The 2015 World Yo-yo Contest reaches its final stage with a very strong roster and a few upsets! The semi-final round was a real treat, and we now have the complete list of contestants for the grand finals!

1A

A very tough round where players showed great preparation! Most went very clean, making it very hard to predict the outcome! The biggest let downs here were certainly Christopher Chia, whose control was lacking, and Paul Kerbel, who was unable to secure a good Technical Execution score.

We do get a nice and diverse set of players joining Gentry Stein for the finals, however, with established competitors and newcomers from around the globe!

World Champions Hiroyuki Suzuki, Marcus Koh, and János Karancz all secured a spot in the finals, as well as a very strong set of younger players: Ryuichi Nakamura and Shion Araya, who qualified in the first two places, Yamato Murata, who had a very solid routine, young Czech marvel Jakub Dekan, and Colin Beckford, coming all the way from the wildcard round to secure the last spot in the final round!

Check the full list below. It’s safe to say this is the strongest 1A finals in history!

Ryuichi Nakamura (Japan) Shion Araya (Japan) Iori Yamaki (Japan) Yusuke Otsuka (Japan) Yamato Murata (Japan) Luis Enrique Villasenor (Mexico) Janos Karancz (Hungary) Anthony Rojas (United States) Ahmad Kharisma (Indonesia) Hiroyuki Suzuki (Japan) Zach Gormley (United States) Takeshi Matsuura (Japan) Marcus Koh (Singapore) Akitoshi Tokubuchi (Japan) Ryota Ogi (Japan) Jakub Dekan (Czech Republic) Colin Beckford (United States)

2A

No surprises in 2A, where World Champions Shinji Saito and Shu Takada top the ranking. Tomoyuki Kaneko also had a strong routine and ended up ahead of Hiraku Fujii.

It’s the first time Shinji Saito and Takuma Yamamoto will go against each other at the Worlds finals since 2011, when Shinji won his last title.

Also worth noting is the presence of both Chan Chun Hay and Liu Man Ki from Hong Kong in the finals.

Shinji Saito (Japan) Shu Takada (Japan) Tomoyuki Kaneko (Japan) Hiraku Fujii (Japan) Arata Imai (Japan) Henson Chan Chun Hay (Hong Kong) Liu Man Ki (Hong Kong) Ginji Miura (Japan) Shuhei Kanai (Japan)

1A and 2A scores can be found here.

3A

The 3A final round deserves a lot of attention this year! In addition to 3-time World Champion Hank Freeman, who barely made it due to a discard, we’ll also get to see current Japanese champion Tomoya Kurita, 2010 World Champion Minato Furuta, and both Patrick Borgerding and Ng Wang Kit, who are not afraid to pull risky moves on stage.

But the star of the semi-final round was Alex Hattori, who showed impressive calm and consistency to top the list ahead of the equally strong Japanese roster!

Unlike previous years, there are no favorites here, and Hajime Miura will have to work extra hard if he wants to add a second World title to his collection!

Alex Hattori (United States) Takumi Yasumoto (Japan) Mizuki Takimoto (Japan) Tomoya Kurita (Japan) Minato Furuta (Japan) Yuto Yamaguchi (Japan) Patrick Borgerding (United States) Ng Wang Kit (Hong Kong) Hank Freeman (United States)

4A

Despite Bryan Figueroa’s absence, the USA are very well represented in this division, with all three American players (Michael Nakamura, Zac Rubino, and Ben Conde) securing a spot in the final round.

The quality of the players in this division is unbelievable, with no less than four players getting a 10 in Execution, and Ben Conde’s routine was truly exceptional, scoring 38.5 out of 40 evaluation points!

Do these players have what it takes to dethrone Rei Iwakura? We are about to find out!

Takumi Yasumoto (Japan) Michael Nakamura (United States) Naoto Onishi (Japan) Zac Rubino (United States) Ben Conde (United States) Lorenzo Sabatini (Italy) Ryo Oishi (Japan) Futoshi Maruyama (Japan) Zhao Chen (China) Kuo Po Han (Taiwan) Tsubasa Takada (Japan)

5A

Another brilliant display by Bryan Jardin in the semi-final round! The US player tops the list of players who will face Takeshi Matsuura in the finals with a very comfortable margin, followed by last year’s runner-up Jake Elliott, who, despite having an early restart, still managed to qualify in second place.

World Champion Tyler Severance was unable to qualify and will be missed in the final round, but we still get a quality roster with some of the best in Japan, including Yoshihiro Abe, Sora Ishikawa, and Hideo Ishida.

Unlike the other divisions, where it’s hard to pick a favorite, Takeshi Matsuura is probably still at the top of everyone’s bets in 5A, and the other players will have to pull some big surprises in order to beat the six-time World Champion.

Bryan Jardin (United States) Jake Elliott (United States) Yoshihiro Abe (Japan) Sora Ishikawa (Japan) Naoya Takeuchi (Japan) Naoki Uemae (Japan) Hiroyasu Ishihara (Japan) Hideo Ishida (Japan) Kai Zhang (China)

Scores for 3A, 4A, and 5A can be found here.

Finals start at 10:30AM Japan time (1:30AM GMT), be sure to catch the live stream to follow the action!