- This post is the first in a series highlighting the story of Yo-Yo in Arizona, our home -
Throughout most of yo-yo history 2a (the two handed looping style of yo-yo) was the pre-eminent pinnacle of yo-yo play peaking around the year 2000. The best of the best all played 2a. One yo-yo was simply what people did while getting good enough to play with two. Everyone aspired to win the most competitive 2a division. Then things changed. It became the aspiration to innovate, show style and progress 1 yo-yo only. The learning curve was much lower. The mastery it took to become the 2a champion became its undoing. Players gave up the more difficult less prestigious route and the age of 2A was almost over. Participation in the division dwindled. By 2014 as few as 12 competitors signed up to compete at the world contest. The best remained exceptional and the rest? Well there wasn't even a chance to win.
No-one is born a yo-yo champion. Matt was an average kid. Boy Scout. Skateboard, terrible student, but around 8th grade things changed. Matt was given an opportunity to challenge himself. Never an honors student, we was presented with an opportunity to do honors classes. He stepped up, not away and this became a pattern that has repeated in his life.
Matt was a shy kid. He first encountered yo-yos at his local comic book store. ALLYOYO still runs classes at this comic store, so any day a new Matt may arrive on the scene through exactly the same path, but on the first day, Matt didn’t engage. It wasn’t until a few weeks later he saw a video that changed it all. It was a DXL battle, David Ung vs Grant Johnson. Those kids looked just ….like... him…. He could do that? Right?
This was the driver to send him back to the comic book store. He connected with the club and saved up for a Northstar. His journey was underway.
One of the levels of the club, an essential one to make ’Team’, was to be proficient at 2a. 2a was only taught on the slow days so Matt put in the hours. 2a is a grind. No-one gets it in a day. Matt was again up to the challenge.
Once you even get an idea of the basics there is some voodoo you need to learn. While looping yo-yos look less precise than their machined aluminum contemporaries in 1a, precision and "set up" is CRITICAL to a good looping experience. Bad equipment makes everything harder. These were just some of the lessons he learned and struggled with on the path.
At one of Matts first contests he met a player named Cedric Eusantos. Cedric broke the voodoo down for Matt, taught him how to set up a yo-yo. Shortened his strings and sent him on his way, leveled up for the future.
There were online tutorials that didn’t really explain things, combined with the equipment barrier to entry it was pretty discouraging and Matt saw the reason why the 2A path was pretty lonely at times. His basic level of skill felt like enough. To be a Champion felt unattainable. This could have been the end of the story right here.
2018 was going to be Matts year. The Arizona state contest was in March, in May he would graduate high school. This would be his chance to get a title, hang his hat on it and move on. The contest featured a dual hand division and the 3A players just simply out-scored him. A 4th in the division was his best and only result.
4 years of college followed. Yet again, this could have been the end of the story.
Now it’s 2022. Matt had played for 7 years. Zero titles. Zero placements. Definitely The end?
No. The USA National contest was coming to Arizona, and Matt the college graduate was now working on his thesis with time on his hands. Matt had unfinished business with yo-yo.
2A had changed. Yo-Yos now worked out of the pack. Matt was gobsmacked. “Oh wow. This is how they should work.”
There was still Lots of bad advice online and misinformation provided by those generous enough to assist but in just leveling up his hardware he was leveling up as a player.
“to learn 2a you need precision F1 race cars. Once you get good you can drift a mini van”
Just before this contest Matt also put himself on the radar at YoYoFactory. We knew Matt from local events but he responded to a random offer to help people with their routines before Nationals and Matt reached out. He made it known he was serious about stepping up.
It would be really neat and tidy to state here that Matt set a goal and three years later he achieved it, but development is never linear. 2022 was Matts First time on the big stage. First time meeting National Champions. There was John Ando, a sandal wearing yo-yo Messiah. Technical master Connor Scholten… this was like Aladins magic carpet ride. He saw the other side. He made finals, he even got a finalist medal. However, 2023 was pretty much the opposite. The year started with AZ states. He could finally get that title? Nope, AZ states ran an X division. It wasn’t to be. He was the best 2A player but not the champion. He was hungry and chased it. PNWR he was beaten by the comeback of a part time 2A player in Evan Nagao. Gulf Coast regional? Yes, he was chasing it! Last minute another part timer registered, Hunter Feuerstein 4A Champion, one of like 6 regional titles he won that year. Matt wasn’t down. Nationals was back in Mesa and Matt wanted a spot on the podium. One mistake, one tangle and in prelims for 2A there is no time to recover. His big year produced donuts. The time and effort spent and it felt like he was going backwards
Quitting was definitely an option. So was doubling down.
One thing he took away from his Nationals defeat was the fact Evan won the contest. Evan makes it look attainable. His skills weren’t god like but he constructed a routine, went clean and executed to his best ability. He didn’t try too hard to do the impossible, he just made what was in his limits look good. He was never going to quit.
He now had tapped into a knowledge base. John Ando gave him Yo-Yos in 2022, Connor was helping him with his tricks. There was momentum. The next step was getting a win. Early 2024 a new contest sprung up in San Diego Classic. Matt came, saw, conquered. First win. Next up AZ State contest, Boom. The title that had eluded him was now his. He was beating all the other styles in X division, something he didn’t even think as possible and then off to the Rocky Mountain regional contest where he now had a seed to Nationals finals thanks to a win there too. He was 3 for 3 and heading back to the Nationals finals stage.
He beat all comers in 2024. Cedric, who many years earlier helped him level up his equipment cheered him on from 2nd place.
Matt left Philadelphia the 2A National Champion and winner of the Duos division at the contest, winning more titles than anyone else at the event.
His 2024 season, with wins at every level, was probably the most dominant of any American competitive yo-yo player that year.
He joined YoYoFactory Team, a Team which has had arguably the greatest 2A players of all time and his debut signature release was a hit with a follow up is in the works.
The hero’s journey is complete right?
Not exactly. Matt is going to defend his title in Las Vegas at the 2025 USA National title but the fire burns a bit more for different goals. Matt is hoping to inspire a new generation of yo-yo player to fill the 2A shoes for years to come. He wants to offer pro tuned yo-yos for the ultimate out of box experience. He wants to create tutorials and guides that will help kids out anywhere in the world achieve what he has done and maybe more. He wants to inspire kids with the grandest imagery of 2A and produce videos that make kids say "I can do that". With the resources he is going to provide they will be able to.
“Nothing would give me more joy than seeing a new generation rise up in American 2a yo-yo play. It’s going to take more than an individual. It will take 3 or 4 players who can push each other.”
Are you one of those player?
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