"alternatives" - PREORDERS NOW OPEN.
5. Ashtrays & Stronger EP2
More "insomnia"
Me, wanting to keep the whole yo-yo company a secret, decided to try doing this without getting any help, and searched for a factory to work on the first “insomnia”. But in all fairness, I could have asked around and got help to make my life much easier.
Being a nobody in the yo-yo world and trying to make a yo-yo sucks. No factory (That I found at that point) will take you seriously - they ignore your questions, ignore your emails, or take your job but overcharge your ass. So my ass got overcharged - and my prototype production took forever….. It took so long I almost forgot about it.
*In hindsight, I do understand why it is that way. Some factories I have grown close to told me there are always kids trying to start a yo-yo company and annoying the shit out of factories with questions, arguing with them, and finally being difficult with payments. I did present myself as a newbie at that time - asking very basic questions, and that was probably why I got the treatment I got*
Anyways, “insomnia proto 1” was a hot ass. Dog shit yo-yo - but a pretty good ashtray.
I swore to god that I was never drawing a yo-yo again, not before trying again.. (BIG MISTAKE)
I switched my factory and moved on to the other one who was willing to take up my project. I paid a little more than I should have, and waited again..
Stronger Yo-yo Regionals: Episode 2
Stronger Episode 2 happened somewhere between all of that bad prototyping. Since I already spent on equipment for Episode 1 - I didn't have much to spend on other than food again. So I wanted to do 2 things: First, making Episode 2 having a Regional seed to MYYC23 & flying the winner down for Thailand Open (THOYC23) which was happening a week after EP2. The terms and condition of the flight ticket at that time was that if they were attending Thailand Open - I would reimburse the winners of 1A & X-Division RM500 for the prize.
Malaysia Yo-yo Association (MYYA) was cool with the idea, and so we renamed that episode to Stronger Yo-yo Regionals. I also reached out to Han - organizer of THOYC23, and he was very appreciative of it. Kedaiyoyo also sponsored the prizes again, which was extremely cool.
With all of that, I was actually quite disappointed at that time because although registration was much better than Episode 1, so many people pulled out at the last moment and so many humans were LATE AGAIN. A few cool things happened in Episode 2 though!
Ahmad Kharisma (2x Asia Pacific Champion) and Osshe Louis (Indonesian 4A Champion) somehow felt it was worth the money to come down. It was a pleasant surprise to see them and we had a good time catching up. Quoc Anh also kept his word and came down again.
I asked the international fellas why they came, and they all said it was practice for Worlds… practice for worlds??? LMAO NONE OF THEM QUALIFIED THAT YEAR HAHAH. "
Marcus Ee also showed up as promised - and personally I really enjoyed his routine. There was something about it that just felt very ‘raw’. I don’t know how to describe it well but it was like watching an old Polo routine before he polished up everything - not in the sense of having similar tricks, or being as talented hehe, but just having that raw sloppiness in tricks that I think brings a lot of character. I'm quite sure this was the freestyle that made me decide to sponsor him later on.
I told Marcus I liked the routine - He asked me if I was blind.
I also took note of Ilhan Gabriel at EP2, he was still pretty trash at this point but I thought he had the potential to be great. Selfishly it gave me the idea that Stronger could be a good scouting ground for my future yo-yo company.
Anyways, both Amirrul and Quoc Anh won again. I actually thought Kharis was going to win but oh wells. I actually asked the judges about it afterwards, and they said Kharis was difficult to click. Ok. Funny thing was that Amirrul couldn’t attend the THOYC23 because of work, so the cash went to Kharis in the end.
Kharis would go on to win 1A THOYC23, and Quoc Anh getting 2nd at X-Div HAHA.
Episode 2 damage: RM500 (Food) + RM1,000 (Flights) = RM1,500 (USD340). Someone jokingly said I was being the MrBeast of yo-yos, because I was just throwing money away. I felt I was closer to a degenerate crypto gambler - buying in shitcoins after they got rugged pulled, only to get rugged further.
As we approached July 2023, I was still waiting for my prototypes. However, I was about to attend my first contest abroad in eight years—the Singapore Yo-yo Nationals 2023. A lot had changed since my last time there...
To be continued...