (Regionals, Nationals, Pan American)
I’ve been thinking about the issue of people who only can attend one contest a year. It seems that implementing a “credit” system would work. A $25 competitors badge would give you unlimited credits to compete at any contest that you’re eligible to compete in. Something like a $10 badge would give you one or two credits to compete at the contests you attend regularly.
Contests could have varying levels of credits depending on whether they’re a regional, national, or international system. A regional contest could count for one credit, nationals for two or three, and international for three or four.
Ultimately, this would lower contest costs for people who are only able to attend a limited number of contests per year and would still put them into the national ranking system. It would also put more money into the system from players who wouldn’t otherwise pay for an unlimited badge.
Just a thought.
And Steve, I was referring to the petition system used at the 2013 US national yoyo contest that allowed high ranking non seeded players to compete. It seems like the national ranking system would effectively replace the “subjective” petition system.
I like the idea of a credit system with a less expensive badge. I can only go to 2 contests a year (3 if MAR ever happens again) and one of them is PA States, which wouldn’t count because it is below regional.
Where can you buy a membership pass?
For this first year, we’ll probably try to make an allowance for contest organizers that lets them sign people up for the NYYL during registration. All Regional organizers will be heavily publicizing this when they open registration for their events, so it will be incredibly obvious.
For 2015, we’re going to have a contest registration system in place where everything is managed online through one central hub for ALL Regional yoyo contests, and you have to have a NYYL login to register for a contest at all. That should clarify things noticeably.
For this year, it’s just Regionals, US Nationals, and Multi-Nationals.
To be fair, any player who can’t afford the $25 NYYL Membership and the $20 - $30 contest registration for their one contest a year, probably also can’t afford the equipment to compete in that one contest per year. Or, if they’re at such a low level of interest, they should stick to Amateur Freestyle which doesn’t required a NYYL membership.
Competitive yoyoing has been a disorganized mess for a really, really long time. And while we want to have as many people involved as possible, at some point there needs to be a line that says if you are truly dedicated to the idea of being a competitive yoyo player, you will follow the rules and join the organization and find a way to make it happen.
Even with this new system in place, competitive yoyoing is STILL one of the least expensive youth sports activities in America.
Doesn’t seem unfair to me. Here’s a logistics hypothetical, though:
If I’m a kid who doesn’t follow the forums or yoyonews, and I just show up at the one regional contest near me every year, will I be able to purchase the $25 membership at the contest, the day-of? There needs to be a way to enroll people at these events, since not everyone will do so in advance online.
Also, the number of people who show up unaware of the change should be kept as low as possible, to prevent people from showing up without an extra $25 in their pocket. Obviously contest websites should be updated with plenty of information about this on the homepage and event registration page, but emails should be sent to past attendees (if lists are kept) as well.
EDIT: I’m tempted to agree with Steve, that people who take yoyoing seriously will almost certainly be aware of such a change, and those who don’t can still participate in amateur / sport. So it’s not a huge problem. But I do think having at-event registration is key.
I really like the idea of a credit system. It would make it easier for one contest a year people, and kids like me. The thing is, I think that the majority of people who come to a contest go there to have fun, and meet other throwers. Oftentimes there is no club or other community of throwers near these people, so contests are the only way to meet other yoyoers. While at the.contest, it makes sense to compete, if only for the fun of it, right? It’s part of the contest experience.
It’s also worthy to note that many contests don’t have an amateur divison (MER), or a person is JUST barely too good for that divison. Perhaps it is time for a Casual division. This division would not count in seeding or national rankings, but it would not require the NYYL membership. I think if contests had this, and the traditional divisions, it would keep contests accesible for many.
