by Crazy Ivan
One of the hardest things to learn for new Myachi Masters is what tricks to teach to who. It's a pretty delicate balance when you're introducing somebody to the game; It the tricks you give them are too easy, they won't be challenged and they won't have fun; If the tricks you give them are too hard, they won't be able to do them and they won't have fun.
Clearly, what you're looking for is a good middle ground where the tricks are challenging enough that they might not master it right away, but easy enough that they won't get frustrated. Now this would be relatively easy if every person you met had the same skills going into it, but people don't come out of cookie cutters and no two are ever alike.
There are, of course, some basic cues you can look to. Age is the biggest one, obviously. If I'm teaching a six year old to play for the first time, I'm not gonna start off with foot tricks. Similarly, if I'm teaching a 16 year old, I'm not gonna start off with a bunch of trap moves.
But even among the same age there's a lot of variance when it comes to skills. I could teach two people and they could both be, say, 12 years old, guys, baseball players and the same basic height. That doesn't mean that they'll have the same skill level. Heck, they might not even be close. One of them might be able to hit an Under the Leg 360 on the first try, while the other might struggle to do a Hulk.
There are a lot of clues that you learn to pick up on as a Myachi Master. You can learn a lot just from the way a person catches. You can learn a lot by whether they're paying close attention to what you're saying or just tackling the trick full-speed-ahead. You can learn a lot by how they respond to the first trick. But if you really want to know how good somebody's going to be at the game, there's one factor that tells you more than all the others combined: Confidence.
The thing about confidence is that if you have enough of that, the skill comes naturally. If I'm teaching, say, a 13 year old girl to play and she has a "I'm going to get this" attitude, I know I can teach her some tougher tricks because even if she doesn't get them right away, she's not going to give up. But if I'm teaching, say, a 21 year old man with a "This looks hard" attitude, it might not matter that he's actually naturally better at the game than the 13 year old. He's going to give up the second time he drops it so I have to give him super-easy moves that I know he'll hit.
I only bring it up because I probably hear "I'll never be able to do that" fifty times for every time I hear "I'm going to get this". I hate hearing the never and I love hearing the going because I know that both of these statements are true and the only thing you have to do to switch from "never" to "going" is changing what you say.
I know you've heard it before: "Whether you say you can or say you can't, you're right". Far be it from me to drill an old cliche into your head, but honestly, it's the most important thing a person can learn in my opinion. Confidence makes the difference no matter what you're trying to accomplish. And if there's nothing you're confident about, odds are nothing is exactly what you'll accomplish.
And the coolest thing about confidence is that it's free. It's the only thing I know of the you can get just by pretending that you have it. One of the main reasons that I've been able to stay stoked about Myachi for the past ten years is that I know that every day I'm helping people, both young and old, to build confidence. And it doesn't matter if it's confidence in their Myachi skills, their social skills or their ability to learn new stuff, because confidence is "fungible". If you get confidence in one area, you automatically get it in the other.
I've talked a lot about confidence before on this blog and, word of warning, I'm quite confident that I'll talk about it again.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Finding Your Signature Trick
by Crazy Ivan
It obviously takes a certain type of person to be a Myachi Master. Like any job, there are certain personality characteristics that you kind of have to have if you want to be good at this job; you need to be outgoing, you have to be a good teacher, you have to have mad skills, you have to be talkative, you have to be patient...
As a consequence of all that, when we bring on a new Myachi Master in training, there are a few things you can count on. Sure, not everyone will react the same way when they start doing this job, but most of the people who have that "Myachi Master Personality Type" will. In fact, we can usually get a pretty good idea how effective somebody is going to be at the job based entirely on how they act when they get there the second day.
If a second day Myachi Master Trainee comes in and shows you all the new tricks he or she is working on and how close they got to (insert awesome trick here), odds are good that they're going to work out well for us. If they show up on the second day and they tell us stories about when they were teaching their friends to play last night, odds are they're going to work out well for us. If they come in showing us how broken in they got their demo sacks and asking us about a rare one they saw referenced on some video or another, odds are that they're going to work out well for us. And if they're already thinking about their signature trick on day two, odds are really good that they're going to work out well for us.
