About Igor Galiev
Igor Galiev is a 1A yoyo competitor from Moscow, Russia, who is now based in Israel. He has been playing yoyo for over a decade and is a three-time Russian National Yoyo Champion in the 1A division. He first appeared in international competition records in 2013, placing 8th in the 1A division at the European Yo-Yo Championship, and that same year was already recognized by the community as a leading figure in the Russian scene.
Galiev is sponsored by YoYoFactory, Fist Salud, Perfect Elements, and MJT. His signature throw, the Dogma, is a YoYoFactory model developed in collaboration with Kentaro of Japan’s Turning Point, released in 2015. He also has a signature model called the RB, produced through a collaboration between three Russian manufacturers: Aero-Yo, Cold Metal, and Perfect Elements. A successor model, the Ultimate Dogma, was later released through YoYoFactory and featured him alongside other Eastern European YYF athletes.
His play style is known for being compositionally inventive and deliberately unpredictable. Writing for YoYoNews in 2017, Steve Brown compared him to the post-hardcore band Fugazi — technically skilled but resistant to conventional patterns, capable of shifting flow unexpectedly mid-routine. His 2015 interactive “Choose Your Own Adventure” video, promoting the Dogma, drew community attention for its unconventional concept alongside his trick vocabulary. YoYoFactory’s bio notes the arc from Moscow streets to representing the sport globally from Israel.
In Their Own Words
From the YoYoExpert forums, on the Ultimate Dogma:
On yoyo as an art form:
“I play yoyo for more than ten years and I think of it as an art form… like a brush of an artist or a lens of a photographer.”
On the Dogma:
“The Dogma was made with love and attention to details to become a favorite throw for a lot of players.”