If I had to rate every OD model based off how much I enjoy playing them, the VTWO would be near the very bottom of the list.
3 Likes
Ahahahahahah we have all different tastes! Heard very good about it but probably was oriented to different styles of play
1 Like
Pleasantly surprised by this review. While I still might find it too light I’m at least now curious to try one. Thanks for the thorough insight!
Yeah I like the original Valor way more than the VTWO, feels much better on the string and in the hand, the VTWO just spins longer so I would opt in that direction for a pure comp throw even if I enjoy it way less.
1 Like
Agree on the Valor. I’d love a blasted or Cerakote Valor.
I think “fun factor” is an important thing to consider for a competition throw. Who wants to practice for hours on end with something that isn’t as enjoyable just because it spins a bit longer?
@fradiger can we get a review on both the Wizard and the Kamuraiju?
I enjoy reading your opinion on various ODs! Keep it up!
2 Likes
Can do! I am bad at time management though so have a blurb:
I can definitely recommend the wizard, it’s a very well paced throw that is really laid back and chill. It’s also not as punishing as other organics due to the bump in the response area, this means the wall of the yoyo is going to interact with the string less, which you may love or hate. If you really like how stuff like the A-RT grail and other yoyos around that area play, but find them a bit too punishing or not as performant as you’d like, I think the wizard is a great pickup. It’s a bit heavier on the string than those yoyos though, so if you’re exclusively looking for floaty it might not fit the bill entirely. I think the extra string presence gives it a really nice playfeel though, and it makes the yoyo carry its momentum very well when you’re swinging it around. I’d call it a jack of all trades yoyo in the organic ‘space’.
Kamuraiju I’m a bit more on the fence about, but I haven’t thrown it enough to really dive into it. It’s one of those throws that I pick up every few weeks and it’s like, naw I still don’t really love this. Nothing bad for sure, it definitely performs well, but it doesn’t stand out to me. Yet.
4 Likes
I just can’t fathom why they chose to make the Format: C so light.
If they had only made it a healthy 65 or 66g, it would be a new Onedrop performance favourite.
2 Likes
5-10 years ago it seemed most releases were 65 grams or above with some over 70 grams.
Then several years ago the trend was to make everything lighter and lighter. It was a race to the bottom and it seemed most new releases were less than 65 grams and many were less than 60 grams. As I recall, @Glenacius_K complained about this trend often but much of the forum was calling 66-68 gram throws outdated.
Now it’s a race back to the top to make the heaviest, with many releases over 65 grams and some even over 70 grams. It seems what’s old is new again and Spinworthy is setting trends with the Steadfast!
One Drop should just re-run the original Downbeat and people would be rushing to buy. 
4 Likes
Yes. A trend I predicted a while back.
5 Likes
It’s really weird how fast this shift happened. I only started throwing in 2021 but when I started people were calling 64g yoyos heavy. If it was 65g or higher people would immediately dismiss it as being unplayably heavy or outdated. The 61-63g range wasn’t light or heavy, that was just the standard yoyo range.
If the Format C: 2 released in 2021 or 2022 I feel like nobody would’ve even thought to comment on the weight, other than saying how fast and zippy it is as purely a positive thing.
Format C: 2 seems like a cool yoyo for what it is, but I feel like new Rev3 and adding a little width would fit the bill way better for being a 2024 competition mono. Even just the Rev2 as is feels a little more competition standard monometal than the Format C: 2.
7 Likes
Am I missing something, coz I dont know many yoyos coming out that are close to 70. Other than tp which has always been heavy.
Most competition yoyos have just grown larger and thus maybe on average their weight grew?
Also when have 61g yoyos been standard even in past years. Id call it closer to ultralight than standard weight.
2 Likes
I think in some ways this is just humanity in some ways, it happened the same stuff with phones if you think about it.
Before phones were big and chunky and people didn’t like them and wanted them smaller, than people get phones as small as possible basically stuff so small that were hard to use than now again phones are quite big or even giant.
I still think 61gr in a yoyo is light and hard in term of control if you want to play in certain ways, even 63gr is still a bit too light, you have also to put the yoyo in the modern trickset of it’s time.
