This was just uploaded. I’m speechless, I’ve never been so in awe of a performance in my life. You should have seen my face watching this freestyle. I’ve been watching A LOT of 3a and I can tell you almost every trick he did was completely uncharted territory. He literally just redefined the style. I’ve already watched it 5 times. Is this real life.
I haven’t even seen his 4a freestyle yet.
@smileypants707 is 2020 3a champ, watch out
Now I’m curious: Has there ever been any accidents on stage like a dud bind or something?
That was legitimately 
He messed up a few times but that was 
BRUHHHH I don’t even care just knowing what he was attempting is beyond groundbreaking
This exact freestyle clean would still win worlds next year. And probably the year after. That’s how ahead of the game this freestyle was. Unreal. Can’t wait to see his 4a freestyle
I was screaming during his 4A, sad he only got 7th.
Oh also I tried a Lunar Wind at worlds, it was noice.
Holy crap. This is Takeshi level innovation. I also love how he couldn’t help but to break character on that last bit. Hajime is so perfect sometimes you forget he’s human.
Those asymmetrical elements were freaking nuts. Where the jos were doing two completely different things simultaneously. Just wow man
Honestly I was a little disappointed in the depth of the 3a field this year watching the prelims and some of the semis. Maybe it’s just because I’m starting to understand the style better.
But watching this freestyle was something else. The level of difficulty on top of the innovation. People copy the best and that’s how a style evolves. But even a year or two from now, many of the top 3a players in the world won’t even be able to copy him even though they have that freestyle to study. That’s how high he just raised the ceiling.
Spoiler alert: it’s the first time a complete Soloham freestyle has been done!!!
Just watched it on the recorded livestream. NUTS. This man won, he transcended the judging system.
Also just watched @ColinBecko’s commentary 
Toned down version of my reaction lmao
The crowd was shocked that he didn’t win, much less not even make the top 3.
Yeah that was incredible. It was nothing near this level but when Kentaro won in 2009 I remember being similarly amazed.
“It’s like he’s playing 1a and there’s just another yoyo there”
“I wish I could give insight on what’s happening”
-Patrick Borgerding, WYYC 2013 Runner-Up
Apparently his 4a was only good enough for 7th place.
Yeah, and what about that 3a horizontal bit at the end? That was meh.
KIDDING. I’m kidding. That was cray cray
Dude is breaking the game! @_@
wooooow
i should have been there 
Tbh I probably wouldn’t have watched this without this post. 3a doesn’t usually interest me much, but damn!!! That was so good! Then I watched the 2nd place routine, and I can definitely see what you’re talking about. They aren’t even close!
Both this and his 4A were absolutely crazy. Also, freaking loved Nate Daily’s 1A freestyle - kinda surprised he wasn’t top 3, but then again I don’t know as much about scoring cuz I also thought Hajime’s 4A woulda been top 3.
I don’t really know much about how 4a and soloham in particular is scored. Before I saw the freestyle I was thinkin maybe there were too many repeat elements since 3 minutes of soloham is a lot but he had a lot of new soloham stuff and different elements and tricks.
Maybe it’s cuz soloham takes a little longer to set up so it’s some time wasted between each throw or trick and that added up with 3 minutes of it. But half of Reis freestyle was soloham too and he clicked pretty high 
In any case I think he was definitely the most skilled 4a player in the field and this might actually be something worth looking into for the judging system.
I have a feeling he had to have known this would or at least might’ve happened though. I’m sure part of the reason he made his FS full soloham was for the wow factor and just making history rather than to just straight up win.
