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[ta0]

This is what Thad wrote to me:

There is the possibility of space for Spintops at Nationals. I currently have space reserved at the Westin LAX (hotel for the contest) on Saturday morning in the same venue as the prelims on Friday night. The plan is to use that for Sport Division activities but I would expect that we have enough time that Spintops could be in there as well.

If there are enough Spintop competitors that can commit to make it worthwhile as well as judges, we can see if scheduling it in would work.

That sounds to me like a somewhat lukewarm invitation. But we can work with it if there is interest from the spintop community. Note that the main yo-yo event is at the Redondo Beach Performing arts center.

So, I want to hear from the spintop community if you want to have the US nats spintop contest together with the US nats yo-yo contest this year. Or should we split and do it in Miamisburg, at Neff's house  or somewhere else? Note that the freestyles in Tokyo are in danger right now, so a split from the yo-yo contests in the future is a real possibility.

Thad asks:

What I would need from you initially:

    Divisions you would expect to award
    Judges who have committed to the event that you can count on
    Anticipated competitor count (people who have reasonably committed)
    Estimated timeline
    Who would be the point person ‘in charge’ during the event

Who would come? What do you think?
It is not time to remain silent . . .

(making the topic sticky for a while)

[Neff]

My house!  LOL

Thank you for starting this discussion, it is important.  I agree, that was a lukewarm welcome at best. "Seeing if they can fit us in" does not sound accommodating.

Even as tied as I am to the yo yo world, I would much rather see spin tops paired with the juggling world.  Much better fit.

I hope to have time to elaborate later...

[yollector]

Seems to me that Thad is doing all he can
and no one in the top community really cares ?
After all this is a yoyo contest / what yoyo contest
cares about the top community like the Nats did
for 15 plus years ?
   I don't get it
        RFC

[ta0]

Don't get me wrong, Richy. I do appreciate a lot that US yo-yo nats gave us a home all these years. I flew 7 times to Chico: 3 as competitor and 4 as judge. I have great memories. But as you said, it is a yo-yo competition. It might not be the right fit for us at this moment. I am not sure if that is the case, and I started this thread to discuss it. Neff is probably into something when he says that we are a better fit for the juggling world.

For various reasons, mostly due to our community's size, but also because of the steep learning curve to be able to freestyle with tops, very few players are getting to the contests. It can be very expensive if you don't happen to live close by. Perhaps the Miamisburg festival of tops which already has some players committed, would be a better location. Or some other place that happens to be at a driving distance to several key players.

I'll go to the yo-yo nats if other spintop players come. But I prefer to be part of a smaller event in Miamisburg with spintop friends than to be alone in L.A.

[studio42]

I need to find Thad's direct email or call him up tomorrow and see if I'm involved in sound production at either(or both) venues.

Honestly, unless there's a crap-ton of competitors, there should be sufficient time at either facility for SpinTops to take the main stage.

If I do go to Nationals, as suggested, I'll likely be working the show. I will have yoyos and tops with me. Competition for me will be unlikely though but I'm fine with that. I also have friends that I work with for events that throw tops as well. I'm not sure if they want to compete or of that will still have sufficient interest to actually reserve time.

If I can run 2 stages at an event like BAC, burn through almost 100 prelims on a side stage and go through 5 divisions of finals starting at 10AM and done by 4:30, and ran CalStates with 85 prelims for 1A, then ran through 5 finals divisions AND was done by 6PM all on one stage starting at 10AM.... Just saying with 2 days and 2 stages at Nationals, I can create the time to make it happen. But I won't know until I talk to Thad. I need to just focus on this project and get the ball rolling on it.

[the Earl of Whirl]

So, nationals are definitely in LA.  Hmmm.....my wife wants to go to Phoenix in October (where she found some cheap flights).  I do not have much experience with top spinning outside of yo yo competitions.  It is hard for me to think what it will exactly look like otherwise.  I will keep thinking....

[ta0]

Jon wrote to me saying that he most likely will go to nats but not compete in tops:

Maybe if it becomes part of the main event again, I would be [competing].

Knowing Jon, I don't think he will pass on competing if we need players 
But if there are no players committing early, spintops will not be scheduled for stage time, and would likely not happen. I wouldn't go in that case.

By the way, we did not ask to be a side show but considering the needs of the yo-yoers and our low turn out, it was the only option. It happened in 2010: link. The previous year Darren was the last player to win the spintop nats on the main stage.

[yollector]

If you go to :::::::::::::::::
nationalyoyocontest.com and hit schedule
you will see the tops are included.
       RFC

http://nationalyoyocontest.com/schedule/

[kyo]

Sounds to me like a very warm invitation.. what more do you expect?

If you can get enough people to make it a legitimate event, he'll give you everything you need to make it happen... that's quite generous.

I love spintops and the community that has been built over the last many years.. but to complain about an open invitation like this is absurd and incredibly disrespectful. You want a bigger top event? -get more top players to show up and compete-. I was there last year, I saw the size and draw of the contest.

