The 2001 Midwest Regional event was held at the Mall of America. It was a great contest with amazing talent from accross the USA. 30 total players entered.
A Letter From the Doctor,
I’m giddy. Boy, am I giddy. The Midwestern Regional Yo Yo contest is creeping forward, lurking in the back alleys in your mind, waiting quietly as it hears your footsteps approaching and then WHAM! Midwest Regionals hits you on the back of the head like the memory of that bad salmon you ate back in the fall of 96′ and takes your wallet. Er… Well Midwest doesn’t actually take your wallet, that’s just a metaphor for like how the massive ball of energy that is Midwest is so exhilarating that it can sometimes catch you of guard like a whiff of a two month old carton of milk you left next to the cereal because you accidentally put the raisin bran in the fridge in its place and haven1t noticed until now because you just haven’t had as much time in the morning to get your daily nutrients recently because of work and all. Er… well actually that’s just a simile, I’m surely not trying to imply that midwest smells like….
Alrighty! Lets just start this over.
This years Midwest will soon be starting, like a…. Well, like something that will soon be starting. For those who missed last years Midwest, you missed one of the years best run and largest contests. It was a full weekend of yoing, diabolo, tops, juggling, painting, and sweet tea. Like last year, this years midwest will once again be a two day event. Beginning on April 21st at our juggling Academy for a full day of yo yo events, then continuing on the 22nd with the featured contest events happening on the main stage at the Mall of America.
But, this years contest will feature several new elements that should make it the best Midwest ever. We are striving, based on player feedback and several innovative approaches to judging, to set the standard and be the epicenter at which all the best new ideas can be tested. For instance, as a contestant I know how difficult it is to do all your trick testing then only have an hour before performing your freestyle. This was the first thing we decided to change this year, all freestyle compulsories will be judged on the 21st in a more laid back atmosphere at our academy. This well give every competitor a full day to prepare their freestyles. The compulsory list itself has a different feel to it. We tried to create a list that had elements of all styles of play out there. Pop up tricks, regenerations, long spin body wrap tricks, and even a new trick created just for this event (the reason for the creation of this new trick was to have a trick that everyone has had the same amount of time to work on, and wasn’t particularly biased towards certain groups that have had more time to practice it [one of the changes that I hope catches on at more contests]). We also feel that our double a list is just as challenging. We are also keeping the “bye trick”, for those who aren’t familiar with this, the Bye Trick is a trick that a player can substitute with any other trick in their division. In essence it allows the player to sort of customize the compulsory list to there own taste. For those competitors not planning on freestyling, we eliminated the lower divisions and replaced them with a 30 trick ladder that will be grouped by age divisions.
Among all the changes dominating this years event, some of the biggest don’t even have anything to do with the actual contest rules. Among all the happenings on the 21st, we are featuring a tightly run Top Contest on our stage at the juggling academy. The event is being judged and organized by the top top players in the world (he he… top top, guh!). We are also planning on several new workshops and yo yo related things for you easily amused souls out there. Also making its return this year is Popular-a-Tea. Keeping with this years theme, this years sweat tea will be bigger and better than the sweet tea served at any other yo yo contest in the world!
Word.
