01x04 - Yo-Yo

[bunniefuu]

The progression from childhood to adulthood

can be very difficult to perform.

The measures get more complicated.

The tempo quickens.

And the notes are harder to reach.

But, at this great stage of our lives,

this performance of a

lifetime is best played

on the classical strings.

Of a yo-yo.

This is competitive yo-yo.

Is everybody ready?

You can do better than

that. Is everybody ready?

Three.

Two.

One.

Yo-yo!

These are a bunch of yo-yos.

- Yo!

- Yo!

YoYo Ball!

No one knows from whence the yo-yo came.

What do we have here?

By golly, it's a yo-yo!

Gadzooks!

The most popular toy of all time,

the yo-yo's been a gyrating

staple of human society

as far back as 1,000 B.C.

For the last 88 years,

the top yo-yo players on the planet

gather together to battle it out

to see who is the best of the best

at the World Yo-yo Championship.

Worlds, are you ready?!

The World Yo-yo Contest is the one

time of year when we all get together

and we reward our own.

The people who are the most obsessed

in a room full of people

who are equally obsessed.

Modern yo-yo is no one-trick pony.

It's hundreds of unique

tricks strung together

through a martial art of

momentum, spin, and string.

So, if you wanna prove

you're the best in the world,

you have to win the 1A Finals,

where it's just you, your yo-yo,

and a chance to become a yo-yo deity.

Make some noise!

If you're the World's Yo-yo Champion,

you are the low-level god to

15-year-old boys across the world.

Across the ocean,

forged in the volcanic fires of Haleakala,

one such yo-yo deity

transcends his human form.

They call this reigning champion.

Evan.

I feel like I get these

insights through meditation

that I don't necessarily get

thinking about my routine normally.

For example, I had this idea for a trick,

and didn't know if it was possible,

but I came out of meditation

and immediately, I tried it out.

And, I was like,

"This is the craziest trick."

It ended up being one of my best bangers.

When armed with a yo-yo,

this young string bender

becomes a yo-yo grand master.

And as the reigning

champ, he is the one to beat.

Evan is, like, the perfect physical

avatar of pure joy of yo-yoing.

He does a lot of high-risk moves,

but he also appreciates

the value of repeatability.

So, he will spend an entire year building

a routine that he knows that he can hit.

On the performance side of

things, Evan is nearly unstoppable.

He knows how to work a room.

He knows how to fill a stage.

He is just so damn good.

While Evan's mastery on stage

has become the stuff of legend,

this year will be his last.

This is gonna be my last year,

so, I'm really going all out

with the tricks and the bangers.

So, if you're gonna try and

dethrone Evan in his dojo,

you'd better bring your A-game.

Your 1A game, to be exact.

Evan Nagao!

2,000 miles away lives

the yin to Evan's yo-yo yang.

In a place that obeys the

laws of time and tradition,

he's a rule-breaking outlaw.

The bad boy of spin,

Keiran Cooper.

This renegade yo-yo player is notorious

for inventing some of the most

badass moves in the yo-yo game.

And he has great hair.

I think I've come up

with, at the very least,

400 unique elements

that I and other people

now put into tricks.

Keiran's originality didn't go

unnoticed in the yo-yo community.

He quickly gained a

loyal following, cult status,

and the one thing that proves

you've made it to the big time:

His face on a t-shirt.

Keiran Cooper is the great could-be.

Somebody who's been

coming up for a while now,

but in the last couple of years, like,

he has jumped in skill tremendously.

He's really at the point

where, coming into the contest,

everybody's like, "This could be his year."

Keiran Cooper!

I guess that the reason

why I haven't won Worlds yet

is that my tricks are a little

too hard and too ambitious.

I got a concussion last week from

just hitting my head with the yo-yo.

But don't let the concussion fool you,

because Keiran is just one big trick away

from winning the World Championship.

If I hit all of my tricks

then I could just blow

everyone else out of the water.

What Evan and Keiran don't

know is that, south of the border,

one mysterious string

slinger is captivating a nation,

defying physics,

slicing through competitors,

and melting adorable faces.

