On 2p1h

Hi, it's RPD. Long time no see.

I've seen how the penspinning community has been consistently terrible at remembering past events. Present combos, CVs, and tricks, are deemed great when someone has already done the same years ago. I'd like to be cynical and grumpy and say this is because us spinners are lazy and don't care about what other people are doing. I definitely think it's much easier to try to come up with some gimmick innovation completely on your own or straight up copy someone else than to actually study what other people did and then build upon it, but real progress comes from the latter. 

However, I think the real reason the PS community is so bad at remembering past events is the overall lack of information accessibility. No matter how impactful a combo may be, a YouTube video with 200 views, a Tweet with 10 retweets or a blog post in Japanese is, honestly, really hard to find if you don't know it exists. Thus, I think it's reasonable for even the most hardcore spinners not to be aware of everything that has happened in the past.

I'd love to have more "retrospective" content in the PS community, exploring the evolution of various styles. I've learned a lot about G3 style evolution from this splendid article by Mesi (link) and there's some insights about power development in i.suk's blog (link) but there's much more to write. I thought I could contribute a bit to the public pool of knowledge by giving my vision on 2p1h development. I'll do this by going over all of the videos which I consider relevant for the discipline, and why. 

Pashas - c. 2005

Ishiya has written two great articles about the origins of xpxh (link) (link2), feel free to take a look if you're interested in the historical origins. The key video to take a look is Pashas' combo from circa 2005 in which he spins two MX with one hand. 2p1h already existed in Korean forums since 2004 in many pen spinning style classifications, but it's this combo from Pashas what made the biggest impact. Most people limited themselves to copying Pashas' clip and didn't go much further, though.

Stuhl WC10 R5 & OhYeah! WC18

As mentioned in this tweet, these two combos could also be considered milestones towards current 2p1h, as they're the first to tackle the visual aspect of two pens forming a cross shape when spun. Stuhl also used the wrist slot as a way to keep the static pen from interfering with the spinning pen. 

Fizz - 2016

This clip was deleted, but miraculously I was able to rescue it. It's also uploaded to my 2p1h arounds tutorial and recap (link), which I also encourage everyone to check out. Fizz's trick was the first time the static pen was used in a meaningful way as a "sixth finger" and this was, in my opinion, the first 2p1h trick which was technically worthwhile enough to name and learn. Even nowadays it's an iconic 2p1h finisher.

Gollumsk8 - 2017

if i was up vs i.suk for wt final i would've done 2p1h combo x)

Ah, the foreshadowing. This unassuming clip by gollumsk8 was the first time one of the foundational tricks of 2p1h is done. This tricks I later found all other variations and called it swift (link here). From this point onwards, we knew that simultaneous tricks (i.e. tricks in which both mods move at the same time) are possible. Not only that, but he was able to develop into the idea of pairing and unpairing the mods while spinning. That is, both mods first being spun in the same slot, then separated into different slots in a smooth way. 

Gollumsk8 - WT19 R5

Gollumsk8's secret weapon against i.suk in the WT19 R5 was nothing other than the first full 2p1h combo with simultaneous mechanics. It wasn't enough to defeat the evil pen spinning doctor, but it was enough to steal everyone's heart. This combo was a complete breakthrough and I can't understate how big of an impact it had in the 2p1h scene. Thanks to this combo, it was clear that by putting time into 2p1h practice, tournament-ready combos could be created.

In a way, I think that this has conditioned us in a bad way. From this point onwards, we've unconsciously established tournament combos as the only worthwhile place in which 2p1h tricks are released. This is backwards to how 1p1h was developedーfirst many tricks were individually developed in early websites and forums, with lots of tutorials each, and after a library of tricks existed linkages were developed. There was a technical element to this (i.e. linking tricks was considered just too hard, and Kam practiced for years just to achieve the K4LC), but I think this "1p1h pride" has made us forget the way. A full 2p1h combo out of the blue was the secret tool 2 years in the making for one of the most veteran spinners in the world, at the highest competitive stage, against who would become that year's world champion. It's by any means not a good nor reasonable first step into the discipline, nor an efficient way to discover tricks.

i.suk - 12 years solo (2020)

In his 2020 solo, i.suk releases 3 2p1h clips. This solo introduces the idea that long mods are optimal for 2p as i.suk basically presents it as a power/tech variety together with all of his other power clips. On the technical side, i.suk finds another simultaneous trick (0:52), further consolidating the idea that there's probably more simultaneous tricks out there.