I think for the modern playing and standards around 65/67 gr. is the sweet spot, maybe one day the playing will evolve again and will require 61gr.
I think everything evolve with the use and the needs of the players which also to me make sense, technology evolve with humans
Ayy the best thread on yoyoexpert is back, glad to see it
2 Likes
Really enjoyed reading this. Will there be any more reviews?
I had the Kamuraiju ever since it came out and have had the same thoughts and feelings as you and have tended to not really pick it up as much… recently got the Ti spikes and boy that extra couple of grams reallyyyy made a big difference and is now my daily driver and I’d say one of my favorite throws. Totally gave it that solid and powerful stabile feeling that OD throws are known for and I felt like was kind of missing from it. Plays too light with flat caps or ULs imo. Something worth mentioning and looking into when you do more of a proper review of it.
I know this discussion of yo-yo weight trends was from a year ago at this point but idk that these trends were ever really quite as drastic as people make them out to be. At least from the perspective of what was used in contests at the highest levels; for general releases each year the trends could definitely have been reasonably pronounced.
It’s obviously a flawed metric and I don’t have all the data from each year but historically if you look at 1a world yo-yo contest finalists’ yo-yos, the average weight is in the range of 65-66g almost every year. So while there may be changes in what the general community consider a comp yo-yo’s weight range, this doesn’t really seem to translate into top level competitors’ choices.
Luckily life lasts a long time so as long as I do one of these once in a while.. should be good after a decade or two 
Time for another induction..
I recently installed linux on my computer so you’re going to get some “graphic design is my passion”-level stuff for a while.
I’ll start off by saying that the Cabal Gen 2 is S tier. It’s actually hard to write this review objectively, that’s how much I love this yoyo. Compared to the original Cabal, the Gen 2 is everything I wanted out of an updated version: it’s lighter, more nimble on the string, and just feels more fun than the original one. If you’ve ever seen one of my BST threads you know that I churn through more yoyos than a responsible individual should, this one has been in the rotation pretty consistently for a year now, and I think it deserves praise and recognition for that fact. It’s for sure anecdotal as well, but I feel like I’ve seen less Cabal Gen 2s show up on the BST than some of the other onedrop releases.
So, how does it play? I alluded to it earlier, but this yoyo is just an absolute blast. In the hand it’s divine, you really just can’t beat the texture and soft feel of delrin. On the string it’s nimble and light, and can handle some decent pacing variation before you try to push it too hard and it just spins out (it is not a draupnir or whatever the 2025 equivalent is now). While the profile looks organic in nature, it’s stretched out into more of a bell shape to make the yoyo less punishing and a bit more stable. That being said, the gap sitting at 4.25mm with onedrop flow grooves does make it a bit more snaggy than some of your other more traditional offerings in the organic-ish space, but ever since I’ve shortened my string a bit I really haven’t noticed. I don’t want to compare it to the MMC, but it really does slot next to it neatly as a lighter/updated version, the markmont project 2 by comparison feels too light and just a bit hollow by comparison.
In terms of drawbacks/negatives, there aren’t a lot. I think the only yoyo players who wouldn’t easily find a home for this in their collection are yoyoers who looked at the width or gap width and laughed, but it’s still honestly a great yoyo! The only issue I personally ran into was with a very long string and very grippy pads, I found that it was possible for the Cabal Gen 2 to unscrew itself over time, but switching to a bit looser pads (flowable silicone in my case) made the issue go away. Oh also loud bearings are amplified in this yoyo like almost all plastics/hybrids.
aaand a milk variation with it:
17 Likes
not to derail the thread but what linux distro have you been using? i’ve been on pop!_os for a year-ish now and have been quite liking it
also a big fan of the cabal gen 2. had to convince myself to not get a third when the reds released last week (i.e., cop both reds)
3 Likes
currently fedora on the desktop just to try it out, been running whatever the current LTS of Ubuntu is on my laptop for about a decade now, so it felt right when I finally converted the desktop off windows to give a non-debian based distro a spin (now that windows 10 is reaching EOL I am just flat out not interested in windows 11 after using it for 6 months, I am someone who needs control over my own system to dive into various cybersecurity-related rabbit holes)
so far so good!
2 Likes