As I mentioned yesterday, we have exactly such a trainee working with us now. He's been with us for over a month, but he hurt his hand pretty bad a week after he started (he slipped coming up his stairs. It was completely unrelated to Myachi) so he's only had a few weeks of practice. And he's doing all the things a really promising new Myachi Master should be doing. He's working on tough foot tricks, locking down his Matrix, asking a lot of questions, tweaking his coaching style, taking bits and pieces from all the guys and working hard at coming up with his signature trick.
Of course, everything I just said about a Myachi Master is equally true of a Myachi Maniac. The only real difference between the two is that we pay the Masters. If I meet somebody and teach them the game and they come back the next day showing me all the cool stuff they worked on and trying to come up with a nickname and a signature trick, I know I'm dealing with a serious Myachi Maniac. Heck, I probably know it better than the Maniac I'm talking to.
So as I watch Genaro (still haven't given him a nickname) struggle for something original for his signature trick, I think about all the Myachi Masters I've watched evolve over the years. I think back on some of the different signature tricks and I couldn't help but think about how they were all similar and how they were, at the same time, all unique.
My signature trick just sort of happened. The Crazy Ivan was a trick I learned while I was still Hackey-Sacking, so it was only natural that I used it when I started with Myachi. For the first week or so, it was the only impressive thing I could really do with the thing, so I did it a lot. Once I was named after it, I figured I was stuck with it as a signature trick from then on.
The same was true of Maverick. I don't think he ever set out to make the "Maverick" his signature trick. It was just a really impressive trick that he was really good at. Heck, I don't even think he was the one that started calling it the Maverick. That might have been Animal or Monk... heck, it might even have been me.
Speaking of Monk, his signature trick was also settled quick. In fact, we knew what his signature trick was before we hired him. When we first met him, he'd already come up with the Flying Fish and we were all so enamored with that move that he had no choice in the matter either. It was awesome, it was original and it was a perfect signature trick, especially since he was crazy good at it.
But I shouldn't give the impression that coming up with your signature trick is always easy. For most people it's a bit of a struggle. Animal spent years waffling between a couple different tricks. For the first several years he was with the company he seemed to have a new "signature trick" every week. And if you have a lot of signature tricks, that means you really don't have any.
After a while he settled on the "Smooth Criminal" and that was his signature trick for a couple of years, but then as he perfected the Matrix Unleashed, his signature move evolved to one of the quintessential Myachi tricks and even though it took him a long time to settle on it, he probably ended up with the coolest signature move in the game because of it.
In some ways, Lucky is still in the middle of that struggle. He has a signature move, but I'm not going to name it here, because if I do, he'll change it in a few months and I'll have out-of-date information on the blog. I think that he's on the verge of something amazing, so I don't want to paint him into a corner with what he's doing now.
Bones was a particularly creative guy and he had so many awesome creations that it was hard to say anything was ever his "signature trick". If pressed, I'd say his was the Stop Watch and I would imagine he'd tell you the same, but he's known for so many moves it's hard to pick a single one.
Bamboo, on the other hand, is every bit as creative and skilled, but there's no question in anyone's mind that the Armageddon is his signature move. He came up with several more afterward, but his affinity (and ability) with that trick made it clear that it was his move.
I could keep going, of course, but what I'm trying to illustrate with this list is how intensely personal choosing a signature trick is. There's no right way or wrong way to do it. Some people pick a signature trick and stick with it for a decade (guilty) and some people let their signature move evolve as they get better and better at the game. Some people create whole new tricks for their signature move while others just get really, really good at a trick somebody else invented. Or others, like Kid Myach, just find a really cool new way of fitting some existing tricks together and create a signature combo like the Wavy Gravy.
It's also not something that you have to have to be a Myachi Master. In a lot of ways, Myachi Man doesn't have a signature trick and I can't imagine anybody would deny that he's a Myachi Master. Sure, you could call the Flow or the Fist of Lightening his signature trick, but he's also fond of pointing out that in a sense, all the tricks are his signature trick.
Since it's such a personal choice, it's hard for me to offer any advice on choosing your signature trick, but there are a few things that I can say that might help:
It obviously takes a certain type of person to be a Myachi Master. Like any job, there are certain personality characteristics that you kind of have to have if you want to be good at this job; you need to be outgoing, you have to be a good teacher, you have to have mad skills, you have to be talkative, you have to be patient...