You have the chance at a FREE venue, in a -major- city that is easy (and relatively cheap) to get to.. either take it or don't, but don't you dare complain about how you're taking lower priority to a yo-yo event (that draws 50x the crowd) when all you have to do to hold your national contest is to show up.

Kyle

[ta0]

I would say the invitation was not very warm, but this is understandable considering the circumstances. We are not criticizing the yo-yo community. We are discussing what are our best options. Actually, I would like to chastise my fellow spintop players. I sent messages to many players who have competed on previous nats asking them to contribute to this thread, and only Neff has posted so far, plus an email from Jon, . . . (of course, each player's individual situation is different and can have reasons not to, but as a whole it is disappointing).

[studio42]

I shouldn't be critical for a gig that I am trying to secure, but the scheduling for Friday's events is completely unrealistic based on what I just saw. I do not see any time allocated for spin tops and currently Saturday only shows 2A finals at the moment.

I could see 2A and 3A prelims being a half an hour, but that realistically gives you about 9 players, maybe 10 max to hit the stage and do their thing. There's always a judge slow-down or player issue that slows things up a tiny bit. Finals? Depends how many players make finals. 30 minutes is realistically 5-6 players for finals.

4A and 5A are growing divisions, but I am surprised at the lack of competitors at Nationals. Still, depending on registered players, the time might not be sufficient for prelims.

1 hour for 1A prelims? Only if you have 20, 30 if people get their crap together, considering a 1 minute change between players. It's usually a judging issue that slows things down, at least when I run events. I already have music queued and set to go.

It feels like they are in the early scheduling stages. There's time to get the rest of the pieces together. As far as what I'm seeing, I'm seeing me only needing to be there Friday night instead of Thursday and Friday. I was expecting an all-day thing for prelims, but it very well may be if I have to drive down with gear.

[kyo]

I shouldn't be critical for a gig that I am trying to secure, but the scheduling for Friday's events is completely unrealistic based on what I just saw. I do not see any time allocated for spin tops and currently Saturday only shows 2A finals at the moment.

I could see 2A and 3A prelims being a half an hour, but that realistically gives you about 9 players, maybe 10 max to hit the stage and do their thing. There's always a judge slow-down or player issue that slows things up a tiny bit. Finals? Depends how many players make finals. 30 minutes is realistically 5-6 players for finals.

4A and 5A are growing divisions, but I am surprised at the lack of competitors at Nationals. Still, depending on registered players, the time might not be sufficient for prelims.

1 hour for 1A prelims? Only if you have 20, 30 if people get their crap together, considering a 1 minute change between players. It's usually a judging issue that slows things down, at least when I run events. I already have music queued and set to go.

It feels like they are in the early scheduling stages. There's time to get the rest of the pieces together. As far as what I'm seeing, I'm seeing me only needing to be there Friday night instead of Thursday and Friday. I was expecting an all-day thing for prelims, but it very well may be if I have to drive down with gear.

In 14 years since I started attending nationals, it has never run even remotely on time.. why would this year be any different? Last year finals went on -forever-.. some traditions never die.

Kyle

[the Earl of Whirl]

After lots of thinking and consideration, my thought is that we should do absolutely everything we can to have our top spinning nationals with the yoyo nationals this year in Los Angeles.  If we don't, we will always wonder "what if".  LA could be just the thing for yoyo and tops and more.  Would I like to host nationals in Miamisburg?  In many ways I would say yes but the reality is that I do not have the time to devote to it.  I am still a very busy man as we try to survive as a congregation and I do all the typing and all the secretarial stuff since we let our sec. go to try to balance the budget.  Maybe someday when I am retired I can give more time to this, but right now I am swamped.  Right now, if I have a funeral or two together (which happens) or a couple people are critical in hospitals (which also happens quite often) I could be totally behind the eight ball on a US National hosting event.

Maybe after this year we could look at another possibility if LA doesn't work out?  I think we could still get people to go there and judge and more.

[Dick Stohr]

Is the 2015 US yo-yo contest web site up? It is not available on the Yo-Yo Museum site.

[ta0]

Is the 2015 US yo-yo contest web site up? It is not available on the Yo-Yo Museum site.

It is here: http://nationalyoyocontest.com/

If you look under Venues, the room shown for the Westin is a theater set-up, with sloping floor and fixed seats. Good for watching the stage but not for throwing tops and hanging around. Anyway, this is only reserved for Friday afternoon (yo-yo prelims) and Saturday morning (yo-yo sports ladder + spintops). There is some space in the hallway with carpet, but it may be crowded (and the hotel staff may not like us to throw there.) The hotel has several other meeting rooms: maybe we could sneak into one  I did ask Thad for a price list from the Westin to see if it would be feasible for us to rent an extra small meeting room.
The Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center doesn't appear to have any space for us to throw tops.

We have somewhat different requirements than yo-yo players. Our needs are more similar to jugglers who need more space around them, forgiving floors and preferably high ceilings.