"alternatives" - KEY available from 18th April 9PM (GMT+8)
14. Expressiyon
[2nd March 2024]
It was a rainy day in Jakarta. I met Sitta Nattasomboon and Azim Jameel (who was staying with Sitta) downstairs, where we planned to take a cab to the venue. Guess what? Jakarta traffic struck again, and I did not expect it to take 30 minutes to go 3 km at 10:30 a.m. What time is rush hour in Jakarta? Every hour.
Expressiyon was a contest organized by Ahmad Kharisma - and as the name suggested, it was a wordplay on "expression" and "yo-yo." The contest consisted of the main divisions, 1A & X-Div, along with the additional Alternate division, where players could freestyle without clickers, and the judges would decide who won in the following categories:
- Music Choreography Award
- Most Unique Award
- Most Swag Award
- Comedy Award
- Best Flow Award
- Beautiful Freestyle & Best Trick Award
I thought it was a neat concept, as it allowed non-meta players to join in the fun, as well as players who just wanted to express their styles without needing to "compete."
When we got to the venue, I went up to say hi to Kharisma. I asked Kharis how he felt about winning a contest he was organizing. “Nah bro, I didn’t have time to practice.”
I didn’t believe him because he had just gotten 2nd at Episode 4 last month. Turns out it did seem like he practiced, but he went for a more artistic, less serious freestyle.
The venue was a mini theater/performance hall. It was a cozy environment with a stage area and a practice room (Jonathan Sitanggang shot A Joyful Surrender here):
A key person I met at the event was Tong Jia Le, the owner of SENSE. We had spoken online before, but this was the first time meeting in person. I introduced myself, and we caught up over a smoke outside. I remember telling him that I didn’t know he was massive. Dude’s really tall and large. Tong said his love of beer has contributed to his size, haha. We talked about a lot of things, and I thought Tong was a really nice guy.
He also tried the Insomnia and asked me how much it retailed for. I said $150, and he said, “Fuck…” I told him I had made three prototypes, and he asked me what was wrong with me. Fast forward - Tong would eventually be the designer of the INERTIA. He didn’t want to take credit for it, often referring to the INERTIA process as me designing the menu and him being the cook. Fun fact: the INERTIA inner rims were inspired by the Next Journey by SENSE.
Expressiyon was also where I met Lam Nguyen. Lam was pretty shy and had Trong Nhan help translate some things he wanted to say in English. I remember the Vietnam boys asking whether I would be sponsoring a local Vietnamese player. I told them the same thing I mentioned in my last blog—I wanted to understand their scene better and see their style develop further.
I also caught up with a lot of the local Indonesians friends that I had not seen in years - Deviant Neeve, Jason, Ray, Dewa etc. Most of them just called me fat and old but was happy to see me. I replied them back by also calling them fat and old, but they just said no bro Jim fatter and older. I gave up and accepted my fate.
Xavier Ng also suddenly appeared at the event as a surprise contestant. Funny story—someone actually leaked to me that Xavier was going to be there, but I was instructed to still act surprised when he showed up. “HOLY SHIT BRO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??” I said.
When it was time for 1A, Kevin Hendrata was the first to go up for ALT.
I actually really liked this freestyle. Unfortunately for Kevin, he got a knot mid-freestyle and had to switch out. Other than that, I thought it was fresh. Not many people would be able to pull off a BMTH–Koolaid routine, but Kevin did a good job.
Post-freestyle, Kevin was actually fuming about his switch-out. He got off stage and threw our precious Insomnia prototype on the ground, where it went rolling across the room. Kevin then disappeared for a while. This incident has since been referred to as the “bowling” meme.
Since we didn’t have enough prototypes to go around, I was actually looking for Kevin because I needed a yo-yo for my freestyle, which was coming up shortly, lol. I couldn’t find him, so I ended up using the black prototype. I remember having to cut and prepare my strings on stage because I didn’t have time, haha.
Eventually, it was time for Sitta’s freestyle. I hadn’t seen much of him prior to this, but he suddenly spawned before his freestyle. He told me he had the shits and was mostly in the bathroom during the event.
Having just won EP4 last month, Sitta was feeling the pressure - but overall, he did well. Not as clean as EP4, but still clean. After his freestyle, Sitta went back to the bathroom to continue his shit.
I actually watched all of the 1A freestyles at Expressiyon since I was also controlling the IG stories on my phone. My data ran out pretty quickly, though, and unfortunately, I missed some of the freestyles.
After the event, I filmed a playtest for the Insomnia, similar to what we did for PNWR. Two of my all-time favorite players to film are Thawhir and Lam because all they need are one or two takes to land their long combos. When we filmed Lam, he landed his combo on the first try. He said the yo-yo was good.
To this day, I still tease him about his Expressiyon freestyle, as he kinda shat the bed with it, haha. But in his defense, it was his first overseas contest, and he was feeling the nerves.
Since I was pretty sleep-deprived at this event, I was sweating profusely, and my nose was drippy. I was actually pretty gross that day.
Expressiyon was a wrap, and I had a lot of fun. The venue was good, the event was well-organized. Sitta would end up getting 2nd, and Kevin getting 8th - which was a good showing for "alternatives". I think I got 15th or something..
I skipped the afterparty and got back to the hotel early to edit clips.
Next up was Stronger Yo-yo Cup Episode 5!
To be continued...