When the Top 10 list launched in 2012, it was intended to be a way to celebrate the work of poi spinners all over the world, a method for acknowledging those who'd made an impact in the community. Since then I've come to think of it just as much as a historical document or time capsule of what the poi spinning community was like each year.

We've seen the rise of contact poi and 3-poi, as well as a shift from influences worldwide to a focus on American spinners (the fact that the project is based in the United States almost certainly contributes heavily to that bias). This year's list clearly documents the rise of the Instagram star. Of the 5 new spinners on the list this year, all have developed a significant portion of their following via Instagram posts. Indeed, with its emphasis on 15-second snippets of information (the perfect length of demonstrating single tricks and a time limit that forces patterns to be brief), Instagram is rapidly becoming the de facto platform for sharing poi tricks--the up and coming poi stars of tomorrow will need to look toward it as my generation needed to look toward YouTube to develop an online presence.

Half of the list has turned over from last year, with Alexander Nagachevskiy, Mike Davis, Greg Haskins, Cassaundra Smyth, and Ty Roachford finding a spot on the list for the first time. As of this year I am the only and only performer to make the list every year of its existence (the fact that I host it on my own channel is a large contributing factor, I have no doubt). Other people making the list multiple years include Chris Kelly (3), Tim Goddard (3), Willow Solow (2), and Jonathan Alvarez (3), who has taken the top spot twice.

While the list was almost exclusively Americans last year, this year we have two spinners from outside the United States (Alexander Nagachevskiy and Tim Goddard) and we have also returned to having a woman on the list (I live for the day when it is all women). For the full voting rundown, you can see the chart below.

Thanks everyone for your contributions this year! :)