Sports 2023 World Yo-Yo Contest in Osaka

A few months ago, I was watching the livestream of the Japan National Yo-Yo Contest, and decided I'd be coming back to Japan to help with the World Yo-Yo Contest, which is happening in Osaka this coming weekend.

This weekend will see some intense competition amongst the best yo-yo players in the world. For the first time since the pandemic, the World Yo-Yo Contest will be held in-person. More than 350 contestants will take the stage to prove their skill in 5 main divisions plus special divisions for over-40, women, and artistic performance (AP)

Each player will have 3 minutes to perform their own freestyle in the final this coming Sunday. The days before will be wildcard, preliminaries, and semi-finals to determine who will play in the final.

Here's the link for the livestream options, the items will go live during the event

Thanks, @nice gaijin! Please keep us posted and share some pics if you have any.

We drove through the typhoon yesterday to get to the venue, the Osaka Kokusai Center. Today is all preparation as the volunteer staff is on hand to pack swag bags, arrange ticket passes, set up booths and the stage, and get everything ready for the hordes.

edit: sorry, behind the scenes photos aren't allowed per contest regulations :/

Today is mostly preliminaries, where non-seeded players battle to earn a place in tomorrow's semi-finals. Each player has just one minute to hit as many tricks as they can.

The women's division finals will be later today.

Here's the live feed:

Day 3: Semi Finals have begun!

We'll have a special guest this afternoon as local comedian celebrity team Smile
will join the stage. One of them is a new yo-yo player himself and will be competing in the over 40s Open Category later today.

What I coincidence, I just met one of the judges of this contest a few days ago!

And today is Finals! The stream just started, and we're off and running. We have about 80 contestants for all five divisions plus a special division for artistic performance. Each contestant will have 3 minutes to blow your minds.

The streams aren't available to watch afterwards because of copyrights, so try to catch the stream live! I'll post the results and winning freestyle videos later