Can someone please explain to me how an australian National can participate in the Midwest yoyo contest in the state of Minnesota?
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There’s no residency requirements or anything if I’m correct, so anyone can just sign up and show up.
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Honestly, I’d guess it’s because this is a tiny community and everyone likes him.
Or there could be no rules against it in that specific contest.
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Brandon is a global treasure
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Really? Anyone can just show up day of contest and sign up and pay fees and they can compete? Yes… Wow?
I’m sorry I might be old but it seems the 11 year old kid from somecity Minnesota and wants to win his state’s yoyo championship 1A ? Or Midwest in this case! It won’t happen and that scenario is exactly why I don’t agree with this policy….? So how can we change this policy?
Oh yes he is a global phenomenon… but rules should be instituted to prevent this….
At least some kind of regulation or not?
What do you think? No eye insults here….
I was following your point(s) until this… When you add personal insults most people just stop listening.
I was a soccer referee for years. The best advice I ever received: “If it makes you feel good to say it; you probably should not say it”.
… And no; I do not always follow this advice myself 
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Xoxoxo, how’s your knife?
Nailed it here.
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Why I’m not trying to insult anyone…. I agree that professionals are treasured and all…
I’m just saying the obvious I thot?
That’s a very spicy a meatball
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I won’t even pretend to be familiar enough with the structure of the national yoyo league and how each contests seed into other contests and whatnot. I’m sure this is a relevant detail in this argument that I am willfully ignorant of writing this post.
The stats from this year’s MWR are as listed on the site:
- 52 competitors across all divisions
- 15 different states
- 3 different countries
Now, we’re targeting Brandon Vu, we might as well name him, he ain’t some random yoyoer from Australia anymore, or atleast I think he’s doing enough for the community to be worth recognition. But this isn’t in defense of Brandon Vu as a person, but rather just a foreign yoyoer, so let’s just say that we have some yoyoer X from foreign country Y (who doesn’t like some math 
). Note that there’s plenty of other yoyoers that travel around like this, Hunter Feurstein literally won the contest despite being from Arizona (from my understanding atleast).
In the current climate, this is a nonissue in my eyes, we simply just don’t have enough competitors to justify gatekeeping regional and local contests from people who want to travel to compete more. Personally, if I was yoyoer X I would simply be interested in getting more stage/contest experience, rather than coming in with the malicious attitude of trying to steal away contest wins from deserving local candidates. If we ever get to that point, sure, introduce an open division for international competitors (like other major yoyo contests do), but as it stands I just… don’t see the reason. The only plausible explanation would be trying to satisfy someone who wants to be the regional yoyo champion as opposed to seeking a higher title.
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I’m just gonna add to this since it comes up a lot.
For Nationals (like you stated), international is separated.
But for regionals, if the point of winning is to be seeded into a specific round for nationals (2nd-5th place competitors at regionals go straight to semis at nats, 1st place regionals is straight to finals at nats)… what’s the point of awarding a title to a local player? Seed the local player into nationals just for being local, so they can lose again to the same people at nats?
There’s some kind of fallacy you can probably point out with this argument, but the way I see it, this topic is just a non-issue.
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I am an Italian living in London, I can participate to UK and Italian nats without problems.
This year Kieran Cooper (which if I am correct is from USA) was in London briefly and he participate at the Nats just because he was in London for a brief amount of time and the same happened to Leo a Chinese player studying in Scotland (which should have it’s own national if we think in your way) he was able to participate in the UK nats.
I think as the yoyo world is quite small is not a problem if you travel or find yourself in the place of the contest at the right time, do an open division for 3 players sounds rather useless, also I really like this way to be open to everyone, I think it give the chances to everyone to participate even more if in your region there are no contests at all.
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I think the yo-yo community is too small to say no to anyone who wants to compete
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Honestly… it’s just more incentive to git gud and dominate your own region 
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I mean, maybe the point for Brandon Vu or some other people to win a regional contest might be to be seeded into nationals, but I that probably is not the case for a younger (or less experienced) competitor.
I can understand that professional players (18+ whose make a living with yo-yos) need contest practice and I imagine there is probably some cash prize in addition to the award (is there?), but I can also see the argument to saying that smaller contests should be an opportunity for less experienced (non-professional) players to win an award that is meaningful by itself to them. Brandon isn’t going gain anything professionally by winning a regional contest, and certainly coming in second place behind Brandon is still meaningful to a less experienced player, but I can still understand the frustration that a professional player (for me it wouldn’t be about where the player has citizenship) competes in a smaller (arguably less prestigious) competition.
That being said, it’s hard for me personally to generate any feelings about this. I don’t really have any interest in competing personally, and while I understand intellectually that contests are a big part of the industry, I just don’t feel very strongly about them one way or another. I would like to attend some at some point.
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Don’t the Olympics have a rule that excludes professionals from competing? Yoyo is different, I know. Gentry or Brandon or whoever could just show up at every small town competition and just take the awards without even taking their yoyo out of the case.
Edit: oops. Professionals can now compete in the Olympics. Now I can compete in the next Olympics!
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Nah this isn’t the rule anymore.
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If you’re winning a US regional contest in 2023 you’re incredibly skilled at yoyo. I understand the point you’re making, but yoyo contests at this competitive of a level aren’t going to be won (or even placed decently at) by people who aren’t very serious/dedicated.
That’s kind of why I said that getting seeded/practice for nats is the entire point of regional contests. If you’re at the level where you can place even kind of decent at them, you’re shooting for more than just that regional contest most likely.
It’s super competitive already and allowing for more competitors just makes everybody work even harder in a good way.
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Really enjoying this thread discussion! I’m happy to see so many opinions too!
The reason I asked is because I remember or thought so anyway- 1990’s the divisions were different I guess rules were different?
That kid in Chicago that doesn’t have the means($) to enter only his local or state event….but if anyone can show-up and win over this protege? I’m concerned about this is all!
I don’t see the problem with having non-locals compete at regional or state contests. With state-level contests they do the in-state separate from overall ranking so someone could be the state champion even if they came in 5th overall if they were the highest placing resident.
Well, no, a lot of contests close registration a few days before the event to help the organizers stay sane. So they couldn’t just stroll up day-of.
That 11 year old kid from Minnesota can still win his state’s championship! Only a resident of the state can be declared the state champion, which is a separate award from overall winner of a division and used for seeding to the regional contest.
Why do regionals need to change to be regional members only? Anything that’s going to artificially restrict participation in a contest without good reason is only going to hurt yoyoing by causing fewer people to attend events.
Can you point to any competitors actually complaining about this? Because it’s a complaint I’ve never heard in the 15+ years I’ve been attending and competing in contests.
Hell, back around ~2010 there was the “Triple Crown” contest series which made up of three big regionals at the time, NER (née East Cost Classic), either MER or MWR, and then either BAC or BLC. I can’t quite remember all the details of this but I seem to remember there being a “Triple Crown Champion” at the end; this by definition would have involved non-locals attending and competitions in various regional contests.
Prevent… what… the thrower with the most skill and cleanest routine of that day from winning?
Truly, I don’t see how this is an issue for you.
Sorry, life isn’t fair (should it be is an entirely separate discussion that is neither here nor there). Also if they are truly a prodigy they’ll stand out regardless. There is no shame whatsoever in not winning while still placing high in a contest stacked with seasoned competitors. If anything, that demonstrates their skill even more and gives them a much better idea of where they stack up overall.
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