Unoffficial World Championship

1932: First held.

1933-1991: Not official and regular events. No events.

Modern Yoyo as sport since 1992.

International Jugglers' Association (IJA):

1992-1998: Montreal, Canada

1999: Hawaii, USA

2000-2012: Orlando, USA

The first World Yo-Yo Contest was held in London, England, in 1932. The winner was Harvey Lowe.^[4] However, the contest was not held annually until 1992,^[5] when Dale Oliver started one in Montreal, Canada during that year's annual International Jugglers' Association's (IJA) convention.

Official World Championship

Since 2013: Official World Championship

2013 World Yo-Yo Contest = 1st IYYF World Championship

The contest was held during this convention until 1999, when it was held in Hawaii. The 2000 contest was held at Universal Studios in Orlando, but in 2001, the event moved to the Rosen Plaza Hotel (Orlando), where it was held annually until 2013 by Gregory Cohen, owner and operator of YoYoGuy and Infinite Illusions. After the 2013 contest, an international coalition (the IYYF) was formed to organize a new, rotating contest which will be held in a different venue/country every year.

Online World Yo-Yo Contest

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 World Yo-Yo Contest was slated to be held in Budapest, Hungary. The pandemic, however, caused organizers to cancel the 2020 competition. In 2021 and 2022, to mitigate the possibility of attendees getting sick, the Online World Yo-Yo Contest was created, giving prospective World Yo-Yo Contest competitors the opportunity to compete in an online setting.^[6] The results of the 2021 online competition are given below.

More information Style, Winner ...

Style	Winner	2nd	3rd
1A	Mir Kim ( South Korea)	Akitoshi Tokubuchi ( Japan)	Park Junsang ( South Korea)
2A	Shu Takada ( Japan)	Satoshi Yamanaka ( Japan)	Wasakorn Lattilertwit ( Thailand)
3A	Minato Furuta ( Japan)	Tomoya Kurita ( Japan)	Mizuki Takimoto ( Japan)
4A	Kaoru Nakamura ( Japan)	Tsubasa Onishi ( Japan)	Yuki Uchida ( Japan)
5A	Sora Ishikawa ( Japan)	Yoshihiro Abe ( Japan)	Hideo Ishida ( Japan)
Women's	Miri Kim ( South Korea)	Veronika Kamenská ( Czech Republic)	Hobbit Xiao-Wen Wang ( Taiwan)
Over 40	Ricardo Marechal ( Brazil)	Benjamin McPhee ( USA)	Tomomi Matsuda ( Japan)

Close

There was also an artistic performance division (AP), in which two awards were given. The Entertainment Award went to YOYOBOYS (Robert Kučera & Zdenek Hybl) and the Artistic Award went to Naoto Okada.^[7]

The winners of the Online World Yo-Yo Contest do not gain the title of World Yo-Yo Champion, however. The title they receive is that of Online World Yo-Yo Champion (in their respective divisions).^{[citation needed]}

The winners of the 2022 Online World Yo-Yo Contest are below.^[8]

Historical notes

In 2003, Brazil's Rafael Matsunaga became the first player outside Japan or the United States to win a World Title, doing so in 5A (Counterweight). In 2004, Hiroyuki Suzuki won his first World Title. Both Daisuke Shimada and Shinji Saito won their third World Title in as many years. Hiroyuki Suzuki became the first player to ever win back-to-back titles in the 1A division in 2005. Shinji Saito continued his dominance, winning his fourth World Title in the 2A division. Kentaro Kimura won the 3A division with what is considered the greatest 3A routine of all time in 2009. In 2010, Canada's Jensen Kimmitt became the first player outside Japan or the United States to win a World Title in 1A. Without Shinji Saito entering the 2A division, Yashushi Furakawa won the World Title. Singapore's Marcus Koh became the second player outside of the United States or Japan to win in the 1A division when he won in 2011. Shinji Saito also returned from a year competition hiatus to win the 2A division for a record eighth time. In 2012, Switzerland's inmot!on became the first team outside Japan or the United States to win the Artistic Performance (AP) division. It was also the first ever World Title won by European competitors. In 2013, Hungary's Janos Karancz became the first European to win the 1A division at the 2013 World Yo-Yo Contest. 2013 was also the first, and only, year to feature a top-3 in 1A with no players from Japan or the United States. In 2014, Rei Iwakura completed a flawless routine in the 4A division en route to his third World Title. Mir Kim won the 1A division in both Online World Yo-Yo Contests and won again in the 2023 World Yo-Yo Contest, and also had the highest scoring 1a freestyle ever in 2023.

Championship division structure

There are a series of preliminary rounds before the final round at the World Yo-Yo Contest. In the past, anyone could enter the World Yo-Yo Contest. Competitors were allowed a one-minute routine, and a set number of players would make the finals. The preliminary rounds have been evolving over the years to accommodate the growing popularity of competitive yo-yos around the world.

In the 1A division, there are currently four rounds of competition. In 2A-5A, there is currently only the Preliminary (1 minute) and the Final (3 minute).^[10]

• Wild-Card (30 seconds)

Any player can enter the Wild-Card round

• Preliminary (1 minute)

Top-10 at a sanctioned National Competition/Multi-National Competition seeded directly to Preliminary
Top performing competitors from Wild-Card

• Semi-Final (1:30 minutes)

Top-3 at sanctioned Multi-National Competition & sanctioned National Champions seeded directly to Semi-Final
Top performing competitors from Preliminary

• Final (3 minutes)

Previous Year's World Champion seeded directly to Final

Sanctioned seeding competitions

Players can earn a seed to various rounds of the preliminaries through multi-national competitions, national competitions,^[11] and the previous year's World Yo-Yo Contest.

1. European Yo-Yo Championship (Kraków, Poland)^[12]
2. Las Vegas Yo-Yo Championship (Las Vegas, United States)
3. Asia Pacific Yo-Yo Championship (Singapore, Singapore)
4. Latin American Yo-Yo Championship (Mexico City, Mexico)
5. Previous year's World Yo-Yo Contest (Prague, Czech Republic)
6. One of 33 IYYF^[13] approved National Competitions