I was noticing in the Worlds competition that practically nobody was using hybrid yoyos, which was weird given how some of the competitors had a signature hybrid (e.g. the Notion. Granted the same yoyoer had the ReCognition as a signature as well).
Is this just something I’m reading too far into or is there an actual reason that they avoid hybrids? Even though many hybrids are built to evoke an oldhead feel there are plenty of competition-compatible hybrids like the ROOC or the aforementioned Notion that, to me, seem perfectly valid to use.
I’ve been wondering the same, I tried my first ever hybrid and it was fabulous (yoyoemipire firespirit)the power on that was insane. Interested in this conversation.
maybe it’s not an avoidance of hybrids but a gravitation towards bimetals? i’m assuming a bunch here but bimetals probably have a lot more power and potential than hybrids. hope i’m wrong though, i love hybrids with my whole heart
People factor in a lot more than just spin time/stability when selecting a yoyo to compete with. People care about how the yoyo actually feels to move around, the size of the yoyo and the tricks they want to do with it, the gap width, price for buying a set, player the yoyo is a signature for/people who currently compete with it, and lots of other factors.
There’s simply way more monometal/bimetal options. It’s easier to find a normal monometal/bimetal that is everything you want to compete with. You have fewer options if you want to pick a hybrid, so you’d have to settle for a yoyo that isn’t exactly what you want.
When yoyojams/buzzons/etc. were everywhere, and there were a plethora of options for people to find their perfect yoyo, more people competed with them. It’s not really much deeper than this.
I wouldn’t say top players necessarily gravitate towards bimetals. There’s tons of players that use monometals as well and it’s pretty much always been like that because while bimetals can provide more stability/spin time, it’s not by a super significant margin.
What I will say is nobody really uses plastics because monometals are just significantly better and I would say hybrids kind of sit in between 100% plastic and monometal in terms of performance. I’d guess even the very best hybrids are at best just comparable to monometals.
So I think the main reasons why you don’t see hybrids as much is because they generally don’t perform quite as well as other options, and that there’s fewer options available like mable said.
IDK if I can agree maybe I just dont understand weight distribution and how it affects stability in yoyos well enough but from my limited experience with the hybrid I feel they have mad power and stability I would switch from Hinemosu to firespirit and not notice any power drop(I dont have strong throws tho)
The best hybrids are on par with the best bimetals (eg. Iceberg, Surveil, Digamma Crash) Even hybrids like the Monarch which has alu rims can have a playfeel not dissimilar from bimetals.
This last worlds there was a notable preference for bimetals/multi-material yoyos. Mir used a Miracle, Ryuichi used a Skyfish (or some other YYR bimetal), Evan used an Edge 4.0, Connor used a Motive, etc. Hunter and Chen broke the mold a little bit, but after that, it was a return to form. As far as I can tell the only competitors who didn’t use bimetals this year in finals were Hunter and Chen. Maybe Hayato Itani used a monometal, but I can’t say for sure.
I would say top players gravitate towards bimetals in 2023.
As for why competitors don’t use hybrids? Probably because it’s just a small selection relative to bimetals. As Mable said, there’s way more monometal/bimetal options.
Hmm I guess you might be right about the bimetals. I guess I was just thinking about how a lot of big competitions have been won on monometals even after the Draupnir was released and bimetals became more common. Like worlds 2013-17 and 19 were all won on monometals. But I guess looking at the field this year it does skew towards bimetals.
As for hybrids, I haven’t tried the Digamma Crash so you might be right about some of those but I was not super impressed with the OG Gamma Crash. Did not think it was on par with bimetals, or even some of the better monometals I’ve tried tbh. And I really feel like unless you really maximize that rim weight with an outer ring, hybrids are just generally worse than monometals.
I generally gravitate most toward hybrids. Iceberg and monarch are both fantastic and okay better than many bimetal to me but I’m also not competing. I figure it’s availability and generally lack of wins with hybrids but it’s probably coming at this point.
It might just be the designs available, but I personally find metals smoother, generally longer spinning during combos, and will typically lose less spin time if you accidentally hit your finger/hand with them during a trick, especially if they’re blasted.
Is more friction generated by a string sliding against a plastic body vs a metal body? I have no idea, but just a thought.
I used to compete with hybrids, and I was the first person to win a first major contest on an all metal yoyo, so I definitely enjoy both, but I haven’t personally found any hybrids that seem as good as the very best metals, at least competitively. I still play hybrids often, but they wouldn’t be my first choice for a competition yoyo.
Hard to tell how much of that is objective performance vs personal preference though. I think the best mono/bi metals play better than the best hybrids, but
I’d be interested to try a yoyo with an aluminum core, plastic blasted body, and SS rims. Do any currently exist?
100%. If something feels sticky to your finger and something else feels smooth, chances are that everything else has that same reaction to it. The surface friction of plastic is much higher then that of metal, blasted being less then that even.
I can’t say every hybrid, but as far as I’m aware of every single hybrid has that design cuz the guts and fingerspin cup have to be made out of something other then plastic, cuz it’s just not strong enough.