As a consequence of all that, when we bring on a new Myachi Master in training, there are a few things you can count on. Sure, not everyone will react the same way when they start doing this job, but most of the people who have that "Myachi Master Personality Type" will. In fact, we can usually get a pretty good idea how effective somebody is going to be at the job based entirely on how they act when they get there the second day.
If a second day Myachi Master Trainee comes in and shows you all the new tricks he or she is working on and how close they got to (insert awesome trick here), odds are good that they're going to work out well for us. If they show up on the second day and they tell us stories about when they were teaching their friends to play last night, odds are they're going to work out well for us. If they come in showing us how broken in they got their demo sacks and asking us about a rare one they saw referenced on some video or another, odds are that they're going to work out well for us. And if they're already thinking about their signature trick on day two, odds are really good that they're going to work out well for us.
As I mentioned yesterday, we have exactly such a trainee working with us now. He's been with us for over a month, but he hurt his hand pretty bad a week after he started (he slipped coming up his stairs. It was completely unrelated to Myachi) so he's only had a few weeks of practice. And he's doing all the things a really promising new Myachi Master should be doing. He's working on tough foot tricks, locking down his Matrix, asking a lot of questions, tweaking his coaching style, taking bits and pieces from all the guys and working hard at coming up with his signature trick.
Of course, everything I just said about a Myachi Master is equally true of a Myachi Maniac. The only real difference between the two is that we pay the Masters. If I meet somebody and teach them the game and they come back the next day showing me all the cool stuff they worked on and trying to come up with a nickname and a signature trick, I know I'm dealing with a serious Myachi Maniac. Heck, I probably know it better than the Maniac I'm talking to.
So as I watch Genaro (still haven't given him a nickname) struggle for something original for his signature trick, I think about all the Myachi Masters I've watched evolve over the years. I think back on some of the different signature tricks and I couldn't help but think about how they were all similar and how they were, at the same time, all unique.
My signature trick just sort of happened. The Crazy Ivan was a trick I learned while I was still Hackey-Sacking, so it was only natural that I used it when I started with Myachi. For the first week or so, it was the only impressive thing I could really do with the thing, so I did it a lot. Once I was named after it, I figured I was stuck with it as a signature trick from then on.
The same was true of Maverick. I don't think he ever set out to make the "Maverick" his signature trick. It was just a really impressive trick that he was really good at. Heck, I don't even think he was the one that started calling it the Maverick. That might have been Animal or Monk... heck, it might even have been me.
Speaking of Monk, his signature trick was also settled quick. In fact, we knew what his signature trick was before we hired him. When we first met him, he'd already come up with the Flying Fish and we were all so enamored with that move that he had no choice in the matter either. It was awesome, it was original and it was a perfect signature trick, especially since he was crazy good at it.
But I shouldn't give the impression that coming up with your signature trick is always easy. For most people it's a bit of a struggle. Animal spent years waffling between a couple different tricks. For the first several years he was with the company he seemed to have a new "signature trick" every week. And if you have a lot of signature tricks, that means you really don't have any.
After a while he settled on the "Smooth Criminal" and that was his signature trick for a couple of years, but then as he perfected the Matrix Unleashed, his signature move evolved to one of the quintessential Myachi tricks and even though it took him a long time to settle on it, he probably ended up with the coolest signature move in the game because of it.
In some ways, Lucky is still in the middle of that struggle. He has a signature move, but I'm not going to name it here, because if I do, he'll change it in a few months and I'll have out-of-date information on the blog. I think that he's on the verge of something amazing, so I don't want to paint him into a corner with what he's doing now.
Bones was a particularly creative guy and he had so many awesome creations that it was hard to say anything was ever his "signature trick". If pressed, I'd say his was the Stop Watch and I would imagine he'd tell you the same, but he's known for so many moves it's hard to pick a single one.
Bamboo, on the other hand, is every bit as creative and skilled, but there's no question in anyone's mind that the Armageddon is his signature move. He came up with several more afterward, but his affinity (and ability) with that trick made it clear that it was his move.
I could keep going, of course, but what I'm trying to illustrate with this list is how intensely personal choosing a signature trick is. There's no right way or wrong way to do it. Some people pick a signature trick and stick with it for a decade (guilty) and some people let their signature move evolve as they get better and better at the game. Some people create whole new tricks for their signature move while others just get really, really good at a trick somebody else invented. Or others, like Kid Myach, just find a really cool new way of fitting some existing tricks together and create a signature combo like the Wavy Gravy.
