2000 - Spintastic Tigershark
2002 - Bionic Freehand 1
2003 - YYJ Hitman ( I believe this was the first unresponsive yoyo that won a Worlds Contest)
2007 - YYF 888
I only put the names because I was going to try to list it for every style so it’d make it shorter. But I quickly realized I could only list most of them from 2018-2012(which was when I started yoyoing). I know a few here and there from pre-2012 but those that yoyo’d in the 00’s could maybe help me out.
Every single yoyo used to win 1a worlds pre-2015 pretty much gained legendary status. Some for innovation, some for performance, and some for just pure popularity.
YYF leads the way with 5 wins and 5 different models, and YYJ right there with 5 wins and 3 different models. Unfortunately, YYJ didn’t really survive while YYF has flourished.
I think a pretty cool fact is how Hiroyuki Suzuki won 3 titles for YYJ, then 6 years later created his own company and won again when people started saying he’ll never be in contention to win again.
I don’t think any 1a player will ever have the dominance that he had again. In a division more competitive than all of the others combined, he had 4 wins, runner-up 5 times(3 wins and 5 runner ups in the span of 8 consecutive years), and made finals over 15 consecutive years.
But there was one year, I think it was 2014, where like 5+ people were using the Draupnir. Pretty sure that’s the most representation an individual yoyo has ever gotten, at least since early 00’s.
What is most represented here is the fact that the player won the contest, not the yoyo. 2010 saw Jensen Kimmitt win with a plastic Northstar. I’m certain there were many other yoyos used that year that would be considered “higher end” than the Northstar. YYR, Turning Point, CLYW and more. Jensen won the contest because he was the best yoyoer at the time. I’d imagine he could have used any of the other yoyos used that year (with a small bit of get used to time) and still won the contest.
Ultimately the best “competition yoyo” is the one that has gotten the most play time by the player competing with it.
Yoyos aren’t immune to the Myth of Gear. This phenomenon appears in many other areas, like electric guitars/amps/effects, golf clubs, drawing/painting tools/materials, etc. This myth drives a lot of product sales, so maybe it has a valuable role to play for the industry/hobby.
