Just curious, is there some sort of criteria to compete at Worlds? Like finishing in the top 5 at a national competition.
This is how it goes…
If you live in the USA, you live in one of like 7 yoyo regions depending on where you dwell.
Say you live in the mid-east, you can o to the mid-east regional yoyo contest and compete.
If you place in the top 5 at the regionals, you get to automatically go to the semi-finals of the USA Nationals.
If you win first at the regionals, you automatically go to the finals at the nationals
If you happen to win nationals, you go straight to the finals in the worlds, and that’s basically how it works
I hope this helped 
No. Anybody can do a prelim for Worlds, but unless you’re pretty darn good you probably won’t get very far 
It’s a combination of what the two others said.
I know there’s some regional/national things you an do where you can pre-qualify for Finals or perhaps semi-finals. I don’t know all the rules regarding this but they are processes in place to help you skip some of the early rounds of play.
Otherwise, if you pay the entrance fees to compete, you will be placed in the preliminary round and you can see how far you can get. Worlds is open to any competitor who can pay the fee. Some countries don’t have yoyo contests, some people can’t go to other yoyo contests. This at least makes the possibility of competing at Worlds a reality. Some just compete to say they have competed. I do generally agree that most people who enter, especially non-sponsored players, tend to not do very well. This isn’t politics, it’s just a reflection of the skill level of the top players. There’s no rule that says you can’t be a “nobody” and go through prelims, semis and finals and win. If you’re good enough, it can happen.
This is unlike Nationals in the USA, where for the most part, you have to pre-qualify for it via a high-level finish at specific contests. There is also a write-in process too for people who didn’t pre-qualify(for whatever reason). You have to be able to prove you are worthy of it though, typically via past performance and other current performance proof. This application process is not a guarantee though.