The 0A Thread (Fixed Axle & Modern Responsive)

General Yo-Yo
3282

I agree with ed the whole feel of 0A is sort of anti competition or at least the manifesto, but I do think the idea of creating a division for fixed axle/responsive of some sort that has some form of metrics can spur more interest if done well.

All contests will have guardrails and those will impact creativity for the style in a competitive scene and create a meta.

I would hope regardless of the meta people still do fixie horse and cool unique things like they do in all styles and we keep the laid back chill vibe of the style

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3283

I mean I’ll ALWAYS throw down a minute of fixed axle (even if I did miss the first Bunny Flip lol). I just don’t require the prospect of a pizza - much less the incentive of WINNING one.

Not hating though - I LOVE that people are getting together (in person or virtually), sharing tricks, and pushing this style. That camaraderie is 100% what drove all the fun we had in the old Fixed Axle Breakout sessions at Worlds. I think it’s just that whenever 0a gets some traction, I get worried about it becoming disconnected from the lighthearted frivolity and the “State OF Yo” which are at its foundation. People love to compare, and “comparison is the thief of joy”,.

But you can’t gatekeep the State Of Yo any more than you can quantify the value of a Lunar Landing. People are gonna find the meaning in 0a as it occurs to them, and the style will evolve as that happens..

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3284

Shoot me your address, pineapple pizza incoming lol

Jkjk, don’t, I’m broke and none of us are truly in this for the pizza, we are just newfound friends having fun, literally what turned me on to 0A (thank you @Yodaddyo I likely would have taken a long hiatus had you not introduced me to 0A)

I most definitely understand your sentiments, you have more than earned a voice being one of the founders. I just think all these dudes interested in 0A don’t care about winning and care more about the growth and fun aspect. If I’m wrong, then yep, I am with ya

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3285

:folded_hands:t3: yeah man we’ve all got a debt to the people who led us to this weird niche within a niche. The list of shoulders I’ve stood on is as long as my arm.

And I def agree what you’re talking about is 100% in line with what makes the culture around 0a so rad. I’m stoked to see what comes out of these 15 minutes! :raising_hands:t3:

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3286

I love this!!

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3287

I love this!!

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3288

When I stopped throwing around 2014 0A was just starting to become a thing thanks to @edhaponik and @drewtetz with their fixed axle Fridays video and weekly articles. One of the last throws I bought back then was a No Jive 3in1 mandala. I wanted to throw like Ed, pushing the boundaries through limitations. So much control and skill. The regens and lunar landings, it was mesmerizing. Unfortunately life got in the way, I changed careers, bought a house and my collection collected dust. Earlier this year I rediscovered yoyoing by accidently running into the local St Louis yoyo club. Got on the YYE forums and found that 0A now had a name and was more of a thing other people were doing. I got on YT and discovered @DocPop and the Weekender. Then I found the redesigned butterfly bought a bunch of them and started carrying one around everywhere. Roughly 8 months later I’m still throwing, learning and amazed daily at what people are able to do with a responsive yoyo. This group constantly impresses and inspires me to try new tricks and techniques. To me it’s definitely more about the journey than the destination and I’m here for the long ride.

I just want to thank all of you for pushing the 0A style, whether it be for show, competition or just to have fun. This group is really something amazing.

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3289

I watched the 0a performances, not sure how exactly they judged it and further got me down a rabbit hole of questions when I was flubbing tricks but also making a recovery from such fail… what if the stopped dead yoyo was intentional for some cool snap start style move?

Watching the performance though made my evening, set aside the judging aspect and watched folks appear to just let loose and have fun, which is what the end game is all about for me.

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3290

Regarding the 1 Minute challenge:

There’s more to this prize than just pizza (or vegan jalapeno poppers if you prefer). Stromme has very generously donated Nightmares When You Sleep! You won’t find that in your goody bag from Nats.

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As long as a fixed axle yoyo is involved there’s really no limits on what anyone enters. It could be an arthouse remake of Blue Velvet with you screaming Don’t Look At Me! while yoyoing.