It's also not something that you have to have to be a Myachi Master. In a lot of ways, Myachi Man doesn't have a signature trick and I can't imagine anybody would deny that he's a Myachi Master. Sure, you could call the Flow or the Fist of Lightening his signature trick, but he's also fond of pointing out that in a sense, all the tricks are his signature trick.
Since it's such a personal choice, it's hard for me to offer any advice on choosing your signature trick, but there are a few things that I can say that might help:
- The trick doesn't have to be ridiculously hard. In fact, it shouldn't be because it should be something you can hit 100% of the time. It should be something that you can toss out in any situation, ideally.
- It doesn't have to be something nobody's ever done before. There are way too many Myachi Maniacs for everyone to have a brand new signature trick.
- It isn't set in stone when you choose it so if you get way better, don't hesitate to revamp your signature move. Just because I've never done it doesn't mean that you shouldn't.
- Your signature trick should be a reflection of your style of Myachi. My style is super-energetic so I chose a physically demanding trick. Mav's style is flashy and really difficult so he chose a big, tough, impressive trick. Monk's style was light-hearted, precise and strike heavy so he had a silly, difficult strike trick.
- It shouldn't be too common. Don't select a move that everyone does all the time or it can't really be your 'signature'. You don't want the 360 or the Wolverine as a signature trick, although if you really like those moves, you can use them in a combo to devise your signature trick.
If you have any additional advice, feel free to leave a comment below.
Monday, April 15, 2013
A Shout Out to a STWAKOJeer
by Crazy Ivan
It's always nice to meet a Myachi Maniac. It's even nicer to meet a Myachi Maniac who has been doing such a good job spreading the word that we've already noticed a huge spike in online orders from his hometown. It's even nicer when that Maniac has ridiculous skills. And it's even nicer when he shows up to throw down some of those skills at the perfect moment.
So first, the story:
We have a new Myachi Master in Training, Genaro, at FAO (more details when we come up with a nickname for the dude). He and I were at the store together Saturday morning rocking it out. He's got a big family of people playing and the two brothers, two sisters and two cousins are all loving it. They're pretty athletic so he was able to teach them some tougher stuff right away and the oldest of them was working on the Wolverine after only a couple of minutes.
But dad was skeptical. After all, he says, "You do this for a living though! These kids are never gonna get as good as you."
Of course, I could have stepped in and pointed out that Genaro had only been doing it for a living for a few weeks. I could have pointed out that I know at least 200 kids younger than his kids that are better at the game than a brand new Myachi Master. And that's not a knock on Genaro's skills. He's really good. But I know some 10 year olds that have been in this game for 3 years and have the skills to show it.
But I didn't need to say anything. Because literally seconds after dad says this, a cat walks up that I've never met before. And he throws down a picture-perfect Matrix. Keep in mind that Genaro still doesn't have that move. He's maybe 1 out of 8 on it. But this kid who's about the same age as the skeptical dad's kids, just wanders up and throws it down like it's nothing.
Turns out he'd learned the game from Lucky a few weeks earlier and somehow he managed to get his hands on a 3.2 Finish Line (and had no idea how rare or awesome that was). He's infected his whole school with Myachi Mania, so much so that when I started to tell Kid Myach this story he was able to tell me what town the dude lived in just based on where our website orders have been going.
So to Irish in Connecticut, thanks for your spectacular timing this weekend. And thanks for helping us spread the word out there. It's because of people like you that this game has grown from an idea to a multinational corporation. Keep up the good work!
It's always nice to meet a Myachi Maniac. It's even nicer to meet a Myachi Maniac who has been doing such a good job spreading the word that we've already noticed a huge spike in online orders from his hometown. It's even nicer when that Maniac has ridiculous skills. And it's even nicer when he shows up to throw down some of those skills at the perfect moment.
So first, the story:
We have a new Myachi Master in Training, Genaro, at FAO (more details when we come up with a nickname for the dude). He and I were at the store together Saturday morning rocking it out. He's got a big family of people playing and the two brothers, two sisters and two cousins are all loving it. They're pretty athletic so he was able to teach them some tougher stuff right away and the oldest of them was working on the Wolverine after only a couple of minutes.
