The Penspinning Olympics 2026 is the global competition for penspinning enthusiasts and professionals. This rulebook establishes the official guidelines, procedures, and regulations governing the competition.

All participants are required to familiarize themselves with these rules before entering. Failure to comply may result in disqualification or penalties as determined by the submissions panel.

Registration for PSO26 is closed. The approved participant field is listed publicly by category on the PSO26 website.

Approved competitors can sign in with their PSO26 account to submit Round 1 combo links for every category on their registration.

PSO26 contains various themes, each with its own competition, judges, and judging criteria. Each competition consists of two rounds.

Round 1 is the Qualification Round. All competitors receive a comment and ranking from judges. Overall ranking is decided by the sum of rankings from every judge in each theme. The top four from each competition proceed to the final round, though this number may be adjusted based on submission volume.

Round 2 is the Final Round. The top competitors from Round 1 proceed with the same format and judging criteria. In-depth comments are given to finalists, and the number one rank in each competition becomes the PSO26 champion of that theme.

Each theme has one or three judges with theme-specific judging criteria. Judges must provide rankings with no ties and may provide scores and comments for each individual submission.

If judges cannot submit results in time, reserved judges may temporarily serve as judges and provide results. Reserved judges include the organizing team and judges from other themes.

Overall ranking is decided by the sum of rankings from all judges, which can create ties. If competitors tie, the tie is broken by comparing rankings only among tied competitors. The competitor with the better ranking from more judges is placed higher.

If this method cannot resolve a tie of three or more competitors, judges may discuss and decide the ranking for tied competitors.

PSO26 contains eight themes: Power, Multipen, Infinity, Technical, Classic, Performance, Freeform, and Spinless. Participants can join one or more themes, but every theme follows the same schedule, so spinners entering multiple themes must prepare multiple submissions at the same time.

Combos may be no shorter than 10 seconds and no longer than 25 seconds from the beginning of the first trick to the end of the last trick, except Performance submissions, which must be 10 to 90 seconds in video length.

Videos must clearly show hands and pen movements, use adequate video quality, maintain a stable camera position, and avoid edits that impact observed performance.

Round videos must be submitted through the PSO26 website by signing in with an approved participant account.

Submission deadlines use 11:59pm in the GMT-5 time zone on the day of each deadline.

Prizes and compensation will come from a public donation pool and sponsor support. Donors may decide how they would like to allocate donations, such as prize pool support or judging panel support.

Champions from each theme will receive a prize amount determined by donations and sponsorship. Potential second and third place prizes, judge compensation, and organizer compensation may be added if specific donations are made or if the donation pool becomes large enough.