2018 has drawn to a close and once again we have our answer for who made a splash in the poi world this year. There's a lot of stats I want to dive into but first and powerful message with regard to this year's list and the people who voted to make it happen:

Liz Knights finally made it!!! WAHOOO!!! Seriously, it took you guys long enough to vote her on here.

With that said...let's dive in!

The clear takeaway from this year's video is that this was a year heavily influenced by negative space, tether manipulations, and the continued dominance of both poi juggling as well as contact poi. Indeed, if I'm not mistaken there isn't a single poi spinner on the list this year aside from Corey Sutton that isn't using contact poi exclusively at this point. Given how niche it was when I first started spinning 11 years ago, it's dominance in the poi world at this point has proven to be complete and lasting. It's difficult to imagine another form of poi emerging that could displace it at this point.

As happened last year, there are 3 women in the top 10 list this year, though sadly all are in the bottom 5. I was truly hoping we'd get to 4 women this year but it looks like that'll have to be my Christmas present for 2019. Lara Le, the Russian poi spinner/dance phenom dropped out of the top 10 this year and Liz Knights took her spot. Lara also did amazing work this year and I hope to see her back here next.

Americans continue to dominate the list with only Tim Goddard and Joaco Chico Poi representing the rest of the world. Joaco Chico Poi is also the first-ever inhabitant of a Latin American country to make it onto the list as well as the first primarily Spanish-speaker.

This was a big year for turnover with 4 of the people on the list having never been on it before. Corey Sutton, Joaco Chico Poi, Austin Witherspoon, and Liz Knights are all new to the list this year.

I remain the only poi spinner to make the list every year of its existence. Tim Goddard and Chris Kelly are tied on a lot of things this year. They both have made the list every year except for the first (so they have each appeared 6 times) and each has made the number 1 slot 2 non-consecutive years.

Dig on in to see where your favorite spinner wound up in the list. Thanks everybody for a fantastic year and I'll see you all in 2019!