General Freestyle Rules

1. FREESTYLE QUALIFIERS (1A 2A 4A 5A) In the open divisions: 1A, 2A, OS-4A, CW-5A, there will be a minimum of 5 championship freestyle finalists in each division based on the highest compulsory scores and tie-breaker scores if necessary. The total number of 1A, 2A, 4A & 5A championship freestyle finalist will be determined as follows: The top five contestants advance to the freestyle finals based on highest compulsory scores plus: As a general guideline, the Contest Director and Head Judge may add one (or more) additional finalist for every five additional open contestants up to a total of ten open contestants. Note that this is a guideline and that the Contest Director and Head Judge have the discretion to make changes to this qualification process that benefits the 2005 Hong Kong Yo-Yo Contest. 2. FREESTYLE RULES (1A,2A,4A and 5A) · Each contestant will have 3 minutes to perform a freestyle routine to his or her choice of music. · The time starts when the music starts. · No points will be scored for tricks done before the music starts, or after the 3-minutes have elapsed. · All music must be considered G rated (appropriate for all audiences). Performers with inappropriate music (obscenities, ethnic or sexual slurs, etc.) may be disqualified. If you are unsure about your music, a judge will be available to listen to your music and make sure it is appropriate. · Music must be provided on a CD or Mini Disk. Cassette tape will not be accepted. · All music must be clearly labeled with the track to be used and with the contestant's name. · Contestant's song must be in one track. More than one track will not be accepted. · Music will be stopped between 3:00 and 3:01. · If contestant's song is less than 3 minutes, freestyle will be ended after the music end. · If the music stopped due to technical problem during freestyle, contestant can choose to perform again at the point he stopped, or re-do the whole freestyle after other contestants finished their freestyles · All actions of a performer must take into account the safety of the audience, facility, and the player himself. With the concurrence of the Contest Director and the Head Judge, all judges have the authority to disqualify a performer for dangerous or inappropriate behavior. · No assistants are allowed on stage while a contestant is performing. · All yo-yos that are to be used by a contestant must be brought on stage before their freestyle starts. No yo-yos may be returned to the stage and no others may be accepted from the audience or an assistant. · No props are allowed without the prior approval of the Contest Director and the Head Judge. 3. FREESTYLE SCORING A contestant's Freestyle score will consist of the points for Technical Execution up to a maximum of 65 points and Performance Style up to a maximum of 25 points. The details of these two components are outlined below. Each judge shall determine a combined "net score" for T.E. and P.S. for each contestant based on the algebraic sum of the Positive Point Awards and Negative Point Assessments as determined below. These raw scores will be normalized, averaged and weighted and will become a part of the contestant's final score. In the 1A freestyle, at no time may there be more than one yo-yo in play (including slave or prop yo-yos) at the same time. In the 2A freestyles, points are generally awarded only for trick elements occurring while both yo-yos are in play and at no time may there be more than two yo-yos in play at the same time. In OS-4A and CW-5A there is no restriction on number of yo-yos that may be in play at the same time. In CW-5A points are generally awarded only while the counter weight is out of the player's hand. Technical Execution Point (65%): Positive Points Awards One or more positive points may be awarded for advanced level tricks, or trick elements, performed successfully. Typical scoring elements include but are not limited to: mounts, dismounts, launches, catches, string hits, hops, pops, flops, grinds, lacerations, transitions, regenerations, release catches (like suicides), whips, whip catches (like Iron Whips and OS whip catches), counterweight & strings catches, and other yo-yo maneuvers. Typical scoring elements for the 2A division include but are not limited to: loops, punches, wraps, moons, hops, stalls, worlds, transitions, regenerations and various combinations and/or variations of these elements. Additional points may be awarded for difficulty, originality, long sequences on same spin, and extreme amplitude of a maneuver. In other words, a judge may give as many points as they feel are warranted for each element successfully performed. Also as noted above, no points shall be awarded for any tricks or antics done before the start of the 3-minute freestyle or after the three minutes has elapsed. Negative Point Assessments: In all divisions, one or more points may be deducted for: obvious trick or trick element misses, loss of control, missed counterweight & strings catches and restarts. Remember that in 2A each yo-yo is judged separately. Repeated efforts to regain control of a yo-yo, such as unsuccessful binds, and excessive uncontrolled loops or punches will result in additional deductions. In all divisions except OS-4A, replacing one yo-yo with another, will count as a 3-point deduction if the yo-yo string had become jammed or knotted. Loss of control that results in a restart or yo-yo substitution (not jammed or knotted) will be a mandatory 2-point deduction. Therefore, in 2A, if both yo-yos need to be restarted a mandatory 4-point deduction will be assessed. In 2A, replacing both yo-yos, will count as a 5-point deduction if both yo-yo strings have become twisted together. Performance Style Points (25%): Each judge may grant a maximum of 30 points for performance style of a freestyle routine. (A performance equal to the winners of the National or World contests would probably score no more than 18 or 20 points.) Elements of style such as, but not limited to, the ones listed below will normally score points only while the contestant is performing advanced level tricks. Stage presence Choreography Amplitude Elegance of control and line Maturity of yo-yo maneuvers Originality Movement (use of "yo-yo space" up, down, back and forth, left and right including dance and acrobatic moves while yo-yoing). Crowd reaction, entertaining antics, or other elements, which occur when not performing with a yoyo, shall not add to the performance style points. 4. COMPULSORY SCORING (10%) Compulsory points are the total adjusted points a contestant has earned in the compulsories. The compulsory scores will be converted to compulsory points by dividing them by 5. Therefore, a perfect score of 50 points will be adjusted to 10 points while a score of 44 points will be adjusted to 8.8 points. 5. FINAL SCORE The Final Score for each contestant will be determined by adding their adjusted points for Technical Execution and Performance Style points with their Compulsory score. A perfect score of 100 points would indicate that a contestant received first place votes from all the judges (after the high and low judges scores were discarded) for Technical Execution score of 65 points, Performance Style score of 25 points and also scored a perfect score of 10 points (50/5) on the compulsory tricks. All final scores will be rounded to the nearest tenth of a point (e.g. a score of 90.65 will round up to 90.7 while a score of 90.64 will round down to 90.6) Ties will be broken based on which contestant has the highest: Compulsory score Technical Execution score In the extremely unlikely event that there is still a tie, the judges have the ability to devise an appropriate tiebreaker, or can declare a tie. The judge's decision is final. All contestants will be regarded as having read, and understood the above all rules.