Japan Cup 2025 Experimental 予選 - Judge comments
Hi everyone, RPD here
I'm very thankful to have been given the opportunity to judge the Japan Cup "experimental" category. There's no need to give detailed feedback to all combos, but I still wanted to say some words about my top 10.
The criteria for the experimental category is simple: there is none. The judge is given full control over what is valued and what's not. That's a big honor, but also a big responsibility. It made me wonder, what is "experimental" in the context of pen spinning?
Sometimes it's rather obvious. If you asked a hundred people who made the best experimental combo this round, everyone would vote either Laku or kys0. But what about Los1Cel? Not even him thought of his combo as experimental, why should I do so?
My criteria has been "things I hadn't imagined". Difficulty plays a role, but it's not the main criteria. I see difficulty as the minimum barrier of entry to be considered interesting, so to speak. Hexbinmos is arguably a more experimental spinner than Fel2fram, but the sheer difficulty and intentionality of fel2fram's combos gives him an advantage in terms of public opinion. We can think of difficulty as the differentiator in gimmick vs theme—a gimmick is something new that is made the main point of interest, a theme is a means to focus the efforts and empower the spinner to do something new and interesting.
For those who don't know how Japan Cup works, spinners don't participate in any particular category, and each spinner can send up to 4 combos (each called FS1, FS2 etc). Each judge then chooses up to 10 combos which fit their criteria. In total, there were 63 submissions. This was my ranking for the preliminary round:
1 - Laku FS1
When I was preparing for PSO20 I tried to consider many 2p1h possibilities without predjuice, to see what could lead to interesting pen spinning. I thought about mods with magnets and also about mods of different lengths. I didn't end up liking that approach, and I thought that exploiting the simultaneity and symmetry of equal mods (sort of like what Gollumsk8 did with his orange and black mods) was a better approach.
However, Laku did something very interesting here. When doing 2p2h, in particular tricks in which one mod is held still and the other goes around it, having that mod be shorter makes it more manageable. The spinning effect is different as well—2p mods tend to be very long and having only one long mod instead of two results in a smaller spinning area, which in turn makes them look shorter, and a bit more appealing.
I have little advice about the tricks themselves. Laku has been pioneering the 2p2h category and has already released three top tier combos (Japen 20th, last year's Japan Cup and this year's). I think his tricks will become a cornerstone in the efforts to build up to what I consider the "final frontier" of multipen—3p2h.
2 - kys0 FS1
With standup we've seen a small number of combos but rather big leaps in terms of visual effect. I think Padrace's PSO20 combo was one of the first to position standup in the "serious style" ecosystem, one which is not just about handwaving but where you also do some hard or interesting tricks.
Back to this combo. The starting trick with the disappearing pen is lovely! The fishing sequence plus the hand gestures make the first half of the combo quite packed with interesting tricks and silhouettes. The second half loses on trick density, and there's a bit more hand waving that I would like, but the magician vibe is still there. A very enjoyable combo overall.
FS2 is a nice throwback to the combo by pashas, but I'd like to see something more technical in 2025. If you had done some modern tricks with two mx and a haduri setup, that would have gotten my attention. I tend to like those very dissonant combos, one in which it looks like someone traveled to the past and did something completely out of its era. Think of isuk filming his modern combos with Peem's setup. I find that amusing, as it's something that can only be appreciated if you're deep enough into the hobby.
3 - Los1Cel FS1
This is a combo which I enjoyed watching. It's hard not to—it's an amazing combo. But is it experimental? I thought about what it means to do an experimental combo in classical 1p1h. Is it even possible, without any gimmick? Under my initial criteria of "things I hadn't imagined" I'm not sure, but as "things I hadn't seen before" it definitely enters the top.
Talking with Patchwork, the closer combo we could think of is this one from Ennis, for WC20
Let me put it in another way. If this combo were to be released by Drowsy everyone would be going bananas on Twitter about it, and there would be no doubt this would enter the experimental list. But since it comes from a lesser known spinner, and it's "just 1p1h" some doubts about it's novelty arise.
