I always wonder what is exactly the limit for a style to be called 2a or 3a, it’s like a gray area for me.
Sure when you do loops with responsive yoyos that would be 2a, when you do string tricks with unresponsive yoyos that would be 3a. But what if I use a pair of raider and do string tricks, would that be 3a? I think it is, but what if then I do a loop once, just once, does that suddenly makes it 2a?
Or what if I use a pair of unresponsive metals, lube the bearing and somehow making it loopable, I do string tricks but also do “old school” tricks like shoot the moon, do I compete in 2a or 3a?
Not any sort of educated answer here, but I would think that if you’re doing primarily looping, it’s 2A and if you’re doing primarily string tricks (even if there’s a looping trick or two) it’s 3A. Seems pretty simple!
If you were being difficult and managed to make exactly half your elements “looping” and half “string tricks” I still don’t have a decent answer, though. 
Probably be informed by what kind of yoyo you’re using to the extent that with Raiders your string tricks aren’t going to be techy and multi-faceted, making them seem more on the 2A side…
The thing is, I’ve seen someone actually do 2a mainly wraps and around the worlds, that would be more string tricks than loops if you see it that way lol
It’s true that the two could potentially be somewhat blended into one (although it would be incredibly difficult), but I think the difference is clear in the way that they are judged.
Say you had a style that was half 2A looping tricks and half 3A string tricks. Would a freestyle score well in either division? Probably not.
From this years WYYC rules:
So merging the two and calling it “2.3A” wouldn’t really be an issue until it came to competing. If you’re looking for a clear distinction between the two then simply view them from a judging standpoint. A loop-based 3A routine would not go down well, neither would a string trick based 2A routine. A combination of both would likely not score brilliantly either.
Therefore:
- The kind of tricks that are primarily used in high scoring 3A routines = Outline for 3A
- The kind of tricks that are primarily used in high scoring 2A routines = Outline for 2A
As for where you compete, thats up to you and you can compete where you want. Just bear in mind what effect your combination of styles would have on your score. 
You only get points in 3a if you make string hits or if you do a trick that’s regarded as in between 3a and 2a. But if you say that while you’re doing 3a and all of a sudden do a loop, that doesn’t count as 3a, then you might as well say that while you’re doing 5a, if you do a 1a trick all of a sudden, then it’s not 5a.
I have to agree with gambit. You are allowed (you won’t get disqualified) to do 4a tricks in a 1a competition, but you won’t get any points.
I’m guessing this is more theoretical than something you are actually planning on doing.
Whatever the World Champion does is reaching the max.
This topic made me think of what would 3.4.5a look like
Not true.
Triad (started by Elijah Tan), and 4 yoyos (see Sora Ishikawa and Hiroki Miyamoto) are extra limits you can pass.
It’s called Triad now? I remember it was called The Real 3A when Elijah started to focus on it 
actually those are past the max.
1 Like
How about 3.4.5a+Krazy?
2 handed Offstring,using yoyos with counter weights?
Picture that’s> doing a 5a Ariel trick; but throwing up 2 yoze at once.
So you are doing 5a tricks, in semi 3a style, using Offstring platform?
Seriously, I bet Takeshi could pull out a few Tricks, haha.
1 Like
someone played 2 counterweight yoyos recently at a japanese local contest, dont remember exactly which
Alright. But just because you win worlds doesn’t mean you have the best tricks. It could be reaching the max in terms of competition, but in a lot of cases you don’t have the most well-constructed tricks. But that’s subjective.