But dad was skeptical. After all, he says, "You do this for a living though! These kids are never gonna get as good as you."
Of course, I could have stepped in and pointed out that Genaro had only been doing it for a living for a few weeks. I could have pointed out that I know at least 200 kids younger than his kids that are better at the game than a brand new Myachi Master. And that's not a knock on Genaro's skills. He's really good. But I know some 10 year olds that have been in this game for 3 years and have the skills to show it.
But I didn't need to say anything. Because literally seconds after dad says this, a cat walks up that I've never met before. And he throws down a picture-perfect Matrix. Keep in mind that Genaro still doesn't have that move. He's maybe 1 out of 8 on it. But this kid who's about the same age as the skeptical dad's kids, just wanders up and throws it down like it's nothing.
Turns out he'd learned the game from Lucky a few weeks earlier and somehow he managed to get his hands on a 3.2 Finish Line (and had no idea how rare or awesome that was). He's infected his whole school with Myachi Mania, so much so that when I started to tell Kid Myach this story he was able to tell me what town the dude lived in just based on where our website orders have been going.
So to Irish in Connecticut, thanks for your spectacular timing this weekend. And thanks for helping us spread the word out there. It's because of people like you that this game has grown from an idea to a multinational corporation. Keep up the good work!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
JOTYA History: The STWAKOJ Award
by Crazy Ivan
I know, I know... you know. But I still have to say it. There are a few people reading this that might be really, really new to Myachi so I have to say it.
STWAKOJ is a Myachi acronym that means "Spread the Word and Keep On Jammin'". It's been a part of the movement since at least 2005 when Myachi Man shortened the usual closing line of his email and we've used it internally ever since. I guess it was late 06 when the phrase made it's way out into the Myachi community and it's been synonymous with Myachi ever since.
In 2008, it also became one of the categories we decided to honor each year in our Jammer of the Year Awards. In fact, when we originally started kicking around the idea of a Jammer of the Year Award, we only planned on giving out one award each year and the criterion for that winner would have been the criterion that we use now to judge the STWAKOJ Award winner.
Ultimately, of course, we decided that there were too many factors involved in being a Myachi Maniac for any one award to properly weigh all of them so we split it into a few different categories. Now, I've already explained how, in a sense, the Trickster Award is the most important in all of Myachi and how, in a sense, the Forum award is the most important in Myachi, but in truth, the STWAKOJ Award really is the most important. Or at least, it awards the most important trait.
Take Myachi Man as your example. If he exemplified the things that would win the Trickster Award, he would be phenomenal at the game (he is), he would have created hundreds of tricks (he has) and he would be a legend in the movement (he is). But, of course, if he didn't also exemplify the things that would win the STWAKOJ Award, there wouldn't be any movement to be a legend of.
Myachi is built on STWAKOJ. The whole empire is built on the idea that one fan of the game teaches his or her friends, they teach their friends, they teach their friends and so on. It would take a long time for Maverick, Lucky, Bones, Hard Kore and I to teach the whole world to play, but if we spread the game like a (good version of a) virus, we can eventually conquer the whole world.
And of course, given the nature of the award, the voters have often favored people who spread the word across the US border. In fact, only once in it's 5 year history did the prize go to somebody who lived in the US during the year of the award. Once it went to an American who was living in China, twice it went to different Maniacs in the UK and last year it went to Switzerland.
Anybody's guess where it will land this year...
I know, I know... you know. But I still have to say it. There are a few people reading this that might be really, really new to Myachi so I have to say it.
STWAKOJ is a Myachi acronym that means "Spread the Word and Keep On Jammin'". It's been a part of the movement since at least 2005 when Myachi Man shortened the usual closing line of his email and we've used it internally ever since. I guess it was late 06 when the phrase made it's way out into the Myachi community and it's been synonymous with Myachi ever since.
In 2008, it also became one of the categories we decided to honor each year in our Jammer of the Year Awards. In fact, when we originally started kicking around the idea of a Jammer of the Year Award, we only planned on giving out one award each year and the criterion for that winner would have been the criterion that we use now to judge the STWAKOJ Award winner.
Ultimately, of course, we decided that there were too many factors involved in being a Myachi Maniac for any one award to properly weigh all of them so we split it into a few different categories. Now, I've already explained how, in a sense, the Trickster Award is the most important in all of Myachi and how, in a sense, the Forum award is the most important in Myachi, but in truth, the STWAKOJ Award really is the most important. Or at least, it awards the most important trait.
