Over-40 Freestyle OPEN/MASTER (WYYC2026)

Yo-Yo is one of the few sports which is not affected by the contestant’s age or physical strength. There are many former National and World Champions who were over 40-50 when they won their title. Today, more and more parents, as well as people of older generations, are playing yo-yo all over the world.

However, the number of older yo-yo players are still very few compared to the number of 10-30 year old yo-yo players. This Freestyle event is designed to spotlight and showcase the talent of those who may be a minority in the community for now, but definitely deserve to be seen and amaze the audience on stage.

OVER-40 MASTER CLASS

If a contestant fits any of the following, they will compete in MASTER CLASS.

  • Has been a finalist at WYYC, Multi-National Contest (AP, EYYC, etc.), or National Contest in the past (*1)
  • Has been a finalist in a Regional Contest more than twice in the past (*1)
  • Has been the winner of Over-40 Freestyle (Open/Master) at WYYC/OWYYC in the past

(*1)  Only “technical” championships like 1A-5A, & X Division are subject to this classification (Art & Performance Division or non-championships are not subject to be counted here).

 

MASTER CLASSへの出場権を日本語で補足します。（2026.6.20追記）

※JNのルールとは異なりますのでご注意ください。特にJNのMASTERは選手の意思で任意に出場できますが、世界大会のMASTER CLASSは要件をみたさない限りは出場できません。

以下のいずれかに該当する選手は、MASTER CLASSへの出場となります。（以下の要件に当てはまらない選手は必ずOPEN CLASSへの出場となります。）

過去に世界大会、国際大会（AP、EYYCなど）、全国大会で決勝進出経験がある選手（*1）
過去に公式地区大会で2回以上、決勝進出経験がある選手（*1）
過去に世界大会、OWYYCのOver-40 Freestyle（Open/Masterどちらでも）で優勝経験がある選手（JNのOver-40の優勝は対象になりません）

（*1）この区分の対象となるのは、1A〜5AおよびX Divisionなどの「技術系タイトル競技」部門のみです。AP Divisionや各エキシビションは、対象にはなりません。

 

OVER-40 OPEN CLASS

  • All contestants who are over 40 and are not eligible to compete in MASTER CLASS

Competition Format

  • Only players 40 years old or older can compete in this event (Born on August 15, 1986 or earlier)
  • 2 minute freestyle (both OPEN CLASS and MASTER CLASS)
  • Player may choose their own music
  • Player must choose one style among 1A-5A
  • Scoring rules are the same as 1A-5A
  • Evaluation categories will be the same as the Semi-Final Round of 1A-5A
  • We will adjust/normalize the clicker score difference among styles with a coefficient
Prelim Round

If we have more than 10 contestants for each class, we may hold a Prelim round on Thursday, August 13, 2026. The number of finalists will be determined after registration closes.

  • Scoring rules are the same as WildCard for 1A-5A
  • 30 second freestyle
  • You must choose music from the WildCard music library
  • Player must choose one style among 1A-5A
  • We will adjust/normalize the clicker score difference among styles with a coefficient

* Winning this freestyle event does not make the winner a “World Yo-Yo Champion.” Therefore, the contestants in this event are also welcome to compete in 1A-5A and AP to aim for a World Title.

Normalization Among Different Styles

To eliminate the difference in raw clicker numbers among different styles, we will multiply the sum of positive and negative clickers of each judge with the following values.

We will apply this adjustment before normalizing, so the highest score for TE will still stay 60.0 pts.

1A – 1.00
2A – 1.28
3A – 1.35
4A – 1.19
5A – 1.27

These values are calculated from the scores of OWYYC2022.