"alternatives" - PREORDERS NOW OPEN.
10. Malaysia Nationals Yo-yo Contest 2023 (LONG)
Not too long after Thailand Nationals was Malaysia Nationals (MYYC2023). Behind the scenes, Ilhan Gabriel and Marcus Ee were working very hard to represent “alternatives” at their first Nationals after their new sponsorship. We actually held practice sessions quite frequently at my office to optimize and prepare for Nationals.
Personally, I thought either of them would win, but I wasn’t sure who. Ilhan decided to stick with the Insomnia 3, while Marcus used the Insomnia 4 (final prototype). I didn’t really play during those sessions since I didn’t have a routine yet and wasn’t too sure about competing as I wanted to film content and socialize during the event instead. For some reason I gave in to the peer pressure and would eventually compete.
Random Story
About a week before MYYC, Thawhir Iqbal was actually in KL as his mom had an appointment with a Tit Tar practitioner. We hung out that day mainly around the city center and I had Thawhir try the latest prototype (insomnia 4). He said it was much better than the black one before. That day he mostly played with the prototype, and I played with his Turning Point Superstar - which I really liked.
We later also caught up together with Mohammad Shakeel (His former-sponsor), had dinner, and went to visit Ahmad Dimi.
The next day, while having lunch with my colleague at KLCC, I glanced outside and, in the distance, spotted Thawhir Iqbal (again) and Owen Ekblad playing yo-yos in the park. It was completely random. I had never seen anyone playing yo-yos in public before, and suddenly, right in the middle of lunch, I see an American and a Singaporean yo-yoing in Kuala Lumpur?
I went over to say hi and introduced myself to Owen. Turns out, Owen was in KL because his partner is Malaysian, and they were spending their Christmas holidays here. Owen would also be attending MYYC2023 as a judge. Thawhir mentioned he couldn’t attend MYYC2023 as he would be in Japan for the Axel Yo-Yo Cup (AXELYC23)—which he ended up winning 3A in.
Pre-MYYC2023
Karthik Devaraj, being the try-hard, arrived early and asked me to open up my office for him to practice. His freestyle was set to BONVOYAGE by Dreamcatcher (K-pop), which was a surprising change from his usual song choices but fit him surprisingly well. An Indian boy from Singapore freestyling to a progressive rock song performed by a South Korean girl group. Yep.
Sciran was also around, and we hung out at my office until dinner. He had a lot of praise for our yo-yos and wanted to borrow one for MYYC, so he used Karthik’s Insomnia 3 since Karthik was already comfortable with the Insomnia 4.
Ahmad Kharisma, Rigel Amadeo, and Kevin Hendrata arrived later that evening. We had a mock-up stage prepared similar to how Stronger was arranged. Kevin, full of excitement, was quick to trip over my standing lights and broke one. He felt really bad about it—but I still tease him that he owes me lights.
Kevin told me he would unleash the best routine ever (nope) at MYYC23, which would result in overwhelming sales of the Insomnia (also nope).
I passed Kevin the Insomnia, and he immediately fell in love with it. He then announced he was going to freestyle, so we played his music. To my surprise, Kevin went really clean—lol. Ewin Ee, who was also in the room, turned to me and asked, “Who is this guy ah? New member? He’s good, man.”
Kevin, however, wasn’t satisfied. “ARGH, so many misses! Again! One more time!” And then he ran his routine again—and went really clean again. Apparently, my definition of clean was very different from others'...
Since Kevin was happy with the yo-yo, he accepted my invitation to join the team.
Fun fact: Before switching to ALT, Kevin was using a Deviant+ by OFFSET and a Recog + Elevation by UNPRLD
Day of MYYC2023
I woke up early that morning, as I remembered the event starting very early. I packed up and headed straight to the venue which was at Atria Mall. It was around Christmas season, so the mall was decorated very nicely with its theme. The stage was huge and had a LED backdrop which projected the sponsors and event title. It was sweet that the organizers also included my logo even though I didn’t have much to offer at that point.
I also met Bryan Teo from Singapore for the first time who was super nice and gave me a bag filled with yo-yos. Not sure what I did to deserve it but there was a bunch of cool yo-yos there!
I bought coffee for the team and shortly we were going up for 1A preliminaries.
Prelims went well – Ilhan got 1st, followed with Marcus in 2nd. I got 8th in prelims, barely qualifying with the cut off point being 10th. We all had lunch afterwards where I jokingly said, in all the years that I got 1st in prelims, I would get 2nd at finals. What a prophet I was.
After lunch it was time for 4A, Ilhan did his thing as usual, and would win 4A as usual.
Guess who suddenly showed up for the 4th time that year?? “SUP JIMMY” - Bloody Quoc Anh suddenly pulls up lmao. I told him since we see each other so often he should just join “alternatives”. He told me no.