RPD - PSO20

Inspired by Gollumsk8's combo, the PSO20 organizers had the idea to add a 2p1h category to the tournament. I was able to win this category with the above combo. I remember it came quite as a shock. Both because it also came completely out of the blue, from a spinner that used to be inactive and had no track record of 2p1h; but also because a 2p1h combo being this smooth wasn't thought to be possible.

I think I made two main contributions with this combo. First, the mods. I spent most of my time modding and trying to find what was the most optimal, going through some rather wonky ones in the process. Although no major spinners now use exactly my mods (mostly because they're a pain to make, oops), most people use some variation of itーdumb long black rod 25cm+ with center marking and factis bodies if they can afford them. It turns out that i.suk's usage of his emboss mods was quite on the money, maybe just a tad too short and light for 2p.

The second contribution was the consistency and smoothness. The key discovery that allowed this was what I later called "chiral slots". After discussing with other spinners at the time I found something clear, everyone was struggling with consistency in 2p. For some reason (even today we don't know why!) I found that by following a few rules on slots, tricks were much easier to do consistently. At this point in the discipline I knew we didn't need hard tricks, we just needed more tricks, so the concept of chirality became key for the development of 2p.

Criswea!! - WT21

What do you do when one of the most promising spinners in your community tells you that he wants to participate in the WT, and that he's interested in your style? Of course, you send him two mods, teach him all you know, talk with one of the best modders in Spain to get him two factis mods made, then cry a bit when you see him reach R3.

Sentimental talk aside, Criswea had a breakout run in WT21. From a rather unknown spinner to reaching WT R3, it was surprising for everyone. It was still quite early for him so in terms of technical developments, those would come later.

Criswea!! - PSO22

PSO22 turned out, in my opinion, to be a very cool tournament. Criswea established himself as the most consistent 2p1h spinner, with more than 10 released combos, and for PSO22 he released what's (in terms of views and public acclaim) what's the most popular 2p1h combo to date. It had a bit of everything: radically new tricks (what I called the "Criswea trick" at 0:06), many simultaneous sequences, and most importantly, exciting and dynamic visual effects, in contrast to the rather uniform and, in my opinion, boring pace which my 2p combos tend to have.

RPD - PSO22

I saved material for 2 years with the hope that this tournament would happen, although I was not sure it would. Looking back, we actually haven't had PSO24. This was the best I could come up with to reach a fully simultaneous combo. For the overall PS community, this was the first time they had seen what I had been developing on and off for the past two yearsーchirality, swift variations, tangle variations and tails variations. 

Conceptually I consider it revolutionary, mechanically I consider it lacklustre. Why? Well, if you can change one of the mods in your combo for an MX and still do the combo without problems, maybe it's not that well balanced. By pulling on the chirality thread I found a total of 100+ fully simultaneous trick variations that could be done consistently. The reason why I released such a mechanically restricted combo is, simply, I wasn't good enough to go beyond this. 

RPD - 2p1h tutorials

After PSO22 I gave up on trying to show my ideas in combo form and focused my efforts in something elseーgiving more visibility and raising the ease of entry to 2p1h. I've been very vocal about difficulty in PS being a meaningless metric, often pumped up by novelty or lack of information availability, and often hiding from the conversation the real aspects we strive for and care about. I believe that our current PS community is indebted to the tutorial creators of the past (HIDEAKI, kam, kthrinh, Freeman, Eso etc) as it's these tutorial series what kickstarted the skills of all spinners. The point at which tutorials end defines the starting line from which spinners start their independent journey analyzing other combos and coming up with ideas of their own, and the more advanced this starting line is, the further the spinners in average can advance. If there's no tutorials for 2p, and tricks don't even have names, starting line is way too far back and the discipline will be too hard to advance, I thought. Putting a good tutorial out for a trick makes its difficulty so much lower than otherwise.

