October 11th and 12th, Mexico City

A. Eligibility
1. The competition is open to any player in the world.
2. Registration
Pre-registration online is required.
Deadline to pre-register is:
October 3 for Open Division, September 29th for Artistic division.
If there are time slots left for the Youth Division, registration can be accepted before 10AM on the 11th at the venue, but we highly recommend pre-registration.
Registration Form
If slots are available the deadline might be extended.
3. Cost
Registration for the Youth Division is free.
Registration for the Open Division and the Artistic Showcase is free for ITSA members. If not a current full ITSA member, registration is $10 US dollars or equivalent.
4. Qualification
Upon registration the contestant will have to provide a link to an online video that shows a minimum skill level in freestyle play. Players who have entered a previous ITSA contests are waved from this requirement.

B. Divisions
1- Open freestyle (World Champion title)
2- Youth (Light) Division
3- Artistic Showcase Division
Players will be able too register to more than one division (just one registration fee).

C. Music
1. The players in the Youth Division will compete with music provided by the organizers.
2. Players in the Open Division should provide a 3-minute music track. Please, email an mp3 file to worlds2025@spintops.org. Deadline is October 7th for Open and September 30th for Artistic. Also bring music in person in a flash drive to the contest. The music should be appropriate for all audiences.
3. Artistic Showcase Division teams should coordinate their needs with the organizers.

D. Copyright and liability
1. The player grants ITSA the irrevocable and unlimited right, without compensation, to broadcast and use video of the performance, as well as photos taken during the contest, to promote the association goals.
2. The player acknowledges that this is a physical activity and as such involves the risk of injury and exonerates the organizers of liability for accidents that might occur during the contest.

E. Open Freestyle Rules
1. It consists of a freestyle to music with a duration of up to 3 minutes.
2. Any spinning top will be permitted, including fixed-tip, bearing-tip and one-way bearing tip, as well as over-sized tops. The number of spintops used or available for back-up is not limited, but the player cannot exit the stage to retrieve them. All tops used must be wound by the player, no assistance will be permitted.
3. Depending on the number of contestants, 1-minute or 2 minute pre-qualifying rounds might take place. Players who placed in the first 5 places of the 2024 in-person contest or first 5 places in the 2025 online contest qualify directly to the final.
3. The winner will be the 2025 ITSA World Spintop Champion.

F. Youth (Light) Division
1. It consists of a freestyle to music with a duration of 1.5 minutes (1m30s).
2. Open to players 12 years old and younger.
3. Only tops weighting 70 grams or less will be used. The judges might weigh the tops before or after the player goes on stage.

G. Artistic Showcase Division
1. Teams from 1 to 4 players can participate.
2. The theme of the routine should have a clear relation to spintop play but this can be interpreted very creatively. There is no limit on props used.
3. The performance will consist of a routine between 2 and 7 minutes long.
4. The organizers will only provide the music system, basic lighting and, if requested, a table and up to 4 chairs. It’s the team’s responsibility to set up the stage with any props required and clean the stage afterwards. Setup and cleanup should not take more than 5 minutes each. Exceptions may be granted by coordinating with the organizers.
5. The performance should be appropriate for public of all ages.

H. Open Freestyle Judging
1. Routines will be given a technical score of up to 85 points and a performance score of up to 15 points.
2. The raw technical score will be calculated by adding the difficulty, originality and risk of each trick completed in the routine. It’s the judge decision if a combo trick qualifies as two tricks or one more difficult trick. In order to promote exceptional tricks compared to quantity of tricks, the judges may give double points to tricks that are spectacular and make the routine memorable. Because the scores of each individual judge will be normalized, it’s not important what scale the judges use, as long as they are consistent from player to player.
3. The raw technical scores of each judge will be normalized so the player that has the highest normalized score for that judge has 85 points. Therefore, the scores of the other players will be divided by the highest raw score and multiplied by 85. The performance score will be assigned for showmanship and overall quality and interest of the performance. Each judge will assign a score between 1 and 15, not normalized.
4. The final score will be the sum of the normalized technical scores and performance scores, averaged over all the judges.
5. The winner will be the player who gets the maximum final score.
A tie is possible.

I. Youth Division Judging
1. The raw technical score will be calculated by adding the difficulty, originality and risk of each trick completed in the routine. It’s the judge decision if a combo trick qualifies as two tricks or one more difficult trick. In order to promote exceptional tricks compared to quantity of tricks, the judges may give double points to tricks that are spectacular and make the routine memorable. Because the scores of each individual judge will be normalized, it’s not important what scale the judges use, as long as they are consistent from player to player.
2. The raw technical scores of each judge will be normalized so the player that has the highest normalized score for that judge has 100 points. Therefore, the scores of the other players will be divided by the highest raw score and multiplied by 100.
3. The final score will be the sum of the normalized technical and normalized performance scores, averaged over all the judges.
4. After summing all the scores, the performance with the highest score will be the 2025 ITSA Youth Winner. A tie is possible.

J. Artistic Showcase Division
1. At least five judges selected by ITSA, not necessarily spintop players.
2. The judges will consider the overall quality of the act as performance art and it’s appeal to the general public, plus the importance of spinning tops in creating the performance and communicating it’s message.
3. Each judge will rank each performance from 1st to last. The first place will be given 1 point, the second 2 points, etc.
4. After summing all the scores, the performance with the lowest score will be the 2025 ITSA Artistic Showcase Gold Medal. A tie is possible.


K. Situations not covered by the rules
The Judging Panel will make decisions on situations not covered by these rules.