Behold the one they call Betty.

Or, as she would say in Spanish,

"Yo-yo soy Betty Gallegos."

In the 87 years of the world contest,

she is the first woman to

have a shot at the world title.

¡Dios mío!

She's good.

When I was 12 years old,

I saw some kids playing with

two yo-yos at the same time.

So, I came closer, to Isaac's class.

When I saw her as a girl, I said,

"This is something rare

here. She's got something."

The determined look, a special beam.

That's what caught my attention.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Pulled together by the

string of the yo-yo force,

Betty's sensei trained her

every day for eight years,

transforming the shy

grasshopper into a yo-yo samurai.

She cuts like a mother.

With her lethal yo-yo in tow,

Betty conquered one women's

competition after another.

But, finding no equal,

Betty decided to take on the big boys

at the Mexican National Championship.

Betty is a girl who never gives up.

She doesn't care if it's a man or a woman,

she'll go for it.

She's a fighter.

This year's Mexican National Champion is.

Betty Gallegos!

A round of applause!

Betty is the only woman to

ever win any national title,

and she is the first woman on the planet

that has a chance at beating

Evan, Keiran, and all the boys.

Winning the women's

division is not enough for me,

because I feel I can also

compete against men.

So, how do you win a yo-yo competition?

Because the days of "rocking

the baby" are long gone.

Today, it's all about Tech Sections,

Soups, Arm Frenzies, French Flexes,

Blind Horizons and Protect Your Necks.

You get the point.

But, hold up.

Let's slow it down a bit.

Here's the basics.

No matter what, you've got to catch,

loop, and balance that gyrating yo-yo

in an absurdly small gap.

And judges use a high-tech

gadget to grade your performance:

A clicker. Thing.

Clicks are points.

It's one click for easy tricks.

.Two clicks for hard tricks.

The more tricky, the more clicky.

But drop a trick, lose a click.

Which is a negative point.

And, on top of all that, you're judged

on performance, originality, and style.

So keep that yo-yo fresh.

Winning is all about mastery.

Ten thousand hours is a good start,

but a lifetime? Even better.

Please welcome from

Honolulu, Hawaii, Evan Nagau.

Evan, come on out here.

When I first started

yo-yoing, I was one year old.

I guess you could call me a prodigy.

Whoa! That's very, very

good! Thank you, buddy!

Yo-yoing came into my life

because my dad, actually,

was a salesman for yo-yos.

This is called Eating Spaghetti.

You make the spaghetti noodles,

you put some Parmesan cheese and you

I mean, he was the man.

He ended up selling over 30 million yo-yos.

So, if you had a yo-yo back in the 90s,

it was because of my dad.

So I just vaguely remember

when I was really young, thinking,

"Hmm, people walk, people

eat, and people yo-yo."

After two decades of yo-yo-yoing,

this year's performance marks

a major key change for Evan.

It's his literal swan song.

I dedicated my entire life to yo-yo,

but this year, I'm actually trying

to transition to a music career.

So, I'm building my

own song for my routine,

something that nobody's ever done before.

People are going to get really excited.

Murdering the show like I'm a mad man

Then I'ma eat 'em up like I'm Pac Man

Can I be a legend I

gotta hit the groove

I got a lot of edges

But I'm still smooth

I've always sought my dad's approval,

and the way that I would get his

approval was by accomplishing big things.

The thing that I was best at was yo-yoing,

so not having that is kind of scary,

but I'm taking the leap anyway.

While Evan was born into yo-yo,

Keiran, like most yo-yo athletes,

got his start the more traditional way.

By being really,

really bad at sports.

I was allergic to the dust

on the basketball court

and the grass in the soccer field.

Terrified of football.

Didn't want the baseball

to hit me in the face.

I wanted something to get me out of there.

And yo-yo was exactly that,

because I didn't have

to leave my room to do it.

I just stood in the middle of my room

with my head down, and I just yo-yo'd.