To prove this point, I'd like to highlight this video by DumBananaMike (2025). In the Tails tutorial I mentioned a hypothesis of mine about 16 Tangle variations which probably exist, but I couldn't pinpoint. DBM was able to find them, and then even include them in his WT25 R1 combo. Keep in mind, Tails is a trick for which most of its variations I could never do consistently, most people have never been able to put into combos, and DBM is able to push forward such a big discovery regardless. As a community, we must value good updated tutorials as the most valuable resource we have.

Padrace, VOID - WC22

During WC22, the usage of 2p1h was not mainstream but everyone was definitely aware of it as a key strategy to adopt. Notably, Padrace did a combo in which he used the table to assist the tricks, and VOID showed some new tricks in which the mods are separated from one single slot to two.

RPD - for Shiori (2024)

Who would have thought that overseas tech-nerdiness would be good enough to enter the highest tier of JEB CVs? Not me. As much as I don't like this combo (I find its pacing incredibly boring, even for my standards of boring pacing), it did two things. First, 2p1h can be made to very high standards of execution, and mesh with top JEB players. Second, it provided a very standard, easy combo to copy, basically becoming the K4LC/Tigres SLS of 2p1h. Most people that try to copy it, can copy it, and learn something from itーthat's a very good thing!

Criswea - Drift (2024)

Criswea made some waves on Twitter after the release of his new trick in 2024, Drift. Mechanically, it's a hybrid between an around and a tangle, its main impact in combos being that you can put more fingerless/power mechanics in combos. This is in contrast to the previous chiral combos which, if we look at each mod individually, are very pass/tw sonic heavy, and can look rather basic at times.

The highest exponent of this trick, until now, is Criswea's WT25 R3, which is chock-full of drifts. Visually, it's one of the most dynamic 2p1h combos to date.

PenU1 (2025)

Who thought you could make a CV full of great xpxh combos? Not me. It's an inspiring project from Criswea (which, by the way, appeared to him in a dream!). Standout combos from this CV are Mumm3y's 2p2h and i.suk's 2p2h, as well as Criswea's and DBM's 2p1h.

Laku - JC25

In this review I've been skipping most 2p2h combos, as it wasn't my main focus, but I still want to give a mention to the Japan Cup 2025 experimental category and the two excellent combos put out by Laku. A key aspect, in my opinion, of xpxh development is including 2p1h tricks in 2p2h, to then gradually build towards 3p2h, which I consider the final frontier of multipen. In that sense, Laku's combos are a key stepping stone towards that, obviously powered by his previous 1p2h expertise. More comments on the JC25 experimental here (link)

i.suk - 18 years solo

The most visionary work of i.suk to date. It's a solo which destroys every possible boundary we've imposed over PSーhow we film, what props can be used, what we even consider worth pursuing in our practice. Of course, xpxh is part of this (x may be a fractional number)

DBM, temuyin, Criswea!!, mumm3y - WT25

What we're seeing in this WT25 is very exciting, not just for the 2p1h part. It's the comeback of the highly anticipated and well loved world stage of pen spinning and many spinners want to show what they've been practicing. Multipen has been a big part of the tournament since R1, with 4 spinners advancing (at least) to R3. What was a fever dream 5 years ago, now's the meta. 

It's been a long article, but I hope it was interesting to you! I've skipped over many other interesting combos and tricks (e.g. Allwars' simultaneous arounds and combos, Magiai's quantum tricks) but I wanted to keep it as condensed and relevant as possible. I'm very curious to see where 2p1h will go in a few years from now!