Take Myachi Man as your example. If he exemplified the things that would win the Trickster Award, he would be phenomenal at the game (he is), he would have created hundreds of tricks (he has) and he would be a legend in the movement (he is). But, of course, if he didn't also exemplify the things that would win the STWAKOJ Award, there wouldn't be any movement to be a legend of.
Myachi is built on STWAKOJ. The whole empire is built on the idea that one fan of the game teaches his or her friends, they teach their friends, they teach their friends and so on. It would take a long time for Maverick, Lucky, Bones, Hard Kore and I to teach the whole world to play, but if we spread the game like a (good version of a) virus, we can eventually conquer the whole world.
And of course, given the nature of the award, the voters have often favored people who spread the word across the US border. In fact, only once in it's 5 year history did the prize go to somebody who lived in the US during the year of the award. Once it went to an American who was living in China, twice it went to different Maniacs in the UK and last year it went to Switzerland.
Anybody's guess where it will land this year...
Monday, February 4, 2013
JOTYA History: The FORUM Award
by Crazy Ivan
You could make an argument that any of the 4 JOTYAs is the most coveted prize in all of Myachi, but the Forum award always seems to be the tightest race. It often has the most heated battle for nominations and it almost always has the narrowest margin of victory.
It's not hard to see why. Until 2 years ago, this ceremony was entirely conducted through the forum. And even now that I've opened it up to the blog, the FB page, etc., the bulk of the discussion and voting goes on there. Because of that, everyone has a horse in this race.
Keep in mind that not every Myachi Maniac is a cutting-edge freestyler or an international traveler. A lot of the people on the forum probably don't feel like they're qualified to win the Trickster or STWAKOJ awards, but everyone is a contender for the Forum award. This one is just about who does the most to make the forum a fun place to hang out.
And there are always a great pool of candidates. Myachi has one of the oldest company-sponsored skill toy forums on the internet and we're pretty proud of the community that it has created over the years. Sure, there have been some peaks and valleys, some slow times and some busy times, but in all we've created a community that has sparked at least several dozen lifelong friendships.
But forums are forums so once in a while interpersonal conflict arises and, like you find on any online forum, there are occasional spats, disagreements and downright fights. That means that when STWAKOJ time comes around, a lot of people that might have partially burned bridges in the past suddenly get a little more political and try to smooth out old differences with potential voters.
The Forum Award is my personal favorite because I've seen the kind of community that it helps to foster. The past winners are exemplars of the kind of people we want populating our forum, the kind of voices we want representing our movement online. It's ultimately an award about friendship, and what could be more meaningful than that?
You could make an argument that any of the 4 JOTYAs is the most coveted prize in all of Myachi, but the Forum award always seems to be the tightest race. It often has the most heated battle for nominations and it almost always has the narrowest margin of victory.
It's not hard to see why. Until 2 years ago, this ceremony was entirely conducted through the forum. And even now that I've opened it up to the blog, the FB page, etc., the bulk of the discussion and voting goes on there. Because of that, everyone has a horse in this race.
Keep in mind that not every Myachi Maniac is a cutting-edge freestyler or an international traveler. A lot of the people on the forum probably don't feel like they're qualified to win the Trickster or STWAKOJ awards, but everyone is a contender for the Forum award. This one is just about who does the most to make the forum a fun place to hang out.
And there are always a great pool of candidates. Myachi has one of the oldest company-sponsored skill toy forums on the internet and we're pretty proud of the community that it has created over the years. Sure, there have been some peaks and valleys, some slow times and some busy times, but in all we've created a community that has sparked at least several dozen lifelong friendships.
But forums are forums so once in a while interpersonal conflict arises and, like you find on any online forum, there are occasional spats, disagreements and downright fights. That means that when STWAKOJ time comes around, a lot of people that might have partially burned bridges in the past suddenly get a little more political and try to smooth out old differences with potential voters.
The Forum Award is my personal favorite because I've seen the kind of community that it helps to foster. The past winners are exemplars of the kind of people we want populating our forum, the kind of voices we want representing our movement online. It's ultimately an award about friendship, and what could be more meaningful than that?
