We Are the Champions (2020) s01e04 Episode Script
Yo-Yo
1
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 fuck? 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 fucking 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 shit 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.
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 fuck? 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 fucking 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 shit 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.