When Keiran started yo-yoing,

one of the things I noticed was

there were all these dings

and marks in the ceiling.

It did take a toll on some

of the appliances, you know.

But that's okay.

Pretty soon, it was

Keiran videotaping himself.

When I started exploring

the YouTube realm of things,

that's kind of when it

really took off for me

because I connected

with all these yo-yoers.

I felt great, being able to

actually relate to someone.

They're just like me. It

felt awesome, honestly.

As his friend group got

bigger, his tricks got better,

and his community couldn't

get enough of their yo-yo hero.

I legitimately feel obligated

to show up and perform.

I feel like something is

being expected from me.

And what do people expect

from their yo-yo prophet?

Big freakin' tricks.

This year, the last minute of my freestyle

is the One Minute of Death,

which has the 360° Combo,

Behind-the-Back Suicide,

and the very last trick I do

in my routine is Mind the Gap.

A lot can go wrong with this trick,

but it feels awesome to hit it perfectly.

With the weight of the

community on his shoulders,

Keiran knows that, to win

his first championship ever,

he'll have to dig deep

into his big bag of tricks.

Where else do the yo-yo greats convene,

but the Mount Olympus of yo-yo?

Okay. Cleveland.

Where the best yo-yoers

in the world will battle it out

to crown their new king of string.

Wow, that's the yo-yo championship?

Yes, in the Renaissance.

Hopefully, today goes well.

If somebody comes off the street

and walks into the World Yo-yo Contest,

it's bewildering.

But to the average yo-yo

player, the World Championships,

it's everything broiled into four

days in a sweaty hotel ballroom.

Walking into the venue

for the first time of the day

and reconnecting with people

that you haven't seen in a while,

it feels awesome.

Can you teach me one trick?

- Sure. This trick.

- Judges ready!

I'd never left the country

until I started playing yo-yo.

I've made so many

friends wherever I've gone,

and even though we don't

speak the same language,

we kind of communicate by playing yo-yo.

We're all outcasts in our own ways,

but when it comes down to yo-yoing,

we look at each other,

in the yo-yo community,

as us against the world.

With semifinals moments away,

it's time to wind their yo-yos,

stretch their fingers, and

become one with the string,

because it's game time.

All right, ladies and gentlemen,

we've got 39 of some of the best yo-yo

players from all around the world.

We wish you all the best,

because you guys are gonna need it.

All right, World Yo-yo Contest 2019.

Let me hear you make some noise!

Semifinals is the point where

everything gets ridiculous.

It is the most fierce round

of competition at any contest.

There you go, Azura Hasumi.

When you only get one

shot on yo-yo's biggest stage,

emotions run high.

There's joy,

frenzy, and teenage boys reduced to tears.

Reigning champs like Evan

don't have to do semifinals,

so he can sit back and

watch the big elimination,

but this will be the first obstacle

to clear for Betty and Keiran.

I've never really been

a very confident person,

but a lot of yo-yoers are nerdy

and self-conscious, so

it's not like I'm the only one.

But, competing helped

me break out of that bubble.

Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome Keiran Cooper!

With that one mistake,

Keiran's title run could

spin out of control.

On stage, it's high-stress,

and if you mess up a couple

times, you get into this bad funk,

and you're like, "I'm dropping the ball.

I'm not going to recover from this."

By the time you walk off, you're bummed.

There you have it!

Keiran Cooper!

- It's all right.

- Dude.

- It was clean.

- Kind of.

- Just one mistake. It's all good.

- Yeah.

Good show.

With Keiran's future hanging by a thread,

the tension only gets more taut for

our only female competitor, Betty.

It's definitely a big deal for

Betty to make it into semifinals.

It's hard to get girls to stick around

in such a stinky, gross "boy" sport

for long enough to get good enough to

get to that super high level of play.

Betty pays no mind to the boys.

The only thing she can smell is victory,

because all of her training has

led her to this defining moment.

Betty as a competitor is a girl

who sets her goals and doesn't

give up before she achieves them.

That goes from here,

they turn it and catch it?

