2026 National YoYo Contest Freestyle Qualification
1A Division Qualification:
The 2026 National Yo-Yo Contest is open to all competitors. There is a three round qualifying structure to make it to finals for 1A, and two round qualifying structure for 2A-5A. The top eligible competitor from 2026 National Yo-Yo League Contests (PNWR, NER, RMR, MWR) and the 2025 National Champions earn a seed directly into the finals.
All other players interested in competing for the title of National Champion must be US Citizens, or full-time residents of the United States. Depending on their placement at the 2025 National Yo-Yo League Contests, they will start in either the preliminary or semi-final round, and work their way through the rounds below.
Non-US citizens are welcome to compete but will be scored separately in an International Open division.
Below is a quick summary of how to advance to the finals, for greater details, please see the Round Structure page.
Round 1 – Preliminaries: 60 seconds
- Open to all competitors.
Round 2 – Semi-finals: 90 seconds
- Anyone who has placed 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th at a major qualifying event (PNWR, NER, RMR, and MWR) is automatically entered into this division. In the case of an international player taking a top 5 placement the next eligible placement will be taken.
- Top 20 players from preliminaries advance to the semi-finals.
2026 1A Semi-Final Qualifiers:
Pacific Northwest Regionals: Chandler Steele, James Heder, Dexter Listavich, and Kris Toledo
Northeast Regionals: Thomas Rajan, Dexter Listavich, Marc Zuno, and Blaise Becker
Rocky Mountain Regionals: Hunter Feuerstein, Dylan Sabedra, Katie Thompson, and Ari Kim-Ramirez
Midwest Regionals: Levi White, Christian Harper, Isaac Viteri, and Judah Braselton
Round 3 – Finals: 3 minutes
- Finals will consist of 15 players in total.
- The following players below will be seeded into the finals. The remaining finalists will be determined by the semi-finals until there are 15 players in total competing.
2026 1A seeds by event:
- 2025 National YoYo Champion – Connor Seals
- Pacific Northwest Regional Contest Champion – Chandler Steele
- Northeast Regional Contest Champion – James Heder
- Rocky Mountain Regional Champion – Marc Zuno
- Midwest Regional Contest Champion – Hunter Feuerstein
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*Champions of the events are determined by placement of all residents in the USA. The highest placing USA resident in each major qualifier (regional) event receives the seed. Multiple seeds can be won by the same player.
X Division Qualification (2A, 3A, 4A, 5A):
The 2026 National Yo-Yo Contest is open to all competitors. There is a two round qualifying structure to make it to finals. The top eligible X-Division competitor from 2026 National Yo-Yo League Contests (PNWR, NER, RMR, and MWR) and the 2025 National Champions earn a seed directly into the finals.
Everyone else – 1 minute prelim
Round 1 – Preliminaries: 60 seconds
- Open to all competitors.
Round 2 – Finals: 3 minutes
- Finals will consist of 6 players in total per division.
- Players must have a minimum of 40 points in the prelim round in 2A, 3A, 4A, or 5A to qualify to the finals.
2026 X Division Seeds by event:
- 2025 National YoYo Champions
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- 2A – Matt Szeto
- 3A – Don Hodgkinson
- 4A – Ryan Connolly
- 5A – Jared Marcus
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- Pacific Northwest Regional Contest Champion – Aliyah Tan (3A)
- Northeast Regional Contest Champion – Michael Ferdico (5A)
- Rocky Mountain Regional Champion – Matt Szeto (2A)
- Midwest Regional Contest Champion – Josh Kanoff (4A)
*Champions of the events are determined by placement of all residents in the USA. The highest placing USA resident in each major qualifier (regional) event receives the seed. Multiple seeds can be won by the same player.