What changes in competition rules would you like to see?

I don’t want to clog up your thread so I ask in a new one. What do you wish was different in comp scoring?

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I wish each judge gave a score of 1 through 10 so it wasn’t all about “meta tricks” and more about style, tricks, etc. I don’t like the how many strings/ how fast you can yoyo in a short amount of time concept. There are so many incredible throwers that don’t stand a chance with that system. In skateboarding there are multiple judges… they see a trick and rate it 1 through 10 and take the average for the final score

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Great topic!

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Going to drop the maybe controversial opinion that it’s fine as is, and I just think more emphasis could be placed on other divisions. Contest scoring rules as they are turn it very much into a sport, and one that I don’t think needs to really be changed that much. You could argue that there should be a purely performance oriented division, which I think is what @theycallmecotton wants. A division evaluated on artistic performance more than mastery of a treating yoyo as just a game to be optimized. Both are so different that I don’t think one should take priority over the other.

Scales 6 had a creative video division, and I think just having more emphasis placed on other creative/artistic performances is really cool. They shouldn’t overshadow what currently exists though.

The one thing I’d maybe argue is that I think it’s kind of dumb that soloham is allowed in 4A, it’s so radically different that it may as well be its own division. If 1A and 3A are split, then why are 4A and soloham trying to be scored and judged the same.

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Great ideas for sure!

Judges consider how difficult a trick is in TE (technical execution). One easy trick like a double or nothing can give you one point, a more difficult two three and even four for an insanely difficult trick. So judges are already judging individual tricks already and already do this “1 to 10” thing already (or maybe i understood you wrong, if i did correct me please).

40% of the score is from the evaluation (music use, stage use, body language). That’s a lot.

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I’m talking taking everything into consideration and there only being one category. At the end each judge says hmm… I think that was a 10 ,the next judge a 9 ,the next an 8… then they average.

Didn’t you also write at one point that you wish competition rules were different? What do you not like about competition and how do you suggest to improve it?

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The TE judges all judge the tricks on their own and at the end all the judges average their score.

But I think they already take everything into consideration. They just do it in two different categories (TE and evaluation and evaluation has its own subcategories too). How would only having one category change competition for the better?

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I definitely did! And I’ll throw up my thoughts here for anyone who’s interested later today.

For now, I’ve got Biology notes calling me

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ok I can’t wait

because it takes clicking out of it. So tricks that don’t click well but look amazing still can do well

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I think by category he might mean division, there’s only the pro division that emphasizes clicks. There’s no “1A artistic performance with no clicks” division, to emphasize very cool flashy tricks that just don’t score, but can be used for creative choreography. Like tech 5A is super cool, but you’ll never see it used in competition because it doesn’t score at all.

I agree that as far as competition 1A scoring goes I think the evaluation criteria is already good. It emphasizes unique new tricks with rarity, risky tricks score better, zoning and musicality emphasize treating it as performance art as well. I like the current scoring system.

But like I said earlier, having a bigger emphasis on an artistic performance division might be a fun idea to push in future contests. The creative video division at Scales 6 was very cool.

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Oh that’s what you meant! You don’t like the clicks.
So you want judges to watch an entire performance and then at the end they all take everything into consideration and then they give a score between one to ten and then they average their scores?

I think there should be no pre-qualifying.

I think the top 100 competitors should all get 1st Place trophies.

I think Freestyles should be at least 7 minutes long so each player will have plenty of time to land a Trapeze.

I think Cell phones should be allowed in 5A as counter weights. That way a player can compete and also not miss out on any TicTok insanity perpetually happening.

I think pre-qualifying should be done with a Karaoke contest, using only yo-yo related songs.

I think the 2A division should be cut down to 1 looping yo-yo. I don’t see why 2A has to be so complicated.

I think there should be a separate division for All players using Titanium yo-yos that cost over $500. That way there can be a High Life and Low Life division.

Etc…

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I would like to add to your proposal with a high walled organic yoyo division, where the maximum speed you can move your yoyo is also capped. I would refer to this as the “most soulful” division.

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I don’t think it’s that the rules need to be changed as much as there need to be different rulesets. There’s just not enough variety in contests. I did a write up on this recently:

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Somehow I think it will always be somewhat subjective no matter what. What is obvious is some players are virtuosos in a way, but it gets down to indivdual style. This is true in many activities that are judged

If a judge were to simply rate a freestyle 1-10 one could easily be biased. With a rubric a judge has to go by that for scoring, although there is still room for biases it is cut down a whole lot. And I read it be compared to skateboarding. As I watched Olympic skateboarding (let me know if they score it different) all the tricks looked very similar. I’m assuming this is because those tricks score the best and can be hit the most consistently.

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I think that too

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