She's an example to be followed.

- Like this?

- Yes. Then put your hands here.

The yo-yo community is big,

but the community of female

yo-yo players is rather small.

I know some girls that

see me as an example.

I've reached this level of

success, they want to do the same.

Our next contestant is Betty Gallegos!

For me, being the first woman to

reach 1A Finals would mean a lot,

because I think it would

make other female players

that are afraid to compete in 1A see

that they can do it and achieve it, too.

Two dropped tricks could cut

the strings on Betty's dream.

I do a better show when I forget the

judges and the audience are there.

I pretend I'm in my bedroom,

and nobody is watching me,

and let everything flow.

Yeah!

There you have it. Betty Gallegos!

Giving the boys a run for their

money. So smooth with the yo-yo.

I got a little nervous

before I went on stage,

but I tried to do my best.

Sometimes, your best is not good enough,

because 40 competitors

are about to be cut in half.

All right, guys, 1A

Division semifinal results.

You don't want to be around yo-yo players

between the end of the division and

the time the results are announced,

because everyone is absolutely terrified.

Qualifying first: Yuki Nishisako!

Qualifying third: Gentry Stein!

Qualifying sixth: Chandler Steele!

I'm really used to just

hearing my name pretty early.

Not hearing your name,

you really start to get nervous.

Last three slots, guys.

It's getting dangerous.

Qualifying 17th with

a score of 73.5 points.

USA, Keiran Cooper!

Qualifying 18th: Chen Yang!

If Betty takes the last spot,

she'll be the first woman in history

to make it to the 1A finals.

Coming in 19th,

he's from USA. Blaise.

What the f*ck? What?

When you practice something so much,

practice for months, so many hours,

just for one try,

if you don't make it, it

becomes a horrible experience.

I get to the point where I

think that if I'm doing it well,

but I'm not achieving anything, then what?

Like the yo-yo, life is

full of ups and downs.

And when it's down,

it's all about getting the

momentum to bounce back up.

All right.

All right, we're good.

I'm in! All right!

Hopes, dreams,

yo-yo gold,

the World Yo-yo Championship.

Who will be left holding a loose string,

and who will be crowned king of the yo-yos?

You've been waiting for this.

It's 1A Division Finals!

It comes down to 20 players,

one flawless three-minute routine,

and no dropped tricks.

This is no child's play.

Nathan Dailey!

To win, Evan and Keiran have

to beat former world champions,

like the yo-yo shredder Shion Araya.

Making a serious bid

for his third world title.

And they'll have to defeat the tall.

The blond.

And the chiseled.

Gentry Stein.

That's right, this classic

'80s movie villain yo-yos.

And he's damn good.

Holy yo-yos.

Make some noise!

He's got the tricks, he's got the moves.

That was great. He might have won.

I'm gonna go up.

The reigning champion.

And the crowd favorite.

Most of the people that I know in yo-yo,

I've had relationships with

them longer than anyone else,

and I would not be the same

person if it weren't for them.

USA, you're gonna have

a lot of cheering to do,

because coming up next, let's go,

United States, Keiran Cooper!

I feel obligated to, like,

push the envelope of

what's possible in yo-yo,

because no one else is going to go on stage

and try their absolute

hardest tricks and hit it flawless.

I have never done it.

That's actually what still

drives me to keep trying it.

So far, Keiran's performance

has been flawless.

But now comes the One Minute of Death.

360° Combo.

Crushed it.

Behind-the-Back Suicide?

Nailed it.

All that's left is his

incredibly difficult.

Mind the Gap.

Minutes before I went on stage,

my friend Nate Dailey said to me,

"This is for the fans.

You're doing it for them.

This isn't really about you.

You're doing your hardest tricks,

and the audience knows that."

"Do it for them. Don't do it for you."

Make some noise!

Keiran Cooper!

What just happened?

Keiran!

I don't want to win

by making compromises to myself.

I've always wanted to win on my own terms.

Dude, I'm f*cking proud of you.

Yeah, dude. I love that you

did it again. That was perfect.