1A Division
Soon it was time for 1A, I went up pretty early as I barely made it to finals. It was 2023, I spent of it preparing for ALT, organizing 3 events and attending 2 other nationals, I barely played any yo-yo. And when I was, I was just playing casually for fun and made routines hours before events. So anyways, I did a bad freestyle and that was that. I found it funny that people were trying to comfort me after the routine as they thought I was gunning for the title, but in reality, I didn’t care at all lol.
Ilhan went up next and it would be his 3rd time on stage. As this is the 3rd time the emcee was announcing him up – I reminded him that his name was pronounced ILL-HAN, not EE-HAN. With the power of his blue hair, EE-HAN (According to the emcee again) did what was definitely his best 1A routine yet. We actually nicknamed him the “blue lion” after the freestyle – as his hair kinda resembled a Lion’s mane. Ilhan was now the clear favorite to win. Ilhan told me he used “Heartbreak Feels So Good” by Fall Out Boy – cause he would hear in Fortnite.
Marcus was the second last contestant, and finally showed us the ROYALTY freestyle he was talking about from Thailand Nationals. Although it wasn’t as clean the practice runs, it was enough to potentially take the title. I didn’t know who was going to win.
Down the road, Marcus told me he was proud of this freestyle and watching it back always makes him feel motivated.
International Open
First up was Kevin Hendrata. Kevin unfortunately made a knot in his first throw, and had an early switch out. Kevin told us that the early switch rocked his confidence a bit, and found it difficult to recover. Although for me, I thought he recovered well.
Kevin was not well known in the scene outside of Indonesia as he did not carry many titles and was ranked 4th in Indonesia that year. Kevin is a natural performer and I really liked how he presents his tricks. Kevin’s routine at MYYC made me a believer that he will become a top contender one day. I also thought the song suited him well too - although the lyrics in the song are ridiculous haha. Kevin would end up getting 4th for this routine.
Karthik was up next and is no stranger to competing in Malaysia, as he placed 2nd in MYYC18’s International Division. It was go time, and the emcee announced him as “Karthik Singapore” for some reason. Karthik would then deliver his cleanest routine yet. “Karthik Singapore!!” – The emcee yelled again. Karthik ran off the stage and gave me a massive hug. I pat his back and it was soaking in sweat lol. When Karthik finally released his hug, I saw he was teary and asked me if I was proud. I was indeed very proud at that moment. Karthik would end up winning the International Open.
As Karthik wasn't too known to the scene at this point, I believe not many people have seen this routine. Personally I think this routine is under-rated - and those who saw it at that time started following Karthik's journey.
Results and Controversy
When it was time for 1A results, MYYC decided to announce from 5th place to 1st this time round. In 5th was the current Malaysian Champion, Chew Zi Hao who unfortunately had a switch out. In 4th, myself Ho Swee Jim.
Zi Hao and myself were asked to go on stage as they announce the top 3. In 3rd, Marcus Ee! We hugged it out on stage, as it was his first podium finish ever – I told him to be proud of it, and if he was not happy with the results, fuck it, as long as he was happy with his performance. In 2nd was Ilhan Gabriel! (Or EE-HAN Garbiel according to the emcee even though I reminded again how to pronounce him before 4A results). This was also the Blue Lion’s first podium finish in 1A and you could see from his face he was trying so hard not to smile haha. Luan Xiao Guang would then be announced as the new Malaysian Champion. We took the group photos and celebrated our wins.
Most of the international players were flying off that night, so we waited for their Grab and said our goodbyes.
The locals stayed back and had dinner using the vouchers we won from the event. I remember opening up my Instagram and saw Owen Ekblad posted the following story:
It meant a lot coming from Owen.
MYYC23 was a wrap. It was well organized, had a nice venue & stage and flowed nicely. My only real gripe with it was the emceeing. But other than that, it was a good event.
I got home, quickly showered and jumped straight into bed – I was tired and had work the next day. I took one last look at my phone and the MYYA Whatsapp group was blowing up. Turns out Luan Xiao Guang was not Malaysian and had not been in Malaysia long enough to compete for the National title. The organizers acknowledged the mistake and said they would look towards an outcome soon. I didn’t think too much about it and just went to sleep.
*I also received the first multiple ‘essays’ that night haha.
The next day, it was announced that Luan Xiao Guang was disqualified – which has then affected the scoresheets. The new 1A results were as follow:
1st Marcus Ee
2nd Ilhan Gabriel
3rd Zi Hao Chew
4th Ho Swee Jim
Although Marcus was declared the new Champion, the moment felt underwhelming since most of the excitement had already passed. He was still happy, but it wasn’t the experience he had envisioned. It was also 0.1 point score difference between 1st and 2nd, but Ilhan was cool with it all, as he already accepted his 2nd place and was happy with his first ever podium finish in 1A. Either ways, they were both champions in my eyes after they walked off the stage.
For me, it was our first 2 National titles (1A, 4A), and 2nd International Open (Thailand & Indonesia) win. Woohoo!
A few days later I flew off to Singapore as I wanted more players to try out the insomnia 4…
To be continued…