Ben Gates

Ben Gates has been yo-yoing since 2001. As the operator and primary contributor to the YoYo Contest Central YouTube Channel, Ben has filmed, edited, and uploaded more than 3,000 individual videos of contest freestyles, in an effort to improve the media representation of competitive yo-yoing. He has provided official contest videography for more than 50 competitions and livestreamed more than 20.

From 2016-2018 Ben was employed at YoYoTricks.com in Michigan, where he produced numerous tutorials, player clip videos, news updates, and more for the company website and YouTube Channel. During his time there, he oversaw a gain from ~75,000 to over 200,000 subscribers on YouTube. Following his departure from the company, Ben’s footage of Evan Nagao winning the 2018 National Yo-Yo Contest in Chicago was featured on ESPN and various other outlets.

Ben is from New Jersey, and a current member of The New York Yo-Yo Club. He is also an occasionally featured guest at The Downtown Plymouth Yo-Yo Club, The Boston Throwers, The Pittsburgh Yo-Yo Club, DXL, Spin Dox, and BurninBerlin.

Ben was most active online during the mid-school era of yo-yoing as TAB on the ExtremeSpin.com Forum, TheYo.com, YoYoGuy.com, YoYoNation.com, and Dave’s Skill Toys. Between 2006 and 2008, he made several contest clip videos which have been highly regarded. In 2007, Ben was hired to film and edit the pilot episode for YoYoNation.com's VideoBlog Series with Francis P. Cuartero. He also produced a short teaser commercial for the original Crucial Milk. ECC 2008 was the first contest that Ben filmed as official videographer.

There is a general consensus that he is a more successful troll than Boxthor. Ben's ill-fated career in competitive yo-yoing began at the 2005 Massachusetts State Yo-Yo Contest. After sitting cross-legged on the floor all day watching the freestyles, his foot fell asleep when he was called up to compete, and came in last place (X-Division / 5A). Ben has repeatedly made claims of holding the title "Former NJ State Yo-Yo Champion.” In 2007 or 2008, he was considered the 1A state champion due to a technicality at Mid-Atlantic Regionals. In traditional 1A competition, Ben has never scored higher than 50%. However, in 2013, due to a technicality at Northeast Regionals, he qualified for and later competed in the 2A Prelims at the National Yo-Yo Contest. In 2019 he finally claimed the NJ State 2A title. During the 2022 NY State Contest at Coney Island, Ben's Loop 720 yo-yos exploded without warning at the conclusion of the routine, which resulted in disqualification from the contest. The following year at NY States 2023, he accidentally came in 2nd place while yo-yoing bare-footed.

Fun Facts:

Official videographer for Ky Zizan

Ben is known for the infamous, beat-to-hell OneDrop Project, which was mutilated as a durability test after Maryland States 2008 in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express. Despite heavy damage sustained by constant Hammer of Thor's, in addition to an altercation with the pizza guy's car, the yo-yo remains playable. One of the hubs is bent, so the axle is crooked, but it is still usable to this day.

Ben has produced several rubber-bodied yo-yos under the pseudo-company abbreviated as ZORP. These rubber yo-yos are hard to play with, but they do bounce.

He made a tutorial video of Spencer Berry's trick Shepherd for the Anti-Contest. He did not win the BSP.

Ben attended Emerson College in Boston, during which time he was a regular attendee of the loosely organized Boston Throwers yo-yo club.

For the US National Yo-Yo Contest in 2015 and 2016, he worked with Patrick Borgerding to shoot and edit the player profile introduction videos. He also devised and edited multi-camera videos for the Finals divisions at the National Yo-Yo Contest in 2016, 2018, and 2024.

During his time working for YoYoTricks.com, the company sponsored various competitions by providing Ben’s videography services, which was the genesis of YoYo Contest Central.

For YoTricks' Braintwister Combo Tutorial Series featuring Christopher Chunn, Ben created the inline suicide for Vol.7, as well as adding the throwhand weave to Vol.5. Also during this period and wholly in the absence of Connor Scholten, Ben was inspired to develop the looping picture trick Instant Gemini (a.k.a. Ben's Original Dual Instantaneous One-Handed Stars) and several of its variations. This trick was initially conceived in early November 2017 for a music cue in a 2A freestyle which was first performed in public later that month at IL States 2017, which was more than a year after Connor Scholten left YoTricks. Connor Scholten is a liar; his instant star tricks bear little resemblance to Instant Gemini.

Ben's coverage of SFC in Jarocin, Poland, amidst a ridiculous and unexpected adventure across Europe in an RV during the summer of 2014, was featured in an article for YoYoNews.com

Controversy:

In early 2024, controversy ensued following a pre-contest interview which was staged to stall for time at the Steel City Throwers Competition. When asked his favorite pizza topping, Ben answered in the affirmative: Hawaiian pizza, causing an uproar amongst the contest attendees. He quickly explained that:

"if you're tryna have pizza for breakfast, you get meat, you get fruit, you get cheese, it's like, all the food groups in there."

Ben later clarified on in a YouTube comment:

"The ideal slice of pizza is in fact a plain slice, with the counter toppings (red pepper, oregano, garlic salt, parmesan, etc) and should be consumed while walking briskly down the sidewalk in NYC. This is the most efficient way to ingest pizza because it takes you from point A to point B, while the urban air also helps to cool down the piping hot slice. HOWEVER - as far as specialty toppings going on pizzas, Hawaiian is in fact the best choice for a balanced breakfast, whereas an optimal number of food groups are present. Stay loopy, my friends."

Links:

YoYo Contest Central

TAB's Youtube Channel

Ben Gates on Vimeo

Featured Contest Videography:

Promotional Videos for YoYoTricks.com: