This past weekend YoYoFactory packed up the tour van and headed to Palm Desert, CA for the SoCal YoYo Contest. for the past 7 years the city of Palm Desert has put on this contest. The amphitheater stage and seating gave everyone a great view of the action.

YoYoFactory had a good group representing at SoCal. First was one of our newest additions to the Protege Team: Paolo Bueno. In the short time he’s been a Protege his skills have grown, bringing him a 4th place standing at SoCal.

Clint Armstrong had a strong finish to 2011. Having the highest preliminary score at US Nationals definitely turned some heads. While still refining his attack plan for 2012, Clint showed a lot of promise at SoCal. We are excited to see what he’s planning for the rest of the year.

Another Protege that’s fast moving up the contest standings is Tyler Goldenberg. Coming in at 3rd place, SoCal is a great start to the 2012 US contest season for Goldenberg.

Speaking of stepping up in 2012, Tyler Severance has his sights on dominating 1A this year. While he has no intention of letting his ranking in other divisions slip, Tyler is looking for his next challenge.

Beyond competitors, YoYoFactory was represented off the stage. Miguel Correa was behind the camera filming the freestyles for the YoYoFactory YouTube channel.

Between Judging duties, Pat Mitchell helped John Huber and Seth Peterson hold down the YoYoFactory booth. When John wasn’t at the booth, he was taking all these great photos of the contest. Check out the YoYoFactory Facebook to see the full album.

At the end of the day, the YoYoFactory team came away with top honors, and plenty of great placings. Congratulations to the whole team, and all the other contestants. Special thanks to the contest organizers and judges.