Thursday, January 31, 2013
JOTYA History: The TRICKSTER AWARD
by Crazy Ivan
Some people would argue that the Trickster Award is the most coveted award in all of Myachi. After all, it's primarily a game of skill and this is the only one of the Jammer of the Year prizes that recognizes somebody for their Myachi skills.
A quick perusal of the past winners will show that only top echelon jammers have won it before. Mantis has taken the prize twice, Kickstand, Dragon and A-Train once. All four of them true masters of freestyle Myachi.
But all that being said, the Trickster Award is not necessarily about who has the best skills. Mantis won in 2008 and 2010, but Dragon won in 2009. Does that mean that Dragon got better at Myachi that year and Mantis caught back up in the following year? Of course not. Because the Trickster Award is about something more than that.
Of course, I don't get to vote in the awards so I can't say exactly what people take into consideration when they're choosing the winner, but after watching the process go down for 5 years in a row, I can say with certainty that there are certain commonalities in the people that have won.
The most important factor, as near as I can tell, is INNOVATION. That's the one thing that all the winners have had in common over the years. Each one of them helped to take the game to the next level by creating new tricks, new combos and new ways of executing the classics. They took the next logical step in the game and created two Myachi versions of one Myachi tricks or three Myachi versions of two Myachi tricks (and in Mantis' case, four Myachi version of three Myachi tricks). They pushed the envelope. They test the boundaries.
Not only does this make them great Myachi players, but it also helps others to become better. The true Trickster is the one who brings everyone's game to a higher level. Our past winners have certainly personified that trait and I'm sure whoever takes the award this year will continue that proud tradition.
Good Luck to all the hopefuls!
Some people would argue that the Trickster Award is the most coveted award in all of Myachi. After all, it's primarily a game of skill and this is the only one of the Jammer of the Year prizes that recognizes somebody for their Myachi skills.
A quick perusal of the past winners will show that only top echelon jammers have won it before. Mantis has taken the prize twice, Kickstand, Dragon and A-Train once. All four of them true masters of freestyle Myachi.
But all that being said, the Trickster Award is not necessarily about who has the best skills. Mantis won in 2008 and 2010, but Dragon won in 2009. Does that mean that Dragon got better at Myachi that year and Mantis caught back up in the following year? Of course not. Because the Trickster Award is about something more than that.
Of course, I don't get to vote in the awards so I can't say exactly what people take into consideration when they're choosing the winner, but after watching the process go down for 5 years in a row, I can say with certainty that there are certain commonalities in the people that have won.
The most important factor, as near as I can tell, is INNOVATION. That's the one thing that all the winners have had in common over the years. Each one of them helped to take the game to the next level by creating new tricks, new combos and new ways of executing the classics. They took the next logical step in the game and created two Myachi versions of one Myachi tricks or three Myachi versions of two Myachi tricks (and in Mantis' case, four Myachi version of three Myachi tricks). They pushed the envelope. They test the boundaries.
Not only does this make them great Myachi players, but it also helps others to become better. The true Trickster is the one who brings everyone's game to a higher level. Our past winners have certainly personified that trait and I'm sure whoever takes the award this year will continue that proud tradition.
Good Luck to all the hopefuls!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The 500th Post on the Myachi Blog
by Crazy Ivan
This will mark the 500th post on the Myachi Blog. It's been around since February of 2011 so we're about to celebrate our 2nd anniversary as a blog. That means that on average, we're updating the blog about once every 1.4 days or so. That's a pretty good average if you just look at that number, but if we really break it down, it's not as good as it should be.
In 2011, the year I first started this blog, there were 444 posts. I only did it for eleven months, so that was an average of about 9 new entries a week. At that rate, I should have posted the 500th entry sometime in April of last year. But in 2012, there were only 54 updates to the blog in the whole year. That's only a little more than 1 a week.
Now obviously I have nobody to blame for this but myself. As the company has gotten bigger, it's also gotten busier and while I once had a great deal of time to dedicate to the blog, the forum, the FaceBook page, the Twitter account and the You Tube Channel, recently I'm lucky if I can find enough to time to eat lunch and breath regularly.
So if it's gotten a little bit dusty in here, blame me. I'm the janitor, after all. I'll be checking in as often as possible in 2013 and I hope that I can make that a lot more often than it was in 2012. With a little bit of luck, we can celebrate the 1000th post this time next year.
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