"alternatives" - KEY available from 18th April 9PM (GMT+8)
9. Thailand National Yo-yo Contest 2023
Thailand Nationals 2023 (THYNC23) was Marcus Ee’s first overseas contest. He was pretty excited since he had been grinding hard since EP3. Me? I barely touched a yo-yo all year.
.
This was also the first time I was travelling to Thailand for yo-yos.
We took the same flight and headed to Thailand. That’s when I realized Marcus was a yapper—dude doesn’t shut up. Here’s an actual conversation we had:
Marcus: Yo man
Jim: Yes?
Marcus: I don’t know, man.
Jim: Don’t know what?
Marcus: It’s done, bro.
Jim: What are you talking about?
Marcus: That’s it.
Jim: Shut the fuck up, man. I don’t know what you’re saying.
Marcus: Yo-yos, man. It’s time to yo.
Jim: …
Marcus: Insomnia time, bro. Let’s go Insomnia!
True story. This conversation went on forever until I just played Monopoly Go on my phone to block him out.
Falling sick
On the way to the hotel, we talked about dinner plans. Marcus suggested checking out Sushiro nearby. But I suddenly felt cold and unwell. When we reached the hotel, I told him I needed to rest. Marcus called me a "lame bro" and went to dinner without me.
*My dinner I ordered from Grabfood
I showered and tried to sleep, but I had insomnia and didn't feel good the entire night. So went to the nearest 7-11 for Panadol, Pocari sweat, C1000 Vitamin drinks, melatonin, and sleeping gummies.
The next morning (THNYC Day 1, Prelims), I ran into Marcus downstairs after grabbing coffee. I still felt like shit. Marcus suggested we go thrifting at some local malls. As I sipped my coffee, it hit me—I couldn’t taste anything. Fuck. I was pretty sure I had Covid. I’d never had it before, so I was just guessing.
Like a dumb nicotine addict, I lit a cigarette to test it—no taste. Marcus didn’t seem worried when I told him. He just said, “Chill bro, Covid’s scared of me and my freestyle I’m dropping tomorrow!”.
I went back to the hotel to rest and ordered Grabfood whenever I needed to eat. I just slept the rest of the day, hoping to recover before Thailand Nationals Finals.
Contest Day - Thailand Nationals Finals
I apologize to everyone at Thailand Nationals 2023. I was in no condition to attend and should have stayed back to avoid infecting anyone with whatever I had. But I went anyway, wearing a mask the whole time. I slightly blame Marcus—he said, “Bro, you don’t have Covid lah. Just come watch my ROYALTY (his freestyle song) and we bounce early.” So we decided to go as late as possible and to leave as soon as possible.
At the contest, we met up with Karthik. I kept my distance and told everyone I wasn’t feeling well. It was my first time meeting Harrison Lee, and he mentioned a secret project—which turned out to be Canopy Collection.
I ran into Quoc Anh for the fourth time that year. He was getting too comfortable and started calling me Jimmy. Karthik thought it was funny and started calling me Jimmy too. Quoc said he was there to avenge his 2nd place finish at THOYC earlier that year; which he earned a free ticket for by winning Stronger Episode 2. It was not the last time seeing Quoc Anh that year...
I also saw Polo (the reigning Thailand National Champion) for the first time in years (*edit, Welly reminded me that Polo was at SYYC - which I forgot haha!"). I asked if he was nervous, Polo said, “Nah,” and told me he was trying something new— which was freestyling to a classic song - Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now.
I am a huge fan of Polo - I always thought he had some of the most difficult and innovative tricks. So I asked if I could show him some of my COOL TRICKS. It took me a quite a few (alot) of attempts, but I manage to show him some slack element that I thought was really good and original.
Polo was silent so I asked him how was it? Polo just took a huge sniff of his "ya-dom" (Thailand herbal inhaler) and then took out his Veylaa (His signature yo-yo by Duncan). He landed that exact same trick on first try, and showed me a cooler variation - "Why not do this instead?". What a show off. I believe this was the karma that made him not qualify for Worlds the following year.
"insomnia's" first test run, THNYC International Division
Karthik used the black proto - insomnia 3
Marcus used the silver proto - insomnia 4
Karthik wasn't used to the insomnia 4 yet so he decided to stick with the insomnia 3.
If I remembered the sequence correctly, I went up first and felt like death. Soon after was Marcus. Marcus who promised to show ROYALTY... um. yeah. The freestyle started off pretty good, and then it all went downhill from there haha. After he got off stage, Marcus just said to me "Thats it bro".
Next up was the legendary 5th placer from Singapore, Karthik Devaraj! Who went surprisingly clean and spammy. He actually improved a lot since Singapore Nationals and seemed to have found his freestyle pace. I told Karthik I was planning to go back now, but he said to stick around as he might get top 3.
Although I was there to scout for players, nobody really stood out for me. Nobody except Sitta Nattasomboon, whom I knew from 2016 AP. At that point of time, being a new brand, I didn't feel good poaching from other brands, especially from Hiroyuki Suzuki's brand (sOMEThING) who I consider a friend (Sitta was not on team sOMEThING).
For some reason I had the assumption Sitta was on sOMEThING (which he wasn't), because he won SWAG Korea, and sOMEThING World Thailand held a couple of years back. I just told Sitta his freestyle was awesome and was glad to see him back (I heard he stopped yo-yoing for awhile).
I remember Karthik asking Sitta to teach him that BTB regen trick. This didn't last long as Karthik gave up quite fast.
Polo would end up retaining his title, Karthik winning his first Thailand International Div, Marcus getting 4th - and Quoc Anh getting 2nd in both 1A and X-Division again HAHA. Thailand Nationals prizes were nice, the international players received cash, on top of the regular yo-yos and a large trophy.
It was our first contest title with the "insomnia 7068", and our first win for "alternatives". Yay.
I left immediately after the results, and went back to the hotel to sleep before flying back home the next day.
THNYC23 was a wrap. I was only there for about 2-3 hours so, overall I didn't get the full experience of the contest. As I was unwell, I didn't get to socialize as much too. It was also good catching up with Han Sanprasert and team, who organized the event. The venue and backdrop was questionable, but at least there was a big stage and the crowd/practice area was spacious.
The thought of recruiting Sitta lingered—if only he wasn’t already sponsored (he wasn’t).
The classic - If you never ask, you never know.
To be continued...