There's two issues with experimental in classic 1p1h. First, the barrier of entry for difficulty is quite high. Either your combo can't be easily copied or it won't be considered good, let alone experimental. Then, the amount of exploration which has already been done limits the length of stride under which we can advance. It's much easier to revolutionize a field which is unexplored than one which many people have thrived on.
I'm not sure if, with these handicaps, a classic 1p1h combo can win a category like this. I feel like the category (and maybe myself) will always be biased towards xpxh and big strides in development. I'm curious to read what other people think.
4 - unknown FS1
This is a very nice take on the spinless genre. Using an unmodded pen, plus that setup and the rather unique trick repertoire gives the combo an eerie feeling to it. The only thing which was keeping me from ranking this higher is the novelty of the tricks themselves—I feel like I've already seen everything from spinners like Freeman, Hippo2626 etc. If for the second round unknown can show us some new tricks with this level of stylistic cohesiveness, I think he can rank very high.
5 - imbocd FS2
I'm slightly torn apart with this combo. Imbocd is a master of these kinds of dual passes and I like the effect and tricks choices here, but I think he can do even better. I remember how much sutomo challenged what we thought was possible with triangle passes and I believe imbocd can do the same, both in terms of creativity and technical level I think he has what it takes. But he has to do it. I'd like to see him go even one step further for the next round!
6 - asuta FS1
7 - sututu FS1
8 - klb FS1
I'll give feedback for all three at the same time. For power combos I faced the same dilemma as for Los1cel, so most of what I wrote there applies here.
I'll go further and make an even more general comment. Power spinners tend to be the most highly skilled and technically capable out there, yet they seem to be the ones who struggle the most to innovate. It's not just me who thinks this, it's a comment i.suk has made time and time again, about how necessary it is for spinners to go beyond copying and basic difficulty and think in terms of more abstract terms.
Asuta has a very nice visual effect with the hand coming closer to the camera, sututu does some rather impressive stop and go into different plane of rotation powerpass and klb in FS1 shows tricks for which I think he's the only one in the world now able to do them.
If we look at klb FS2, it feels too inspired by i.suk. In comparison, FS1 has a more developed style, which feels way more like his own. I have the feeling that klb is the closest to win this category out of all the three power spinners, despite me ranking him the lowest this round. I know he can go above and beyond.
As I mentioned before, I think power combos are in a slight (biased) disadvantage to xpxh, but it doesn't mean they can't win. They are the most technically capable spinners in the tournament by a big margin and I'm sure that if they try, they can make something which I had never imagined. Will they do so? I'm not sure. I think they will focus on winning the power category and concentrate their efforts in maxxing difficulty, at the expense of something new but maybe less technical.
9 - Gorori FS1
I'm uncertain about what to do with combos containing fingercrossings. After salient's participation in WT21, the level of what has been done has gone up so much that even rather impressive combos like this one don't feel like they're even close to pushing the boundaries.
There's always a physical element to fingercrossings. They're "hard" in the sense that fingers don't really favour those positions. I'd advice spinners to look for unique positions and effects that are empowered by fingercrossings (e.g. threading) rather than relying on the technicality and physical aspect of doing one fingercrossing after another.
10 - BlueRing FS1
The idea combining dice stacking with pen spinning is cool, but as a pen spinning combo it falls a bit short. The combo is basically two "tricks", bakfall + basic stack and placing the dice on top of the pen followed by a FS. I would have liked to see some more dice-pen interactions. If he can show us some pen spinning possibilities which are exclusive to the combination with dice stacking, my evaluation will go up. I don't think it's easy, but it's not impossible.
Honourable mentions
N1716
They're good combos, but I can't help but to feel like FS1 is a fire@fox impression while FS3 is a fel2fram impression. In a category that focuses on new possibilities, I didn't think these would make the cut.
Fzatt
Considering the level of execution and technique shown on fs3, fs1 felt like it wasn't on fzatt's top level of performance. I was quite sad that I couldn't find an excuse to let his fs1 enter the top 10, I think he's a very capable spinner and he could have ranked high in the final round if he tried his best for the category. I'm surprised his FS3 didn't make the top 10 for another category though.
It became a long article, but I hope that this explained my thoughts. If my words can help any of the competing spinners to better understand what I'm looking for in the combos, that would be great! See you all in the next round.
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