Most the recent contest winners of yoyo competitions use single metal yoyos, even at worlds. There are titanium and bimetal yoyos that are very good but the best players only use aluminum yoyoes. What are the pros and cons of all of these? Why do people use solo metal yoyoes besides the price?
There were actually quite a few people using Draupnirs at Worlds last year.
I think that in the case of both bimetal and titanium yoyos, the main reason most people (at high level) opt for monometals instead is because there isn’t a huge variety of titanium and bimetals out currently. People will have different preferences in regards to their yoyos that they use for contests and if there isn’t a bimetal or titanium yoyo that fits those preferences then they’ll most likely choose a monometal that does. Most of the people who compete in large contests like Worlds are also sponsored, which further limits their choice of yoyo and makes it even more unlikely that they’ll use a bimetal or titanium.
I think we will definitely see an increase in the number of bimetals being used at contests though (even now, we see an increasing number of players using them) due to the quickly growing number of bimetal options. I doubt we’ll see titanium become widely used in contests though unless it gets cheaper to buy them because otherwise companies won’t make that many different models and so they’ll still have the same problems I outlined above.
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First, there are pros competing with bi-metals.
Second, todays Camps grew up and/or played/learned mainly without bi-metals and stay with what they are used to.
Third, they have to promote certain models, like Gentry/Kerbel/Vashek were all promoting their Budget metals from YYF the last years.
that is just what i would assume without thinking deeply.
I guess it’s because of the variety of yoyos available. I prefer monometal aluminum yoyos over bimetal, trimetal, or titanium yoyos.
There are also players like Gentry Stein (Shutter), Paul Kerbel (Horizon), Vashek Kroutil (Czech-mate), Luis Enrique Villasenor (Aviator 2), Igor Galiev (Dogma), Zach Gormley (Borealis), Harrison Lee (Orca), and many more players who have monometal signature yoyos that they are supposed to promote as part of being sponsored.
I don’t think any of the people winning worlds on single metal Yoyos are really crying over the fact they are promoting them!
The real reason is no-one has demonstrated a clear advantage to titanium or bimetal in a freestyle performance. If there was a compelling advantage players would be all about it.
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As yyfben2 says, there’s no compelling advantage. The hype of a titanium or a bi-metal does not mean they are a lot better than others. They just cost more. That additional $200 doesn’t buy 200% more performance. It’s like buying a composite canoe where going 10 lbs lighter is going to cost a lot more - on the order of $100/lb.
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Worlds 2015:
- Zach Gormley - CLYW Borealis (Monometal)
- Shion Araya - C3 Yoyodesign Krown (Monometal)
- Iori Yamaki - Yoyorecreation Draupnir (Bimetal)
- Takeshi Matsuura - Turning Point Palpitation (Bimetal)
- Yuusuke Otsuka - Yoyorecreation Draupnir (Bimetal)
USA Nationals 2015:
- Gentry Stein - Yoyofactory Replay Pro (Plastic)
- Andrew Maider - CLYW Orca (Monometal)
- Nate Dailey - Chico Light Speed (Monometal)
EYYC 2015:
- Jakub Dekan - Yoyorecreation Draupnir (Bimetal)
- Tal Mordoch - ? (Monometal)
- Vilmos Zoltan Kiss - Onedrop Valor (Monometal)
Asia Pacific 2015:
- Iori Yamaki - Yoyorecreation Draupnir (Bimetal)
- Ahmad Kharisma - Yoyorecreation Sputnik (Bimetal)
- Hiroyuki Suzuki - sOMEThING Anglam 2 (Bimetal)
As you can see, it’s pretty balanced when you take ALL yo-yoing nationalities into consideration. Pretty much all the top Japanese players are using bimetals these days, let us not forget them just because they’re on the other side of the world. 
It’s also worth mentioning that CLYW didn’t make bi-metals up until now, and now both Andrew Maider and Michael Kurti both have bi-metal signatures (which they will no doubt use to compete on from now on).
For the most part you don’t see as many USA competitors throwing bi-metals as you do their Eastern counterparts, but I think a lot of that comes down to availability. After all, Japan has been rocking the bimetals for years whereas it’s only been recently that the Western brands have started venturing into that territory. For example, as I mentioned above, CLYW didn’t make Bi-metals up to this point, so even if there were members on their team that might prefer them, they didn’t have one to compete with. Since YYF and CLYW are the main teams slaying all the contests, with CLYW not having a bi-metal until recently and most of the YYF team having their own budget signatures, it isn’t surprising that you don’t see more bimetals around in USA contests.
I think that with the amount of bi-metals coming out still continuing to grow, the amount of people using them to compete may creep up. 
As mentioned though:
…they don’t hold a huge performance advantage over standard aluminium yoyos, and as Gentry proved, even a $16 plastic is good enough to win the highest levels of competition with.
As far as Titanium goes… well, a lot of competitors like to have a matching competition set and I don’t think many players want to spend $1000 on theirs. 
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We should have a Hype-less Competition where everyone uses a Classic.
Yes, Im sure it will be well supported by sponsors.
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This makes me wonder… Has anyone won a major contest with a responsive yoyo (in the 1a division) ever since responsive stopped being mainstream?
I’m not gonna be that guy who says “2a duhhh”
I repeat I will not be that guy.
Are you referring to my post? I don’t see anything wrong with it
haha, touche’
It is a good question though, I’d be curious to see if anyone has as well!
Ima guess not in the past 10 years. But I could be wrong.
I know that Miguel Correa was using responsive or at least semi-responsive yoyos for 5A well past the point where competition had moved over to unresponsive.
Ya know, kids, there was a time people made the same comments about the propensity of people to use plastic yoyos in a competition. Can you imagine that even… 
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Didn’t Jensen win 44Clash with a responsive Marmot? In 2009 I think.