X division is dead and you killed it

General Yo-Yo
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I’m an X division player, and it feels like I’m hanging around a hybrid graveyard-playground most of the time. It’s cool and fun, but skeletons get old and I wish I had more friends to play with…

Here’s how you killed the X division, it’s quite simple: you, the 1A-only player, wish more people would play X division. You really wish other people would do stuff like that. Other people.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone watches my 5A, or any other 5A player’s, and, realizing 5A can be an actual, cool style (read: 5A tricks not involving e-fans or beestings, something new and interesting), says something like “I wish more people did stuff like that.” Don’t say that unless you intend to be the person who does that stuff.

It’s just empty talk, and drives me crazy.

The only reason X division is dying is because it’s become a spectator sport. It’s something other people do…

No, it’s something we do, and put a lot of work into.

The worst part about it is that it’s really not that hard to play the X division. You just stop playing 1A, and start playing yo-yo in any of the other, easily-accessible and greatly tutorial’d styles. STOP PLAYING 1A?! How taboo! Alas, that is all it takes. Play any of the X division styles for an extended period of time (NO 1A BREAKS ALLOWED), and you’ll find yourself making cool tricks, becoming good at this style that other people are supposed to be good at.

You’ve become that other person, and now you’re experiencing disassociative identity disorder; but it’s OK, because now you’re one of us, and we’re happy to have you.

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:sweat: I understand your perspective.

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I think a lot of players want to really drill themselves in one style and with most ppl playing 1a, they choose that style.

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Why is 1A so dominant though? Maybe because it has the lowest requirements — one “standard” Yoyo, no accessories?

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1A is the easiest style.

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Not sure ‘easiest’… It can definitely be an argument - but I would say 1A is the ‘gateway’ - for most people in order to do any of the other divisions (2A, 3A, 4A, 5A) you have had to learn basic 1A - so therefore ‘everyone’ is a 1A player first and evolves into the other divisions (but you can always come back to 1A).

I like where you are going @Nemyo - you are also a great representation of what you can do with dedication to 5A! Please keep it going! :raised_hands:

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@codinghorror because 1a tricks are the foundations that build into other styles. Plus, 1a was the first style where ppl started seeing the endless possibilities in yoyos.

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Taking a month to solely do 5A, not touching anything else, literally changed everything - I’m glad you mentioned that. That’s when I created a whole new 3 minutes worth of tricks that shaped into what I was doing the last time I was competing. It’s also extremely fun to spend a month doing something completely different, and if you don’t enjoy it, you then end up making new tricks in your main style!

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ehhh?
here is my biased opinion: 1a/4a/5a have a hard learning curve, in terms of going from intermediate to advanced. while 2a/3a have a hard learning curve, in terms of getting from 0 - even basic…

they are different in so many ways… but i def don’t think…

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I do agree that solely 1A throwing players should try other styles. We shouldn’t discourage by being mean about though. Rather we should focus on praising more of the X division players and encouraging players to branch out. What @AndreBoulay said is totally true imo: 1A is not the easiest but rather the most accessible and recognizable for most newbies. So it just becomes the first style.

I’m loving 4A and 5A so much cause I’ve been throwing for so long and have had some many yoyos get hit and dinged and damaged and straight up broken that I don’t care about when the counterweight slips and b o o m…c r a s h… the yoyo goes flying. Maybe some people really care about their throws so they don’t like the idea of the throw going flying.

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Facts. And actually dedicating the time to make new tricks in another style will help you make fresh tricks in your dominant style. Since nationals I’ve just been playing 1a and some 3a because I haven’t been making any 5a tricks that I’m satisfied with. But I know once I pick up 5a again, the influence I got from doing other styles will carry over.

You shouldn’t do it for the sake of making x-div look populated, you should do it to keep yoyoing exciting for
yo’ self.

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This this this. I find that the best way to get out of a yoyoing slump is to change up styles.

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For me, 1a is the easiest. Just plain fact. I’ve spent a LOT of time on 2a, but if you saw me attempt it, you’d think I’ve spent 10 minutes practicing and not 4 years. I’m horrible. I’ve tried my hand at 4a as well which worked out better due to obvious similarities to 1a. Stagnating at x division for a half decade is not fun. My time to practice is limited, and I’d rather spend my life being mediocre at 1a than spend a lifetime being horrible at another discipline. Reminds me of how BMX vert riding was on the verge of dying off. It’s hard (and dangerous) and takes a long time to master. Younger riders now have an abundance of skateparks, so there is little motivation to spend years smashing into the deck trying to become a proficient vert rider.

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<dump>

To the contrary, one of the reasons I drilled into becoming good at 4A is that it is far easier to stand out in competition when you don’t have to compete against literally every yoyo player at the contest.

Calling one division “harder” or “easier” than others seems to me like saying that trumpet is an easier instrument because it only has 3 keys to press. 1A certainly has a lower barrier to entry, as @codinghorror has suggested, and it has much fewer inherent complexities than the other divisions, but this merely places a responsibility on the player to push the boundary further. In other words, because 1A is easier, one must expect the division to produce highly sophisticated tricks. In my opinion, 1A players have done an incredible job using the simplicity of their division to create amazing variation and originality.

In contrast to 1A, players in the other divisions seem to have relied far more on the division itself to lend interest to their tricks. I may be stepping a little out of line when I say that, and I’m not entirely sure that I’m correct, so take it with a grain of salt. Whether or not the players themselves are lazy, I would say it is more difficult to get past the “gimmickness” of the division and truly grok its potential. Exceptional X-division tricks don’t just display the eccentricities of their style, but instead leverage it to do things that weren’t possible before.

I would definitely second @Nemyo in pushing for people to do more X-division tricks. Learning a broad base of trick styles will probably help your creativity in the style that you prefer.

</dump>

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Been wanting to reply to this specific thread for awhile.

I’m not too sure what your problem is, as you are sponsored by Duncan- the current bearer of the 5a patent. The very company that is killing the 5a division in the first place. (thats obviously a different topic however). 5a has its own division with many players around the world with 4A also having plenty of players.

X-division is not dead, more so 2a through 5a are not dead. They however do not have the same attention as 1A. and that is merely how its going to be because 1A is the gateway style. It takes a number of high-impact players to carve the way for a generation of players in a specific division. Why was 5a popular during the time Tyler Sev, Miggy, Jonrob, Jake Bullocks, were competing? Because all of them were bouncing ideas off eachother but also the level of influence and presentation was high as heck. Pillars need to stand tall amongst the complacent. Stop complaining its dead, and do the work to make it alive again.

I mean heck, you don’t see me anymore B and M about how Möbius is. One person out of how many in the community? How many people are main players in that style? Or heck how about Ky with his Double Dragon style? How many people out there main that? We dont even have divisions to compete in really.

Thats just how I see it.

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I fully support 6a as Mobius style and 7a as Double Dragon style. That would be awesome!

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