Who is the Best Myachi Player?

by Crazy Ivan

The three questions Myachi Masters hear most often are all about the best.  People always want to know (a) What is the best Myachi? (b) What is the best trick? and (c) Who is the best in the world?

Now, unfortunately for us, none of those questions has an easy answer.  The first one is a matter of personal preference, the second one changes constantly and the third one is really difficult to quantify.  I'll leave those other two questions for future blogposts, but I do want to delve into that third one today.

So who is the best Myachi player?  Well, obviously that depends on what you mean by "best".  Best at what?  Myachi is a huge game and there are many different elements to it.  A person could be the best at one element but not the best at another.  I could make a pretty convincing argument that all of the Grand Masters are "the best at Myachi".

Don't believe me?

MYACHI MAN

Most people think tricks when they think of Myachi, but at its heart, Myachi is a game of toss and catch.  Therefore it stands to reason that the person who is best at Myachi should be the person who is the best at catching it.  A soft touch is the fundamental of the game.  Myachi Man has the best catch, therefore Myachi Man is the best in the world.

KID MYACH

Like I just said, Myachi is first and foremost a game of toss and catch.  Catching is obviously vital, but it's a game of "toss and catch", not a game of "catch and toss".  Before you can even think about catching, somebody has to master an accurate toss.  When it comes to games of aim like golf or carpet bombing, nobody outperforms Kid.  He has the most accurate toss, therefore Kid Myach is the best in the world.

CRAZY IVAN

So much of the game of Myachi is based in creativity and nobody has created as many moves and combos as Crazy Ivan.  He's also the one writing this entry and it isn't exactly peer reviewed before publication, so he can also Myachi with a bulldozer and once stopped a bullet with the back of his hand, therefore Crazy Ivan is the best in the world.

PINKY

One of the things that differentiates Myachi from footbag or even games like Frisbee is how easy it is to learn.  Unlike a circle of Hackey-Sackers, virtually anyone can wander into a Myachi circle and be a part of the game right away.  When you take away all the frills and nonsense, Myachi is really about connecting with people so the best at the game is really the person who is the best at making everyone feel welcome and making them feel like they are also part of the game.  If Myachi is a social game than the title should go to the most sociable Myachi Master, therefore Pinky is the best in the world.

MONK

There is, of course, a traditional way to determine who is the best at something: competition.  There are a lot of different ways to compete at Myachi but the most popular by leaps and bounds is the game MYACH.  In this game, players pit their skills and strategy against one another directly so it stands to reason that whoever is best at MYACH is, by default, the best at Myachi.  Therefore, Monk is the best in the world.

MAVERICK

But then again, MYACH involves crazy strategy as well.  Knowing your opponents weaknesses, having proper set-calls and the willingness to be merciless are all factors in who wins the game.  Sure, none of them are as pivotal as having Myachi skill, but MYACH isn't really the best way to measure Myachi players.  Far more important is how they jam.  The person with the sickest shreds that exhibit the most skills is clearly the king of the mountain, therefore Maverick is the best in the world.

ANIMAL

Shredding is great and all, but come to think of it, I've known a lot of really solid Myachi players whose shreds were mechanical and robotic.  Nothing against awesome shreds, but Myachi is a skill, not a dance.  If you consider that the part of the game people do most often is the tricks then whoever has the coolest trick is probably the best.  The Matrix Unleashed is probably the most sought after and least mastered tricks in the game.  Animal is the king of that move and therefore Animal is the best in the world.

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I could probably go on and make the argument for most of the Myachi Masters and Apprentices as well.  Heck, there are even a couple of Myachi Maniacs who I could make a reasonable case for.  People want there to be a "best" and there probably is, but that person's identity will change depending on what matters most to you in the game.

All that being said, the real argument is in the last three names I listed.  MM, Kid, Pinky and I all had our time as best in the world when Myachi was a much younger game (and we were much younger Myachi Masters), but the game keeps growing and what was once unheard of is now commonplace.

But right now there are only a few hundred people remotely competing for that title.  In the coming months and years that will swell to thousands or more and eventually one person will probably emerge as the undisputed best.  Heck, it might even be one of the names listed above.

Most likely, though, it will come from the ranks of Myachi Mania.  It will be someone who learned the game at a young age (after all, most of the Myachi Masters first encountered the game in their 20s) and had the basics mastered before he or she was old enough to drive.  It is probably going to be someone who had some ups and downs with the game, left and came back a few times and eventually hunkered down and dedicated themselves to relentlessly pushing the envelope.

That person hasn't come along yet, but they will.  There's a chance that the person I'm talking about is actually reading this blog right now and has no idea I'm talking about them.  Therefore, for all we know at the moment, you are the best in the world.