Two of my favourites so far are Nacho doing Walk The Dog on his boat railing while fishing for squid, and Eric throwing 351 consecutive Reach For The Moons

And here’s some Slippery Eel silliness. Part of why I’m excited about this is because I’ve noticed that satisfying the algorithms has led to mostly filming tricks in portrait and less than 15 seconds, I could use the practice at spreading my tricks around the rectangle and performing for a crowd rather than a camera

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3291

And now for 0A in comps:

I’m stoked that everyone at Colorado States had a good time. Ultimately any 0A would probably be absorbed into X Div in future just based on the number of competitors. Now that it’s happened at least once, folks can start thinking seriously about how to judge it fairly.

Any comp where people study the rules and build routines around score will attract complaints about scoring. Whatever. Better to look at the difference between gymnastics/diving where competitors get disqualified for groundbreaking tricks vs skateboarding where judges like to see new levels of risk and will confer on the spot to score fairly.

I think it would be crazy if anyone was scored poorly for tricks where the yoyo is sleeping. I would say that blending sleep and no sleep tricks is showing that your combos well put together and should add to your performance score.

The dead yoyo on the end of the string is something that would have to be decided on the spot whether the competitor was trying to take advantage of tricky rule. I’ve been having fun starting tricks with a dead yoyo lately, but if the yo dies mid-combo it’s obvious that I didn’t intend it to. Throwing slippery eel, and even CW it’s a hassle to have the yoyo wind up completely at the end of a trick, like if I didn’t drop it on the floor you can assume that’s how it was supposed to finish

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3292

Video idea for free because there’s no way I’d learn how to do all of this before 2026.

1 minute long shot of a slow motion capture of someone attempting a gravity pull. That’s it. Just take a shot of yourself doing the gravity pull and stretch the frames out to a minute long.

Bonus points if you can make it horror/artsy with a worn film filter where it randomly cuts out and in

Also: I wish I could shoot the moon once, standing up, with even a tenth of an ounce of relaxation Eric had shooting the moon 300+ times laying down on a couch

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3293

I like the idea of an 0A freestyle competition best, but I can’t think of a scoring system that’s close enough to fair, besides a crowd vote or knowledgeable judges just scoring based on what they think it deserves, and even then, that has potential to lead to some unfairness.

Borrowing from kendama competitions could be cool. Like “Open”, where a list of tricks is posted ahead of time. One vs one battle. Rock, paper, scissors decides who goes first. That person draws a trick from a deck of cards(or random generator). The players take alternating turns attempting to land the trick, for 3 turns each. The player that lands the trick more than the other player gets 1 point. If they tie, then the round doesn’t count and they start a new round. With each new round, they alternate who picks the card, and a new trick is drawn. They keep going until one player reaches 3 points, and that player advances to the next round of the competition. It keeps going until you have first, second, and third place winners.

…or “World Cup”, where a large list of tricks is posted with scores assigned to each trick based on it’s difficulty. A player picks a specific number of tricks and the order they will do them in and submit it. During their performance they attempt this trick list in order and they are scored for each trick they land, and they earn bonus points for completing tricks consecutively. Players with the highest scores win first, second, and third place.

These types of competitions could potentially take a lot of time and effort. That may not be something anyone is willing to do because 0A is so small right now.

They don’t have to be held at an official competition though. They could be put together by anyone willing, either outside of a competition, at a yoyo club, at a park, online, etc.

Having these types of competitions could be incentive for players of other styles to pick up a responsive throw and join the fun, or be an incentive for more players or new players to pick up 0A in general, and lead to the growth of 0A, and lead to greater interest and desired participation in 0A competitions. Who knows, maybe “if we build it, they will come.”

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3294

Love those ideas, and crowd pick speaks to me.

Everyone goes to a web page after, clicks their fave performance and just let the cards land where they land

Pretty sure the 0A performers are just their to have fun and give 0A exposure rather than free yoyos and money anyway.

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3295

I’m with you. Competition and winning can be fun, but making it as fun and inviting as possible while promoting and growing 0A should be the main goal. I would much rather take that away from a competition than a trophy.

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3296

This is awesome!! The keyword is fun!! :star_struck:

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3297

Realizing how fun it would be to play 0a HORSE. Not even as a contest but just a group of throwers challenging each other.

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3298

Butterfly HORSE has been a staple of fixie throwdowns since at least Worlds 07. Some of the most illustrious wins and most ignominious defeats have been in that event (and pink slip, which is a whole different competitive animal).

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