2001 Midwest Regional Results
| Division | Place | Name | Tech | Orig | Perf | Miss | Comp | Free | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA | 1 | Matt Harlow | 46 | 43 | 43 | -15 | 50 | 46.8 | 96.8 |
| AA | 2 | Tim Scalland | 43 | 43 | 39 | -10 | 48 | 46 | 94 |
| AA | 3 | Josh Hanes | 28 | 22 | 22 | -15 | 30 | 22.8 | 52.8 |
| AA | 4 | Markus Lawson | 23 | 21 | 25 | -28 | 30 | 16.4 | 46.4 |
| AA | 5 | Drew Owen | 26 | 14 | 19 | -25 | 32 | 13.6 | 45.6 |
| Division | Place | Name | Tech | Orig | Perf | Miss | Comp | Freestyle | Final |
| A | 1 | Brent Dellinger | 42 | 42 | 40 | -11 | 48 | 45.2 | 93.2 |
| A | 2 | Conway Yung | 37 | 35 | 40 | -13 | 44 | 39.6 | 83.6 |
| A | 3 | Dan Compton | 41 | 42 | 38 | -12 | 38 | 43.6 | 81.6 |
| A | 4 | Tyler Richenberger | 41 | 39 | 27 | -12 | 42 | 38 | 80 |
| A | 5 | Shawn Adkins | 39 | 34 | 18 | -16 | 48 | 30 | 78 |
| A | 6 | Nathan Carroll | 34 | 25 | 26 | -9 | 43 | 30.4 | 73.4 |
| A | 7 | Jonathan Hanes | 37 | 35 | 25 | -14 | 40 | 33.2 | 73.2 |
| A | 8 | Tyler Boshears | 35 | 26 | 14 | -16 | 48 | 24.8 | 72.8 |
| A | 9 | Charlie Abbott | 36 | 30 | 38 | -21 | 39 | 33.2 | 72.2 |
| A | 10 | Jake Maloney | 34 | 34 | 28 | -16 | 40 | 32 | 72 |
| A | 11 | Dennis Shatter | 26 | 23 | 28 | -10 | 43 | 26.8 | 69.8 |
| A | 12 | Paul Yath | 27 | 29 | 25 | -22 | 41 | 27.6 | 68.6 |
| A | 13 | Justin Holinka | 25 | 19 | 15 | -30 | 46 | 11.6 | 57.6 |
| Division | Place | Name | Trick # | ||||||
| Ladder 0-9 | 1 | Jacob Olson | 13 | ||||||
| Ladder 0-9 | 2 | Dylan Vosika | 12 | ||||||
| Ladder 10-13 | 1 | Travis Vosika | 15 | ||||||
| Ladder 10-13 | 2 | Alex Berenguel | 13 | ||||||
| Ladder 10-13 | 3 | Cody Taylor | 11 | ||||||
| Ladder 14-17 | 1 | Rob Kitts | 29 | ||||||
| Ladder 14-17 | 2 | Max Leder | 24 | ||||||
| Ladder 14-17 | 3 | Matt Schmidt | 24 | ||||||
| Ladder 18-25 | 1 | Kyle Nguyen | 3 | ||||||
| Ladder 26-older | 1 | Pat Wood | 10 | ||||||
| Ladder 26-older | 2 | Rich Rains | 10 | ||||||
| Ladder 26-older | 3 | David Noonan | 8 |
Trick Lists:
Sport Division Tricks
Only one attempt per trick. One miss is forgiven. The second miss retires the contestant.
1) Forward Pass – Palm up catch
2) Walk the Dog – Minimum one-foot forward
3) Rock the Baby – Three full rocks
4) Around the World – One time only
5) Around the Corner – must pluck the string with your fingers
6) Loops – 3 inside loops
7) UFO – must pick up with other hand
8) Hop the Fence – 3 repetitions
9) Eating Spaghetti (after completing trick, contestant must rub belly and say, “umm, I like to eat spaghetti.”)
