2. Organizing Stronger Yo-yo Cup EP1

1. Introduction & Prequel to "alternatives"

Karthik’s Pre-Freestyle Guide

Instagram Q&A - Part 1

Stronger Yo-yo Cup Episode: 1

The original concept of the Stronger Yo-yo Cup was quite different back then. It was initially meant to be a local event for us to reunite as a community and improve to South East Asia’s standards. After being away from yo-yoing for seven years and having only a week to prepare, I was shocked to still place 2nd at Nationals- less than 0.X points from winning my first title.

With Julian Chee and Zafran Aqil relocating to the USA, there was a significant skill gap that needed to be filled. I thought that by organizing more contests, we could help motivate players to improve as well.

I also hoped to create a contest that the aging scene (and myself) could enjoy by removing restrictions on explicit music and encouraging playful trash talk before freestyles to keep the crowd engaged. Imagine a 11-year-old kid shouting, “I WILL BEAT YOU, JIM,” right before his freestyle. The audience would definitely pay attention to see if that boy could walk the talk. Whereas normally when a kid performs, most people would just go grab a coffee or smoke. 

I also wanted the contests to be held in private, enclosed venues to create a more close-knit vibe where the audience wouldn’t feel shy about cheering. Stronger was originally supposed to be held quarterly - four times a year (which clearly didn’t happen, haha).

The "Catalogue"

The idea for “alternatives” hadn’t happened yet, but a few interesting things did. I was approached by a few manufacturers who asked if I was interested in starting a yo-yo company. My honest thought at the time was that I’d never enter a business that couldn’t make "interesting" money - meaning at least 10x profit from each product sold. That’s when I was introduced to the “catalogue,” a menu of pre-designed yo-yos I could stick a logo on for around $3-5 per mono. Insane. Those manufacturers also showed me the work they did for other brands - which I was pretty shocked about. I looked into it further and even ordered some yo-yos to try. Unfortunately, they were too bad for me to even consider, so I closed the doors on starting a yo-yo company.

The name & early beginnings

Anyway, I chose the name Stronger Yo-yo Cup because Marcus Ee had a video from over 10 years ago titled Stronger Yoyo, back when he was noob AF. I asked his permission to use the name, and he was cool with it. I would link the video here, but he’s already unlisted it. Edit he saw the blog and shared me the video

The original theme and memes for Stronger was also about literally getting swole. I had no idea how to edit back then, so I just manually erased backgrounds of registered players faces and attached them to bodybuilders. I would then post these onto Instagram and tag those players. I also thought by doing so, they might find the content funny and commit to actually attending the event (they did not). 

The date for Episode 1 was set for February 4, 2023, and I opened registrations. Registrations were slow at first—Malaysians have this horrible habit of registering a day before an event and then no-showing. Annoying stuff.

Funny enough, one of the first competitors to register was Quoc Anh from Vietnam. I thought, “What the fuck?” The dude had just flew to Malaysia less than two months ago and wanted to fly from Vietnam again to join Stronger? I kinda ignored it and thought, “If he shows up, he shows up, lol.”

Organizing your first yo-yo contest

It was my first time organizing a contest, and honestly - it was easy. Some seniors back in the day would say, “If you have any complaints about a contest, try organizing one. It’s not as easy as it looks.” Bro. It was not difficult at all. I asked around for judges, bought a couple of stage lights off Shopee, a backdrop, clickers, and JBL speakers - and that was pretty much it. Oh, and I also paid USD10 to some random guy on Fiver to create the Stronger logo - looking back I think he just used ai to generate it..

Since I had been away from the scene for over seven years, I didn’t have any sponsor contacts, so I just paid for the whole thing - around RM4,000 (?), and would use registration fees to cover food and drinks for the attendees. Actually maybe losing money was the difficult part the seniors meant....

Back when I was passionate about yo-yos in my early 20s, I always told myself that if I were ever in a position to help the yo-yo community, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Now that I was indeed in that position but getting back into yo-yoing as a hobby - and as a grown adult - I realized it was a lot harder said than done, lol. But I decided to stay true to my word and just give it a try.

To be continued...