- Was that the whole thank you?

- Yeah.

I wasn't going to end that

freestyle on a bad note.

Absolutely. Everyone

loved that you did that.

- That was great.

- Good call.

- That one was for the fans.

- For the fans.

- Yeah.

- True.

Turns out the greatest

trick Keiran can perform

is to push through failure

and land on greatness.

For Evan, this will be the final

three minutes of his life's work,

the last time he will

grace the yo-yo stage,

and the first time anyone

will hear his music.

Letting go of yo-yo is something

that's really difficult for me to do,

because yo-yoing has

always been my identity.

It's like I'm gonna say

goodbye to an old friend.

Worlds,

we are down to the last

1A Division Finals freestyle.

USA, whatever you have left in your lungs,

I want y'all to give it up

for your reigning, defending

champion of the world.

Evan Nagao!

In a man with endless power.

There's an interesting sadness

and, at the same time, pure excitement

because this is my last stand,

and this is my one chance

to go out with a bang.

I am the prodigy with the prophecy

Say I made some waves

But I'm feeling seasick

And if you say that I won't succeed

Then I got some reasons

To give you lesions

'Cause I got a lot of edges But

I'm still so goddamned smooth

The legacy that I'm leaving in yo-yo

is one of charisma and excitement.

One last stand

One last stand

It's the last stand

It's the last stand

Here's my last stand

Get up on your feet!

Evan Nagao!

Wow! What just happened?

I loved the music, too.

- Yeah. Was that good?

- I know.

- I cannot believe that's you singing!

- Yeah, I know!

Whether Evan wins the

Worlds or not this year,

I'm absolutely, incredibly proud of him.

If only a dad's love could

win you a championship.

But it don't.

Numbers do.

A round of applause for

all the 1A Division finalists

up on stage right now!

I hit a lot of what I wanted to hit

and missed the last trick.

But, um, I delivered a freestyle

that people enjoyed on my own terms.

Going into this contest, I knew that

my goal was just to put in my all.

And I gave it my all.

The World Yo-yo Contest, 2019, 1A Division.

Coming in third, y'all

gonna make some noise for.

Japan, Yuki Nishisako!

World Yo-yo Contest, 2019, 1A

Division. Coming in second, for.

United States.

Evan Nagao!

One last prize to give out.

Coming in first with

a score of 91.4 points,

your champion of the world.

Gentry Stein!

In the cutthroat world of yo-yo,

only three-tenths of a point,

and some styling gel,

separates Evan and Gentry.

There's nothing more in my life

that I've poured more of myself into

than yo-yoing.

So, to take home the win

is just such a good feeling.

I definitely would've wanted to do better,

but at the end of the day,

I wanted to do the

tricks that I wanted to do,

and, um, I kind of just

dealt with the consequences.

People were telling me that,

"You're an amazing yo-yoer,"

but I've heard that

for, like, my whole life.

But when people were telling

me that my song was really good,

it made me feel really happy.

I feel extremely free.

And as for Betty,

she's been crushing the Women's Division.

Your Women's Division

Champion of the World.

Mexico, Betty Gallegos!

Watch out, boys. Next year, Betty's comin'.

To me, the yo-yo is a toy,

but I see it beyond that, you know?

To me, the yo-yo means happiness.

Yo-yo is more than competing

for three minutes on a stage.

It's less about doing it

in your room by yourself,

but more about doing it with others.

It's something that I never thought would,

like, change my life at all,

and, uh. It totally has.

It's a very simple toy,

something that not a lot

of people give a sh*t about,

but, for that few select people,

that toy has made an impact on their lives.

And, for me, I can

definitely say that for sure.

We often trick ourselves into

thinking that we need first place,

when what we're really looking for.

Is our place.

So, when you find yours,

amongst the renegades of spin

and the master string benders,

don't let anyone tell

you it's a childish thing.

Catch it and hold on to it.

Because when we find where we belong,

we don't care who's in first.

Just that we are here,

we are together,

and we are.

The champions.