10) Man on the Flying Trapeze – No flip-overs
You may switch yo-yos now for the next ten tricks
11) Front Pinwheel – Over thumb, 3 rotations, upcatch (upward toss)
12) Eiffel Tower
13) Elevator – all the way up and all the way down
14) Three leaf clover – last loop inside square
15) Brain Twister – 2 somersaults, loop dismount
16) Double or Nothing – any dismount
17) Stop and Go – must sleep on go
18) Split the Atom – split bottom mount /1 underpass / 3 somersaults / loop Dismount
19) Dizzy Baby – 3 rocks followed by 3 pinwheels
20) Mach 5 – 3 repetitions
You may switch yo-yos now for the last ten tricks
21) Reach for the Moon – 5 repetitions
22) Jedi Back-flip
23) Warp Drive – 3 regenerated worlds, start with loop
24) Boing Boing – (3 repetitions back and forth)
25) 3 Bucket Hops
26) Frog In A Bag (scrunchy) – 3 times
27) Triple or Nothing – rewind dismount w / stop at double
28) Advanced Split the Atom – 3 pinwheels / split bottom mount / 3 barrel rolls / 1 undercut / 3 somersaults / loop dismount
29) Hydrogen Bomb – Reverse Split Mount / Pass under L&R fingers / 2 somersaults / Ferris wheel dismount
30) Roller Coaster – Arne Dixon Style
“A” Division Trick list
1) Meltdown
2) 3 Bucket Hops
3) Zipper – 3 reps. (reverse bottom mount, pull over reverse somersault to front mount, unwind to reverse bottom mount), loop end.
4) Jedi Back-flip
5) Kwyjibo
6) Behind the Head Eli Hop
7) Flamboyance
8) Spirit Bomb
9) Suicide Catch
10) Eli Hop Combo ( trapeze / eli hop catch behind arm / eli hop back to trapeze [yo-yo must leave the string and be caught back on] / eli hop catch behind arm / eli hop back to trapeze)
Bye trick:
The Grand Marquis:
Start with trapeze into the twist this mount [alpha style]/swing the yo-yo in the gerbil mount [ like man on the trapeze’s brother, but landed on both strings] then pop the yo-yo up, cross your arms [yo-yo hand on top] and catch the yo-yo on both strings, pop the yo-yo up and uncross and the yo-yo should be in a wrap, unwrap yo-yo and slide it into a lindy loop.
Tie Breaker:
Regenerated Trapezes, each trap must sit on string for 3 seconds.
“AA” Division Trick List
1) Whirlwind Criss-Cross – 15 reps
Both hands perform inside-outside loops while crossing. The combo must start with inside loops.
Each in-out combo counts as 1 rep.
2) Sword and Shield – 5 worlds With one hand / other hand loop through each world. Must start and end with a world.
3) Ride the Horse – 15 reps
one hand loop/other hand hop the fence first hop must be behind the foot. Count is on hops after loop has started.
4) 2 Hand Reach for the Moon Stalls (5 Reps)
Each repetition consists of a Reach for the Moon, followed by an outward hop over the wrist (like a Hop the Fence), straight down and back up to contact with the palm of the hand. The yo-yo must contact the palm of the hand but may not be caught before each regeneration into Reach for the Moon. After the last repetition with each hand, the yo-yo is caught as it completes the Hop the fence.
5) Double Warp
Each hand loop / loop-regen.2 worlds, loop / loop-regen.2 worlds / punch to one retro world with each hand.
6) Cow Jump Over Moon – 15 reps
One hand hop the fence / other hand reach for the moon. Count on moons after the hops have started.
7) Vertical Punches – 15 reps
Punching bags above your head with each hand. Count starts with second hand.
8) Reach for the Moon – 15 reps
Reach for the moon with each hand. Count starts with second hand.
9) Up and Down Fountain
Each hand does at least 3 hop the fence / at least 3 punching bags / at least 3 vertical punches / then punch down to at least one hop the fence. Count on second hand. 10) Staircase (Circular Fountain)
Milk the cow / rotating 360 degrees working up / ending with 3 vertical punches facing forward, feet planted.Tie Breaker:
Criss-Crossing Punching Bag
The yo-yo trajectories must cross on the first punches and must stay crossed for all ten repetitions. Starting with the first punches, the yo-yo trajectories must be above 45 degrees and below 135 degrees as measured from an imaginary vertical line from the player hand to the ground. In other words, you must start with “legal” crossing Punching Bags with each hand and stay “legal” and crossed for all 10 repetitions. In addition, a yo-yo may not turn over on its side more than 45 degrees from a vertical plane.